Razorfish races with Intel; JC Penney gets men out of doghouse

Yesterday visiting the blog of Shiv Singh, über-strategy dude for Avenue A | Razorfish, we admired a new viral campaign they had launched for Intel's microprocessor the Core i7. Viral marketing gets a lot of unjustified buzz, frankly because it's damn hard to pull off, but Singh & Co are seeding their campaign with a contest asking gamers and designers to race each other.

Clever, we thought. Razorfish is stroking the egos of hardcore computer users who view themselves as experts. We're not gamers or designers, but even we felt the itch to climb aboard this contest and strut. If seeding a viral campaign requires first engaging thousands of key influencers, this might work.

JC Penney strikes a similar chord with a men-are-dogs theme that cracks up any guy who's bought his spouse an orange juicer machine. (Just sayin'.) The video tossed around the web links back to a microsite Bewareofthedoghouse.com, which in turn has what you expect -- funny scenarios of men in hot water, what to do when you're there, and how to get out. Climbing out, of course, means buying sweet expensive presents from JC Penney.

If you are trying to go viral, the first step is engaging people with relevant content. You can't reach the masses unless you tempt the first round of contacts to grab your material and launch it through their networks. Egos and guilt are two ways to get noticed. Just whatever you do, don't get these campaigns confused and buy your wife a hot gaming computer with an Intel i7 processor chip. Trust us -- we've seen the doghouse.

(JC Penney tip via Bob Weekes.)