The folks at Zopa (see my Brandshift post on a podcast with them) emailed me with their new viral: garden of zopa, "an interactive garden that reflects Zopa’s community values".

I like the Zopa idea, really disruptive thinking and the kind of marketing innovation I get excited by.

Not so keen on the viral though. The idea is to plant a seed in a mythical garden which gets watered the more people you introduce to the viral. The trouble is, you don't get to play at all without registering, which I think is a big barrier to participation. And not much happens until you feed it three friends' addresses too. It feels too blatantly like a list building exercise.

I love to use metaphor and story, but in this case it feels like the metaphor is getting in the way of what is a compelling hard news story.

But that's just my two cents - I wonder what others think?