(From Rich)
Alternate Reality Games (ARG’s) have been around for a bit now but still provide a novel way to promote music. Nine Inch Nails set the tone with ‘Year Zero’, which promoted the album of the same name. It seems now that dance acts are getting in on the act as ‘The White Island’ is launched to promote Pete Tong’s new night, Wonderland, in Ibiza. The premise is that a USB stick with the only recordings of Pete Tongs new tracks has gone missing, as well as a young archaeologist called Elisabeth Perl. Like any ARG it is a myriad of social network pages, blogs, websites and offline destinations from which fans have to gain clues and solve puzzles to eventually find the USB stick, and of course Elisabeth.
The lucky ones who do this will receive prizes including Pioneer decks, headphones and mixers. As most ARG’s aim to do the White Island really immerses the player in the game and provides a stimulating way for fans to get involved in the end product, even if the hub site can be a bit clunky hard to figure out sometimes.