28th June 2016

The Sherlockian Game as a Viral Marketing Campaign – The World Investigates!

Insights of the Sherlockians and Their Significance for the Interpretation of the Proto-Detective

In the first part of our contribution about the Sherlockians and the Game, we already reported on their historical beginnings and the current spread of the international Holmes societies, which is why the present article will deal with the precise way of playing and with the insights gained from the eternal search for the person of Sherlock Holmes; moreover, we from Kurtz Investigations Frankfurt am Main will subsequently address the present situation of the Sherlock societies. In order to illustrate how the Sherlockians proceed in their research into the forefather of our detectives from Frankfurt, examples shall be given here and in a further article that will show that the Game is not a profane summary of obvious facts from the Canon, but a painstaking analysis of every statement of Watson or Holmes, however unimportant and incidental it may appear.

 

Christopher Morley, for example, the founder of the first American Sherlock club, sets the birthday of the London master detective on 6 January 1854, which is of course not an arbitrarily chosen date but was researched in loving detail according to the composition and interpretation of the literary clues: In the stories themselves, Holmes creator Arthur Conan Doyle does not state a date, but in the short story His Last Bow, which takes place in 1914, the master detective is described as sixty years old – the years 1853/54 were thus identified as possible birth years. Morley identified the exact day with eagle-eyed precision: In the canonical Holmes works from Doyle’s hand, Shakespeare’s comedy Twelfth Night is mentioned twice; the titular “twelfth night” refers to the twelfth day after Christmas, that is, 6 January. According to Morley, another indication in favour of this day is the fact that at the beginning of the final novel The Valley of Fear, on 7 January, Holmes is grumpy and ill-tempered, which Morley interprets as the result of a hangover after the preceding birthday celebrations (cf. Fleischhack 248). Admittedly, a rather vague interpretation, but it prevailed, and so this date has since been largely recognised among Sherlockians as the birthday of Sherlock Holmes, a role model not only for our private investigators from Frankfurt/Main.

Viral Marketing and the Sherlockians in the Internet Age

Owing to global networking in the 21st century, the insights and reinterpretations concerning the master detective Sherlock Holmes can be shared far more easily than in the 1930s, 40s and 50s – the early days of the Game. Instead of long waiting times of up to six months between the publication dates of the Sherlock magazines, for example, the Sherlock Holmes Society of London now sends out a monthly newsletter as a PDF to all subscribers (cf. Fleischhack 251). Many individual articles from the journals are freely accessible online, and the groups can exchange views in forums and group chats without relying on difficult-to-organise national or continental meetings. However, many modern clubs now also refer – frowned upon by traditional Holmes societies – to various adaptations. Adaptations that can fundamentally alter or even distort the original literary image of the pioneer of our corporate investigators from Frankfurt a. M. in the public perception and perhaps even already have.

 

After several episodes of the BBC series Sherlock, particularly popular among young viewers, starring the congenial duo of Benedict Cumberbatch as the London sleuth and Martin Freeman as Dr Watson, had been broadcast, dozens of new groups emerged that discussed the progress of the series and its heroes, compared quotes from series and books and analysed content and structure. In addition, through planned viral marketing on the one hand and through strong self-dynamics within the fan efforts on the other hand, a completely new variant of the then already century-old Great Game, as the Game is also called, developed. Networking, the hype surrounding the series and its broadcast in sixteen countries in their respective national languages brought the franchise enormous popularity without major marketing expenditure: When, for example, the British Prime Minister David Cameron paid an official visit to the People’s Republic of China, members of the public were allowed to ask him questions, and the most frequently asked question was the following: Could he, the British Prime Minister, ensure that the Sherlock series would be broadcast in China (Fleischhack 253)? The desire to engage in detective activity in the manner of Sherlock himself and of course also of our private detectives in Frankfurt is therefore no longer a purely Western phenomenon – Sherlock Holmes is travelling the world as if he had only just been invented.

Fiction Penetrates and Influences Real Life: The “I Believe in Sherlock” Campaign

Just as after the literary death of Sherlock at the Swiss Reichenbach Falls (published 1893), viewers of the BBC series in 2012 reacted shocked and distraught after Holmes’ supposedly fatal fall from St Bartholomew’s Hospital in London. However, in the series Sherlock Holmes was not only apparently killed, but his arch-enemy Moriarty also did everything in his power to destroy the good reputation of the private detective; both the police and the public turned against the previously celebrated and infallible Sherlock Holmes. To demonstrate their solidarity with this icon of detective fiction and to take his side publicly, a worldwide fan movement emerged shortly after the broadcast of the final episode of season 2, aiming to restore the good name of their favourite. Under the slogan “I believe in Sherlock Holmes”, fans from all over the world sided with the Londoner and positioned themselves publicly against Moriarty’s accusations.

 

All over the world, in capitals of countries on all continents, on residential buildings, public squares and public buildings, banners and posters were hung, flyers distributed and demonstrations and flash mobs organised in honour of the eccentric detective. One well-known example is the Tumblr photo blog by “Earl Foolish” – a pseudonym – which has collected 138 posts with information and photos on the movement to this day. At the same time, not only was a literary and therefore fictional hero celebrated, but money was also raised for a good cause and attention generated: The Undershaw Preservation Trust is dedicated to the restoration and preservation of Undershaw, a house designed and inhabited by Holmes’ creator Arthur Conan Doyle and until recently threatened by decay. It becomes clear, not least here, how narrow the boundary between reality and fiction is in the Sherlockian Game, which our corporate detectives in Frankfurt have also taken a liking to.

Sherlock Holmes Museum of London, Kurtz Detective Agency Frankfurt, Private Investigator Frankfurt/Main, Private Detective Agency in Frankfurt, Private Investigator Frankfurt

The extent of modern interest in the proto-detective Sherlock Holmes is also evident in exhibitions such as the one at the Museum of London (2014), for which this unusual poster was created.

The Sherlockian Game – A Self-Perpetuating Phenomenon Through the Decades

Perhaps the most impressive aspect of the campaign described above is that no clever advertising agency, film studio or series writing team was behind it, but that the impulses for viral Sherlock actions always originated from within the fan community, thereby constituting the best and most honest promotion for the subsequent seasons of the series. Podcasts, YouTube videos and channels, blogs, Tumblrs and lovingly designed websites about the detective of detectives also help keep the London forefather of our detectives in Frankfurt am Main and his legacy alive. Furthermore, the celebrity hype surrounding Martin Freeman, who not only captivated audiences as Dr Watson but also as Bilbo Baggins in The Hobbit, and particularly around series Holmes Benedict Cumberbatch, whose female fans call themselves “Cumberbitches” in a self-mocking manner, ensures that an ever-growing number of younger generations take part in new, no longer strictly scholarly forms of the Game in order to move closer to the ultimate goal of the Sherlockians: to grasp and understand Sherlock Holmes and perhaps one day to be able to be like him.

Bibliography

Author: Maya Grünschloß, PhD

 

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