Rubber Republic launches in-house consumer business aMap

by Darren Davidson, Brand Republic 26-Jan-09, 12:00

LONDON - Rubber Republic, the viral marketing agency, has launched an in-house consumer orientated business venture called aMap.

The venture's name -- aMap -- is short for "argument map", which is also the name of a series of pocket-sized maps the agency has launched in bookshops to provide simplified visual guides of debates.

The initial series of books includes: 'Does God exist?', 'Cat or Dog?', 'Is modern art rubbish?', 'Beatles or Stones?' and 'Are children worth it?'.

The aMaps are supported by a dedicated website, which enables people to create their own personalised argument widgets, and then share and argue with friends online.

The aMap concept was developed by Rubber Republic in partnership with its sister agency Delib, the online opinion research agency.

The idea for aMap came on the back of an academic research project involving Delib, the new economics foundation and the London School of Economics, which investigated how complex arguments could be visualised in a simple visual format.

At present, aMaps are available at Amazon.com and the aMap.org.uk website, before the titles are rolled out to bookshops in the coming months.

Chris Quigley, aMap founder and Rubber Republic MD, said: "Viral products are the Holy Grail of the business world - as in principle they're designed to sell themselves with very low marketing overhead.

"aMap's our first attempt at creating a viral product, so we're excited to see the product develop over time."

Rubber Republic is one of the UK's leading viral marketing agencies with clients including the COI, Warner Music, Triumph and JVC.

Comments

video poet - 26/01/2009

Online debate is really taking off, interaction with news stories, multilayered content... Recently the Mail updated their debated section on their site. This is just the start of this phenomenon. People want to speak.