Back in July 2007, the Los Angeles Times published an article about marketers getting second thoughts about entering Second Life.
Second Life seemed very enticing at first with its cheap cost and growing member base. It looked like prime opportunity for marketers to get exposure in an edgy medium. However, marketers soon found out that Second Life users weren’t avid virtual shoppers. The article explains that shopping definitely is not the prime activity in Second Life. Another article breaks down the cost of setting up a presence in Second Life to setting up a conventional web campaign. The numbers show that Second Life simply isn’t worth it as an advertising platform.
Sony's BMG Music Presence
This always made sense to me. Second Life, to me and my impression of it, is a social medium. In a way, one of its central components is that it’s a glorified chatroom. Even the name “Second Life” lends to the fact that people are using it to express themselves in a virtual world… virtually. While users may spend Linden Dollars “souping up” or personalizing their nook of Second Life or on their avatar’s wardrobe, big spending doesn’t seem like a logical outcome of Second Life, Second Life’s intent, and the objective of its user base.
I’ve been looking at examples of companies that have spawned virtual presences within Second Life, and for the most part they are engaging in “traditional” advertising mechanisms — the same tired advertising schemes that were are exhausted of in real life. Just because a banner ad or a mural advertisement is inside a virtual world doesn’t mean it’s any different from a billboard we see every day commuting to school or work. I think that most of the presence models established by companies were flawed coming out of the gates because they focused on such archaic conventions for publicizing themselves.
On some of my more random journeys through Second Life, I will encounter one of the many ghost towns with advertisment blocks plastered on a lot of surfaces, a overwhelming as it would be in real life. It appears that the only companies and ventures that have had the most success were those that actually embraced the framework of Second Life or the ones that had an outside-the-box approach. For example, Second Life is prime real estate for virtual education, just like this class. I’ve read other articles that have expressed this as well.
