I recently attending a MarketingProf's Virtual Seminar on Second Life: "Exploring the Metaverse" hosted by Greg Verdino. As part of the Virtual Seminar, we looked on as Greg and his colleague, John Young, toured Second Life with John's avatar. We stopped at a variety of places: indigenous communities (communities built by Second Lifers), corporate (colonial) locales, and some resident-run businesses (the full list is at the MarketingProfs blog posting).
One of the key points that Greg made during the presentation is that Second Life is a platform, not a media property. It is designed by residents, for residents.
If marketers want to be successful, they need to embrace that fundamental tenet -- which will require that marketers adopt different norms and different behaviours, both for themselves and for their brands, in-world.
A lesson I learned from visiting Aloft, Reebok, Nissan and American Apparel is that an effort needs to be made to find ways to make these brand spaces more popular with residents. And to help clients promote their brands and products in way that might be considered heretical in Real Life.
A key part of any SL strategy is maintenance. It isn't enough to buy an island, hire developers to build incredible looking buildings and furnish it with sexy furniture. The sims need to be staffed and they need to have ways for residents to interact with the brand. It's like opening a store in RL; you wouldn't just open it and then never return? Same thing in SL.
A 2D web strategy doesn't work in a 3D world. And conventional thinking doesn't work in a world whose primary currency is imagination.
I've been touring around some of the larger, colonial properties in SL. I'll be posting write-ups as I go along.
Image lifted from secondlife.com ... it was too perfect not to.
