Well, this morning The Age’s Vulture blog blew it wide open. The Hidden Pizza restaurant that you’ve no doubt heard about via Twitter/Facebook/email is not some secret new – shock! horror! – a marketing stunt aimed at promoting Yellow Pages.
If you hadn’t heard about it, the idea is that you’re supposed to find out the “secret address” of the pop-up restaurant by “just look[ing] it up the way you would any other business”.
Your first thought is “Google”, right? Ha ha, you fool! You fell victim to one of the classic blunders! No, you’re supposed to look it up in the Yellow Pages. (Seriously, who uses Yellow Pages anymore?)
I was a bit surprised to hear that anyone thought this was in any way a sneaky, dodgy or secretive marketing ploy. Seemed pretty obvious to me. I’m sure people don’t really care anyway, so long as there’s free pizza to be had.
What I really wonder is, though: is it going to work?
Would you be any more likely to use Yellow Pages to look anything up, after using it to find the free pizza?
Is it a good example of using social media to reintroduce people to a forgotten service? Or is it just a really good example of using social media to give away free pizza?
KATE
LOVE the subtle Princess Bride reference!
I summarised the story on Saturday and by then Anthill and others had pieced together most of the story. This Vulture thing contains little new information… see http://indolentdandy.net/fitzroyalty/2010/04/17/the-reality-behind-the-hidden-pizza-marketing-hype/
Ha! I went to Hidden Pizza on saturday and read the article this morning and I found it a bit lame. I mean, isn’t obvious that it’s a yellowpages stunt. Who would actually think ‘the way you would find any other business’ is Yellow Pages? It’s google!
i doubt people will use yellow pages in the future. i think yellow pages needed to embrace twitter and blogging perhaps unless they already are. whether it’s free pizza or not it still needs to be a good pizza for people to bother going and coming back. so does this mean it won’t be an ongoing pizza shop.