Comments on: LA Times Sets the Record Straight on Second Life Hype

By: Insider

Insider — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 04:39:13 +0000

Live by the sword, die by the sword.

The point is that Second Life put an inordinate focus on corporations and other organizations moving into their virtual world. They got a great deal of press play for these launches and did their best to leverage them. Kind of like when a studio makes a big deal about how many screens a film is opening.

However, when you do this people are going to ask about results. If a film is hyped at launch, you can bet there will be stories about the actual size of the opening. For SL, it’s not surprising that now that some time has passed that the media is asking how press release announcements have actually faired. Sure you can blame the quality of the campaigns or their expectations, but SL and their brand friends decided to hype them anyway leading to the position they are now in.

By: nic mitham

nic mitham — Thu, 26 Jul 2007 11:02:53 +0000

My thoughts on the numerous comments about brands leaving Second Life.

Firstly, remember that in many ways, Second Life (and other virtual worlds) is just another marketing channel, albeit with unique characteristics.

When companies run marketing campaigns on other channels (such as TV, radio or print) and the campaign fails to deliver the desired level of response, one of two things happen:

1. The creative concept is critised as not being appropriate or good enough. In other words it did not resonate enough with the target audience or deliver the right messages.

2. Expectations were too high in the first place. Either because they were not correctly analysed or the channel has a different set of metrics.

You rarely hear about the media channel being critised as being incorrect. Some brands have run campaigns in Second Life and the platform has been critised with very little commentary on the quality of the actual concept or the metrics being used to assess the success.

The concept of media planning in Second Life (understanding the attributes of the channel audience - what motivates them - what they want - what the platform can deliver) has been overlooked to a very high degree to date in Second Life. This is the area that successful virtual world campaigns should focus on.

By: Chad

Chad — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 13:22:47 +0000

That could be. When I first logged in I couldn’t figure anything out, but I I randomly teleported a couple times just to see what was the big deal and ended up at a location with some veteran players who were willing to help me out. For a brand new player it is incredibly difficult to make sense out of anything in Second Life. If I hadn’t bumped into that group of players I would have lasted about one session.

By: Insider

Insider — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 03:47:38 +0000

Well you accomplished a lot more than me and most. I think the key to the corps in Second Life is that they did it because they thought it made them look cool. I think for many people it had the opposite effect as is often the case when people try that hard to be “with it”.

By: Chad

Chad — Tue, 17 Jul 2007 03:22:59 +0000

My secret shame (well one of many secret shames) is I was a SLer for about 6 months. There really wasn’t a lot to it other than some good music feeds. I really dont understand how any 1L companies expected to make money there.

By: insider

insider — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 23:02:16 +0000

This is exactly the point and Second Life would have counted all three of us as “citizens”.

By: Ontario Emperor

Ontario Emperor — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 22:05:22 +0000

I’m one of the inactive ones who logged into Second Life once, couldn’t figure out how to work it, and never went back. Even my teenage daughter was puzzled when she saw the Second Life icon on her desktop; I was hoping she could teach me how to use it, but she hadn’t even heard about it.

By: Alyx

Alyx — Mon, 16 Jul 2007 14:59:56 +0000

Forbes did a great article about this recently, referencing the firebombing of the American Apparel store, poop-attacks on the John Edwards campaign headquarters and a helicopter crash (intentional or unintentional) into Nissan’s building, replete with “fatalities.” My favorite quote was from the Wells Fargo ad guy: Laughs Erik Hauser, creative director of Swivel Media, Wells Fargo’s digital agency: “Going into Second Life now is the equivalent of running a field marketing program in Iraq.”

My employer keeps trying to get me to go in there. No.