Bubbling Under

Clients and the multiple bubble theory

So you have a great idea that you think will start online but your client is looking at you as though you’re mad. You’re talking about going out to a handful of people and he’s got 30 years of norms that tell him that the way to win is to buy a big audience and expose them to the brand as often as you can afford.

If you have a good relationship with your client he might tell you that he’s just not brave enough to bet the farm on something that’s hard to measure and promises deferred results.

If you have a great relationship with the client he’ll probably also tell you that if he was that brave then, in truth, you probably wouldn’t be his agency.

A few people reading this will shake their heads at this point. To you I say, “Congratulations, you are the lucky few, the agencies who can ask clients to breathe deep and trust you. You don’t need a model, you don’t need an argument, you just need your brand.” Those agencies exist, I’ve worked for a few and their reputation is usually hard earned.

But for the rest of us, the people working really hard in agencies whose names act as security blankets rather than bar call brags for clients this is where a model really comes in. Because if you’re in a ‘security blanket’ agency then you shouldn’t be selling the rush of risk and the buzz of breakthrough. You should be selling a safe way in to a new area. And nothing says ‘this is okay’ more than a simple explanation of what it is that makes it safe.

So here’s the way that I think bubble theory works.



The first fear any client is going to bring forward is that any online, ARG, live narrative etc. story is not only going to appeal to a very small number of people – it’s also going to appeal to the wrong kind of people. The objection goes something like this

“You want me to spend the first three months wooing the kind of dungeons and dragons player I’d never want to see using my brand?”

The answer to this is ‘yes’

And the reason for that answer is that we’re trying to create a wealth of content that will do two things.

The first is that it needs to be wide and deep enough to warrant exploration when we finally invite the mainstream in.

The second is that we need enough volume of content to float the idea of ‘something is going on’ to the media.

And here’s the rub. In order to create the volume of content that we need later in the program we have to appeal to the type of people who upload more things than they download.

So these are not a Dungeons and Dragons target – these people are our Upload target.

A qualifier here. We’re not expecting the upload target to be responsible for spreading the word about what we’re doing very far. They only know each other and they all speak Klingon. We just want to stir their passion enough to have them comment on, play with, criticize and play with our idea.

They’re part of our plant and grow content loop.

And their job is to take the content that we push out into the world and generate posts around it. They’re growing the cloud of interest. Nobody need ever know who they are. They needn’t be seen with the brand. We just need to engage them, entertain them and involve them in something interesting.

A couple of things that you should go look at right now are Beta7, Audi : Art of the Heist and almost anything by 42 Entertainment from I love Bees on…


At this point your client will nod and then say “I get that the nerds are going to go ga-ga and fill the world with stuff about this… but the general public aren’t interested in nerd speak, it’ll just be an inflated niche”

At which point you introduce Bubble Two.

Bubble two is where you take all of the content that you’ve managed to generate and you have it validated – via limited distribution and word of mouth.

This is where you start to drop clues and invitations to the content to those people who have contact lists that make you drool. It’s where you send out some exclusive stuff to those blogs who like to see it first. It’s a controlled dissemination strategy and your aim is to chill the word around your content to sub-zero. Bubble Two is where you claim your cool. And Bubble Two is as far back as the general public will usually search – they’re arbiters of cool, filter for content and backstop. Lots of blogs, magazines, music people, social network icons and industry specialists exist in this space. Their job is to validate the cool of your content, add some of their own and expand the distribution some.

Why will they do this? Well they’re hungry for content, they’re hungry for exclusives, they need new stuff to be able to pass on and they’re suckers for a great idea.

Once you have this second bubble you’re ready to go mass – to show the people what they missed, invite them in to a late stage and give them permission to distribute the content widely. This is where you start to spend and to direct people toward your story. That’s where the numbers come in, that’s where the phenomenon is born and that’s when you can come in with all kinds of marketing support.

So three bubbles :-

Dungeons and Dragons – there to co-create content
Arbiters of Cool – there to validate & co-create content; add limited distribution
Mass - there to consume, distribute and add to content


Three bubbles then. Create, validate, consume, distribute, add.

Simplistic I know but it makes for a neat diagram – which I’ll draw as soon as the squeaky girl at the table next to me shuts the fuck up. Like really, todally, kinda, okay, we’re like, I would say, through, during, not, you know…