February 16, 2006

o is for operator

The Times dissects pherotones.com, the viralbuzzmarketing campaign that promised ringtones that were supposed to attract the opposite sex…

But rather than the revolutionary product that Pherotones promised, the ads were the beginning of a buzz marketing campaign under the guise of a fake product (Pherotones) and a fake doctor (Dr. Myra Vanderhood) with a fake Web site, all for a real client with less than $250,000 to spend.  The real client is Oasys Mobile, a little-known cellphone content provider that sells games, cellphone wallpaper and ring tones that can be downloaded.

See also the MySpace MVNO:

The social networking site MySpace, hugely successful among teenagers and twenty-somethings, is about to become more ubiquitous with the launch of a cellular service that will let users read and post to the site for free.

A match made in heaven, it would seem.