I honestly don’t mean to be argumentative. But based on the flood of businesses into SL, there will be a serious need for those organizations to be able to communicate effectively and not do exactly what you’re worried they WILL do! My job is to make sure I can provide that kind of counsel that will keep relationships between businesses and SL residents cordial and even positive instead of deteriorating into the kind of acrimony you’re anticipating.

I certainly agree that plenty of marketing is bull…well, what you called it. We certainly hope ours isn’t — we have an entirely different view of marketing than other firms — but keep in mind, as I mentioned before, our efforts at this point are all OUTSIDE SL.

And I certainly share your aspirations for a stable grid!

Bob

I just read that 4,000 avatars PER DAY are test-driving a Sentra at the Nissan locale. I guess something about their effort is working…

/shel

I also noted that we would consider an SL element to a client engagement if it was appropriate, but would undertake such a venture only with the counsel of some hard-core long-term SL residents to make sure we were going about it in a smart way that wouldn’t disrupt or offend anybody.

I cannot speak for other companies, but I like what Text 100 has in mind, for example, providing sims that allow customers to test products in 3D that haven’t been produced yet to see what they do and don’t like. If you haven’t seen their machinima video on YouTube, take a look.

But since, according to Linden Labs, SL is what its residents make of it, organizations like Text 100 are as free to make something of at as the original residents were. Yes, they need to be sensitive and smart. But I also believe that a growing population in any environment, real or virtual, changes cultures. In short, crayon, IBM, Sun Microsystems, Wells Fargo, the CDC, Text 100, Leo Burnett — all have the right to buy islands and establish a presence. The only question is what we do with it once we have it. I can speak oly for crayon; we hope to learn and do everything right.

Coco, my only dispute with your analogy was the difference between making everything free forever (your alien race) and offering a limited number of free items (1,000 Sentras). Beyond that, I had no argument with your post and do believe Nissan could have managed its entry into SL better.

The vending machine deal was just a variation on that.

Don’t look for that to be the norm. It’s free advertising for their real products, which don’t even exist on the grid. I don’t think they are going to be so sensitive to us for long.

coco

What I’m saying is this: It’s not that we don’t want PR people, its that we want them to be smart.

I am your average joe Second Lifer. Here is where I see the problem.

We do not need you.

It’s really that simple, Second Life was puttering along quite well before your kind washed on it’s shores and, if it survives, will continue to do so without you.

“Isn’t that what Nissan did? Introduce an unanticipated effect into the economy that could cause change that might adversely affect some people?”

No, they came and dropped a finite number of prims into the world with their brand on them. If Nissan were selling cars in SL then maybe I could see your rational, but this was a dumping of a competitive product inworld where the seller has no market. Nissan could care less if people in SL are driving around in their cars, Nissan wants to sell real cars. This was just advertising that affected the people who actually do make and sell inworld cars.

“My analogy to the influx of America Online residents onto the Net had nothing to do with the outcome (as you noted, they were eventually assimiliated), but more about the treatment they were given by long-time residents as they entered the space. They were dismissed, bullied, harrassed, denigrated and otherwise abused, just because they were new.”

People resented AOL’s blight on the net in the early years for exactly the same reason we are hating what you people are doing right now. People are being told that SL is the coolest darndest place ever to go hang out and make friends while driving your Nissan Sentra by people like you. So when this flood of people knocks on the door to the party and wants to know what to do, where to go, why won’t that girl have sex with me, why doesn’t my Sentra drive right, why does my avatar look so bad, why can’t I do X, etc fucking etc, how about you sit down and explain it to them? When the customer doesn’t get the experience they signed up for it causes bad blood, who is left holding the bag? You?

“We very much want to soak up as much culture and knowledge as we can in order to make a tangible and positive contribution.”

Then don’t bring PR spin and real world business practices into it, it is not needed. Come on in, hang out, help build community and expand the world. Don’t throw a big block party in my neighborhood, hand out party favors with Brand X written all over it, then leave and wonder why I don’t get it.

Your claims of “first” are amazingly funny given this statement

“It’s also worth noting that you accused me of having done no research, while a 30-second Google search on my name would have revealed my public statement that I’m relatively clueless when it comes to SL”

Look, I have nothing against you, you seem like a rational individual, you came here and laid out your claim without resolving to name calling and bashing, which, in this realm is shocking, but I think what those of us on the other side of the fence are trying to say is keep out.

Urizenus, though, your point about the fact that the cars can’t be driven, and mostly remain in inventory is excellent and instructive. Here is where Nissan may have been clueless, in addition to their failure to understand the social/networking nature of SL. Thanks for the observation; I bet you can smell my rubber burning from wherever you are.

I for one welcome our new Zyron overlords.