| | Articles | | Is AMD Using Viral Marketing/Shills? |
Published on September 21th, 2006
A few months ago there were a few suspicions towards a graphic chips manufacturer regarding a possible use of viral marketing by using shills
to provide positive feedback to its products on many forums. Recently,
we received evidence that may link AMD, a processor manufacturer, to a
possible use of viral marketing/shills on hardware site's forums
by a third party company.
The story began ten days ago when two new users registered on our forums and posted a thread about AMD's new Virtual Tradeshow.
The first user was called "programmer3642" and the second
was "machinetime53". These two started a suspicious
discussion regarding AMD's Virtual Tradeshow. The first user
looked like a spammer to our staff members and we started to check it
out.
After long attempts at finding more information regarding these users
and their messages, we came across the fact that some users have posted
very similar posts on other forums:
* HotHardware
* PC Perspective
* BigBruin
* X-bit Labs
* PC Guide
* Computing.net
* PDA Gold
* Backpage
* SwishTalk
When we were sure that these guys were just spamming, we started to
check their IPs and we have been shocked to find out that the IP is
leading to a company called "Design Reactor". According to this company's Website,
they are dealing with advertisement, digital communications, and more.
According to their Website, their main client is AMD. And there are
many more clients such as: HP, Sun, Visa, Motorola and others.
We couldn't find any information on their Website about possible
viral marketing services. Their website is very unclear about this
matter and we couldn't find much information that could prove a
case of shilling on forums. So, we decided to contact them anonymously.
We created a new email account on a new domain and contacted them. We
asked them if they are offering viral marketing services and
here's their reply:
As you can see, they are confirming that they are offering viral
marketing. From these posts and the IP trace, we can surely understand
that these guys are spamming and shilling on forums to promote
AMD's Virtual Tradeshow. The question now is: Has AMD told them
to do that? Or are they doing it on their own?
Update:
It seems that Tech Report has some more information about this story.
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