KELOWNA, British Columbia – Score one big social-media marketing victory for Miles Marziani and PlayMobility, regardless of whether or not you believe in Bigfoot.
The Canadian high-tech company's CEO remained steadfastly silent on Tuesday afternoon in response to a pair of viral videos attributed to his firm's Legend Tracker smartphone app.
The videos purport to show Bigfoot (both up close and from a distance) taken over the last two weeks near Mission, a rural community east of Vancouver.
"A couple were hiking on a logging road above one of the lakes in Mission, BC, when — taking photos of the scenic views — they spotted something moving," the company's website says.
"Even though they were a fair distance away they were still able to zoom in enough to see something standing upright. Bear? Man? Something else?"
Another video shows several tourists furiously snapping photos after stumbling upon a slouched, grunting creature just a few yards away.
"Someone in the group witnessed something large moving in the woods," the website says. "Those that didn't run away stayed to get a better look, many photos and videos were taken before the large hairy biped ran towards the group, then away."
Legend Tracker is a family-friendly smartphone app that tries to get kids off the couch and into the wild to search for lost treasure and mysterious creatures.
The company invites users to upload videos captured using Legend Tracker to their website.
The most popular of its videos had more than 500,000 views in a few days.
Yet, Marziani won't say if his company filmed the videos, or if they were submitted as genuine. Are they just marketing attempts?
"That's what a lot of people think," he told GlobalPost.
He's not kidding when he says "a lot." The Sun newspaper's 2.4 million readers in the UK first latched onto the story. That spawned interest from across Europe, Australia and into the United States, Marziani said.
It was the second most popular science story on Foxnews.com, with nearly 5,000 Facebook "likes."
Even respected UK newspaper The Telegraph published a story online.
PlayMobility's website traffic has spiked, too, with Marziani saying the company received about 2-1/2 months of traffic in a couple of days. He said the company gets 1 million hits in a year.
OK, so if the videos finally prove the legendary Sasquatch is roaming the woods of suburban Mission, who filmed them? Surely they want to come forward and claim their awaiting riches?
"We were told to keep anonymous," Marziani said.
Got it; so does that mean Marziani is now a believer?
"There's much of our planet left to be explored," he said.
Using Legend Tracker and your smartphone, no doubt.