Jul 07
25

Millons Wasted in Marketing in Second Life – Wired

2 Comments

 Interesting article How Madison Avenue is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life in Wired challenging the money spent in Second Life on white elephants that few people ever visit.

I must admit I have never really been a big Second Life fan from either a personal or a marketing standpoint. I make this admission with great fear of reprisal, since so many of the marketing blogs and podcasts I consume trumpet the virtues of SL. So before anyone starts beating me over the head, here is my position:

  • I love online gaming and Web 2.0 sites
  • I believe marketing is changing from eyeballs to engagement
  • I think that reach and penetration numbers are becoming much less important
  • I embrace just about every new communications technology I can find and get excited about the marketing possibilities
  • I read Snow Crash and suspect that at some point online life and communications will resemble this
  • I even want to like SL, because many people who I respect like it
  • Still,  despite having a positive experience speaking at CaseCamp Second Life, visiting many marketing and other islands on SL, and genuinely trying to like it – Second Life still feels like an online game without the game and therefore not much fun

I think the article does take a couple of cheap shots, since personally I do respect marketers for trying out new things, but let’s face it – Second Life is not new anymore. The tech is totally outdated compared to other virtual worlds and even with the help of Second Life experts like Millions of Us and Electric Sheep, there still has not really been a single marketing break out Second Life hit (at least that I am aware of). In fact the biggest benefit I have seen for marketers in SL is the media and blog pickup they get on “XYZ Company launches first [insert marketing-related noun here] in Second Life”

This quote from the article sums up the marketing hype over SL for me. Second Life isn’t such a big marketing deal because it works, big advertisers are embracing it because it seems like an obvious and comforting metaphor for the real world.

“In contrast, the kind of digital marketing that actually works requires a conceptual leap. Successful online marketing is targeted and specific, like direct mail — but it’s direct mail in a fun house, where the recipients can easily seize control of what the mail says, where it goes next, and how it gets there. You need to know how to buy up keywords to maximize search returns, how to make the most of recommendation engines, how to use the viral potential of Web video, how to monitor what’s being said in blogs and message boards, how not to blow it by trying to be deceptive. Building a corporate pavilion in Second Life doesn’t require any of these things. It’s simple and it’s obvious. “

[tags]Second Life, CaseCampSL, Wired,  Snow Crash, millionsofus, electricsheep [/tags]

This entry was posted on July 25, 2007 at 11:30 am. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

Posted in Advertising Online Opinion Social Media Tech Trends Web 2.0 by dwalker 2 Comments

2 Responses to "Millons Wasted in Marketing in Second Life – Wired"

  • Reuben Steiger says:
    July 27, 2007 at 1:55 am

    I really appreciate the honesty of your post. In the midst of the recent backlash, I’ve stayed pretty silent, choosing let it pass rather than fan the flames. But at the risk of assuming the shrill tone of a devotee, let me quickly weigh in with some facts.

    1. Not many companies are “leaving SL”. American Apparel, who made huge headlines for a very modest investment, chose to make some more headlines by leaving and announcing it with a digital bullhorn. I’d guess they spent $10K. Here’s a sample of the ROI http://tinyurl.com/ytwgk4 Hard to call that a failure.

    2. Regarding the breakout success issue, I’d say that at least 10 of our campaigns would qualify including our work for Pontiac, Toyota and Microsoft. Microsoft in particular, which launched 2 months ago, has engaged thousands of perfectly targetted users around the globe. The average user spent 24 hours engaged and the “winners” of the game spent an average of 74 hours. That’s pretty unheard of — read more here. http://millionsofus.com/blog/archives/category/microsoft/

    3. I guess my final point would be that the virulent and scantily researched predictions of Second Life’s demise are as off-base as many of the breathless predictions that have appeared in the press of the virtual world as the solution for all problems known to man. I wrote a piece on this last week that’s pretty interesting http://millionsofus.com/blog/archives/273#comments

    For the most part, what I think is happening here is that the market that began with only Second Life is now entering a state of maturity and options have emerged, which is healthy. Secondly, as you indicate, marketers are realizing that virtual worlds and social media are a reality that is being driven by consumers. Considering that social media now accounts for 31% of consumer internet usage and is the fastest growing segment of the market, companies are wisely beginning to learn how to adapt to these new technologies to succeed in the future.

  • dwalker says:
    July 27, 2007 at 9:10 am

    Thanks for stopping by Reuben. I appreciate the thought out comment.

    To your first point, I think for SL to truly be the marketing medium that many of us want it to be (or believe it could be), PR and social media hits cannot be the benchmark of success, since that is just simply the novelty factor at work. It must actually be the in world visits, interactions, or sales figures to give SL the credibility it needs.

    Your second and third points are well-taken. I agree that it is hard to find balance in talking about SL, since it is quite polarizing (the hypers and the haters) and as you point out haters tend to get better headlines.

    By no stretch would I say that SL is a bad investment for any company, but my post was simply a small effort to counteract what (at least in marketing communities) has been an overemphasis on Second Life’s value in the marketing mix. There are certain instances were a great SL installation could be a marketing silver bullet and there are others (some of which are already on SL) where money is just thoughtlessly throw at “The Next Big Thing”.

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