Forbes Starts Hating on Second Life
by Pixeleen Mistral on 19/06/07 at 8:45 am
American Apparel disappointed in SL, Starwood Hotels’ Aloft sim to be sold
by Pixeleen Mistral, National Affairs Desk
Allison Fass reports that the metaverse can be a “can be a weird, chancy place for real-life brands” in a story for the July 2 issue of Forbes, and notes that avatars enjoy having sex and playing pranks instead of getting warm fuzzy feelings about real life brands. What on earth are those avatars thinking of – don’t they understand they are meant to be compliant RL marketing hype recipients?
Still, this is good information to know – and may explain why the Linden fanboy network recently upgraded the bad press threat level to Orange. Look for all remaining fanboys to spread out across the blog-o-sphere to defend the Lab from criticism, and teams of canine furries to patrol SL looking for unattended suspicious packages, bottles of liquid over 3 ounces in size, and outspoken critics.
I do have to wonder how effective the fanboys will be. Ms. Fass quotes Lenovo computer’s Web-marketing vice president David Churbuck as saying, “There is nothing to do in Second Life except, pardon my bluntness, try to get laid”. While I respect Lenovo, I can’t really completely agree here – you can also play house, play store, play war, and ban people from your land while trying to get laid.
The Forbes story then takes an ugly turn as Aloft hotels V.P. Brian McGuinness notes it is hard to come up with compelling reasons for people to stop by – and Forbes reports that Starwood plans to hand over its Aloft Second Life real estate to another user.
But the SL beatdown is by no means over. A disappointed Web director of American Apparel, Rasmus Schiönning, is quoted as saying sales from the metaverse retail operation have been “insignificant”. Erik Hauser, from Wells Fargo’s digital agency laughs and says, “Going into Second Life now is the equivalent of running a field marketing program in Iraq.”
Between the ongoing technical issues bedeviling our world, the ever-present sex-scandals, and the imminent expiration of 1-year leases on many of the early real life metaverse marketing pioneers, look for more of the mainstream media to start hating on SL. Not to worry though – the LL fanboy network is still recruiting. This gives residents something else to do in SL – defend the homeland.
Chav
Jun 19th, 2007
Is it really surprising to anyone? I always wondered what the corporates were expecting in the first place. It makes for a good advert that you’re savvy on what young folk do these days, but it’s not like we go into SL specifically looking to buy RL goods. That’s what the internet is for. (Oh, and for porn.) Conclusions about the popularity of SL are easy to arrive at when the top places to go are casino-brothels and so much of the population works in cyberprostitution.
I think the companies with schemes for how to make SL work for them will stay, but a lot of them just bought into the hype and don’t seem to have thought too much about what they were hoping to get from the metaverse.
darkfoxx
Jun 19th, 2007
LOL
know what this sounds like to me?
“Hey guys can I play with you in your sandbox?”
“No, your toys are lame”
*pout* “well…YOUR SANDBOX SUCKS ANYWAY!!”
Lewis Nerd
Jun 19th, 2007
Been saying this for a long time, and real life brands just don’t seem to get it…
“Second Life is not supposed to be cheap advertising. Unless you’re prepared to get involved in the community and interact, you’re destined to fail there”.
Lewis
Inigo Chamerberlin
Jun 19th, 2007
That’ll learn ‘em! Listening to Philip’s BS!
What did they expect? Second Life is about ESCAPING from RL! That’s the POINT!
Mind you, there’s a level of fundamental dishonesty in the difference between Philip’s pitch to the residents and Philip’s pitch to the corporates.
That’s what’s caused this backlash, so no sympathy for either party. Phil’s come unstuck for deliberately misleading people – something he seems to have a weakness for. The corporates in SL are coming unstuck for failing to research the situation properly AND for trusting a huckster. Basically, they deserve each other!
Now – could we possibly get back to building the Second Life we signed up for Philip? Or is that too much to ask for?
The whole ‘get the corporates on-board’ thing always puzzled me. They were only ever able to buy the same spec sims we can buy. They only ever got charged the same as we do. And there definitely aren’t enough corporate entities out there to make any significant difference to LL’s bottom line, or user numbers.
In fact the only people to benefit in any way from the corporates that I can see are the people providing them with grossly over-priced services…
So, what was the point?
Oh well, I guess a select few made a bit of money out of it while the going was good. And SL has had it’s equivalent of the ‘dot com’ boom and bust, which is kind of ironic.
It remains to be seen if the bubble is going to burst with a loud BANG, covering all involved in pieces of…. whatever – or is it going to deflate with a gentle flatulent sigh?
I can just imagine it in a few years time – some old gaffer telling a newb – ‘Arrr son, I can remember when these islands was owned by a multinational. All this space here, covered in a mighty build, and the traffic lad! You should have SEEN the traffic! Why, some days it got as high as 15!’
And that may be the requiem to corporate SL. You can build it – but that doesn’t mean they’ll come…
Of course, LL must have known this was coming for some time now. And the speedy deployment of Voice is probably the last chance of making ‘Corporate SL’ work, after a fashion.
Multinationals may well want SL as an internal communication platform. Though outages will tend to put them off. In fact I suspect voice in SL is merely a way of retaining the communication (as opposed to promotion) based corporates for a while as LL desperately throws together private internal virtual world conferencing systems for that remaining segment.
Nicholaz Beresford
Jun 19th, 2007
Well, I can only welcome if the big companies stay outside. One of the weirdes experiences I ever had in SL was when I first saw a first life corporate logo in-world (it was the nbc sim). It was like “oh sh*t, they’re coming”.
Trevor F. Smith
Jun 19th, 2007
What goes up must come down. Let’s ditch the hype and build a good tomorrow (while trying to get laid).
Alexander Burgess
Jun 19th, 2007
Well, even Forbes readers like to get laid. In fact, it might be worth testing the hypothesis that Forbes readers and Lenovo marketers are more concerned on average than non-Forbes readers and non-Lenovo marketers with getting laid. It’s clearly the thing about Second Life that left the biggest impression on those people. They are sheep, not visionaries. Dinosaurs, not evolved digital life. And they are losing control of the money, so they’re going to moan and complain a lot. We don’t need to play defense, we’re on offense. Kick ‘em harder, they’re going down.
Nate Randall
Jun 19th, 2007
“Still, this is good information to know – and may explain why the Linden fanboy network recently upgraded the bad press threat level to Orange. Look for all remaining fanboys to spread out across the blog-o-sphere to defend the Lab from criticism, and teams of canine furries to patrol SL looking for unattended suspicious packages, bottles of liquid over 3 ounces in size, and outspoken critics.”
Great writing. I love it!
Sn4X15
Jun 19th, 2007
Go Lenovo! Maybe that’s why my laptop hates secondlife so much…
Poo Bear
Jun 19th, 2007
I understood almost everything except the part about furries “looking for unattended suspicious packages, bottles of liquid over 3 ounces in size.”
WTF? Is this some furry meme that I haven’t heard about? Is it some kind of underhanded jab at furries? A compliment? Is it secret code for “the american health care system is in crisis?” Or did you just type some random words that made sense in your sleep?
Please enlighten me on this. Should I be looking for bottles of liquid? Should I avoid bottles less than 3 ounces? What do I do with it if I find one? WTF are you talking about? This is really bugging me now!
StallionSeven
Jun 19th, 2007
“Still, this is good information to know – and may explain why the Linden fanboy network recently upgraded the bad press threat level to Orange. Look for all remaining fanboys to spread out across the blog-o-sphere to defend the Lab from criticism, and teams of canine furries to patrol SL looking for unattended suspicious packages, bottles of liquid over 3 ounces in size, and outspoken critics.”
Great writing. I love it!
You have got to be kidding?
Coughran Mayo
Jun 19th, 2007
Corporate types might wish to look at two good examples of proper use of SL by corporate interests – Comcastic Island, which just opened, and The Weather Channel Island. Both offer “fun things to do” to SL residents – biking, skiing, auto racing, etc., and both funnel visitors through an info center about their organizations.
But they are trying to sell products, just create some buzz and awareness. Comcastic Island activities are all about “speed” (see Around The World in 60 Seconds) reinforcing their advertising position that the services they sell are FAST. TWC lets you see what information you get if you subscribe to TWC on cable, but it doesn’t sell you cable service or their channel specifically, just gives you a peek at what you would get if you bought it elsewhere.
There is also a rapidly developing community in SL for information exchange, certainly (though not exclusively) with Non-Profits (visit Plush NonProfits Commons), universities and libraries. So far, I haven’t heard any of these groups complain that SL isn’t meeting their expectations.
SL can be a functional tool, but when used properly and for the correct purposes. Trying to change a tire with a hammer won’t work.
Nicholaz Beresford
Jun 19th, 2007
)) They are sheep, not visionaries. Dinosaurs, not evolved digital life. And they are losing control of the money, so they’re going to moan and complain a lot. ((
this reminds me of an article uri wrote about that virtual world fair in March or April, about gray suits and smelling fear …
Overcast32
Jun 19th, 2007
Since when does corporate interest’s blessing mean jack for real people?
I recall the first days of the internet – they didn’t think it had any potential. Heck, most inventions of any real good – didn’t involve Corporate interests – take umm, Flight for instance.
Better off without them and their advertisements anyway.
Did companies like Xerox or IBM really contribute to today’s PC market? Ummm, lol – no.. They just swoop in like Vultures trying to pick the meat from the bones. These corporate people need to get as far away from Innovation and Invention as possible. The quickest thing that will scare me away from anything is these big companies getting involved.
Seriously – how much nicer of a place was the internet before the corporate vultures started getting their claws into it? Now it’s turning into a mess or lawsuits and limits on Free-Speech.
Lynette Radio
Jun 19th, 2007
Well, DUH, SL is the worst place to think you are going to sell RL products. Who told them they would have a chance in hell to make a profit on RL goods? All these corporations thinking they will make multiples of the money they invest in. No. You won’t. Use SL for what it’s good for and you’ll be okay. If you are not willing to take risks, then go play in someone else’s sandbox.
dildo baggins
Jun 19th, 2007
“Multinationals may well want SL as an internal communication platform. Though outages will tend to put them off. In fact I suspect voice in SL is merely a way of retaining the communication (as opposed to promotion) based corporates for a while as LL desperately throws together private internal virtual world conferencing systems for that remaining segment.”
Good point, but it will need secure encrypted chat and voice to fly. Internal collaboration is the only use for corporates really, possibly with some business partners.
The platform is just too unstable to deploy beyond that, any one who did that to a valued client should be forced to felch phildo after a new vc injection session.
I can’t wait to see the sheep of infinite vision positively spinning this.
JBar Predator
Jun 19th, 2007
Hmm let’s see here. Multinational, multi-million dollar companies with annual revenues that would make SL residents’ heads spin.
Vs.
A mere 139 unique residents out of 500,000 active and 4,000,000 signups who are making over $5,000 US monthly.
http://secondlife.com/whatis/economy_stats.php
So tell me again who are the ones without a clue how to run a business?
Judging by the economy stats, SL residents who live, work, and breath within the “community” of Second Life have even less of a clue how to exploit business potential from Second Lifers than those corporations. Unless someone is within the small percentage of even those 139 making an actual, decent living from their businesses, it’s funny to see them scold these corporations and lecture them (even in some comments here) as though *they* really understand how to successfully use Second Life as a business platform.
Oh, random lecturing Second Life “Rockefellers”, your $60,000 US annual income is amazing. No really. It’s just that these big corporations couldn’t even use that to pay their electricity bills. They have bigger potatoes in mind…that’s all.
DaveOner
Jun 19th, 2007
You almost had an interesting article here before you got into all the fanboy bullsh@t. At least I know there’s other information out there about this.
It’s no surprise that these corporations aren’t satisfied with thier returns in SL. They don’t understand SL and lack the vision to discover a way to tie RL products and relevance into SL. The closest I’ve seen anyone get to that is (ironically) Playboy with thier store. They’re at least trying!
It will be a few years before SL has the technology to tie in anything that actually exists. Hell, you have to copy and paste URLs from SL into a regular browser still! If they ever get all the html tie-in stuff they’ve talked about actually going then I wouldn’t be surprised if a couple companies gave it another go and actually succeeded.
Hopefully by that time “Home” for PS3 will be up and running so companies will stampede for advertising space there. It’s a much better platform for passive consumerism than SL is.
Prokofy Neva
Jun 19th, 2007
Pixeleen, you’re so mean. You’re so cynical. You’re so fin de siecle. Why, we have intellectual stuff, too, in Second Life. Why, just the other night we had an intellectual salon where smart people came. We talked about whether the crackdown on the “broadly offensive” might force cybersexers indoors more or even out of the game. See, we do some heavy lifting. I resent that you think all of Second Life is about sex. It isn’t. There are people thinking deep thoughts conceptually about what it all means, too, see.
Watch out, or this piece might wind up trackbacked to pages about the dangers of absinthe or golden sneakers for sale, like other Herald classics.
Tenshi Vielle
Jun 19th, 2007
Aw, Forbes gives us “teh hate”. Maybe they just weren’t cool enough to hang with us.
Meh. I didn’t want to see Trump’s nasty comb over in here, anyway.
Petey
Jun 19th, 2007
The biggest surprise about this article is that the mainstream media finally clued into the fact that Second Life is basically about screwing around trying to get screwed, and this is the first time I can recall that a mainstream business has given up trying to exploit a web community.
Gillian
Jun 19th, 2007
I recall joining SL and going over to the American Apparel sim because I kept reading all the PR. Even as a newbie I could tell the merchandise was average at best – so really, how are they surprised that their sales were “insignificant”? Nothing was ever updated as far as I could tell, poor craftsmanship on the clothing, and an empty sim every time I checked in (not that I have looked recently). Aloft? Sure, a failure because there was nothing to do there! Surprising actually given that Starwood is a creative company with great marketing. Two examples of companies who just didn’t get it. I’m not sure what “getting it” means in SL – but I know it when I see it
I think IBM, AOL, and a handful of others have the right idea. They create immersive experiences for SL users and in turn, that reflects positively on their brands. Of course, in IBM’s case, they’re building for themselves at this point and leveraging SL far beyond what other corporations are doing, which works too.
urizenus
Jun 19th, 2007
Forbes is tough on SL, but I’m told the Dutch press is being positively brutal towards it. I’m trying to get someone two write up a summary.
All this is making me think its time for the Herald to lead a Second Life backlash backlash.
Posssible headline –
Second Life: Yiffing Your Way to Big Bucks!
Prokofy Neva
Jun 19th, 2007
@Poo Bear, don’t worry, furry cub sippy cups are exempt from searches from Homeland Security in SL.
Prokofy Neva
Jun 19th, 2007
@Uri yes we need to start a Herald bootcamp for ad men so they learn the ropes better. We could probably charge in the six figures this summer. I’m in.
Rock Ramona
Jun 19th, 2007
/me flips thru Herald archives and finds a post he wrote about the big companies checking their numbers on profits made in SecondLife this summer and finding it was a really bad idea…..ya know,i got about 40 ims when i wrote that saying what a fool i was,well i was right and i will continue to be right about the rest of the post to,/me shakes his finger at those 40 fan boys…and yes i am quite capable of using proper puncuation and paragraphs when writing letters to my mother,congressman,and marriage proposals to Stevie Nicks……….no,she hasnt said yes ….yet…..Much Love to All,Your Friend and confidant,Rock Ramonaaaaaaaaaaa
Toneless Tomba
Jun 19th, 2007
American Apparel got press when they decide to go to SL. They were looked at they were not afraid to try out a new thing. How much is that worth? Now they find out there venture was consider ed unsuccessful then they bash SL with 6 mil users? Yeah great PR scheme there. Truthfully I never knew about them until they came to SL.
DaveOner
Jun 19th, 2007
“…Even as a newbie I could tell the merchandise was average at best…”
Man, their shit looks like that in RL…especially after you look at the price tag. I’ll get my blank running jacket at Target for half the price, thank you!
Poo Bear
Jun 19th, 2007
A “Prok” impersonator wrote: “don’t worry, furry cub sippy cups are exempt from searches from Homeland Security in SL.”
Ouchies! Wowzers, didja hafta hit da widdle baby poobear in da nutsack like dat?
Seriously – will someone clue me in to what the “bottles of liquid over 3 ounces in size” is all about?
…me wuvz a widdle tickle fwom da pwetend prokkie peoplez.
(not a furry baby, but don’t press your luck, I could turn into one at a moments notice and my “widdle baby tawk” will cause permanent debilitating damage to your brain as you grow older)
Khamon
Jun 19th, 2007
This is the beginning of the secondary press wave. The corporate MO is to pay a year’s worth of sim rental for two large scale press releases. The first announces the sim opening, Corporation 1 : SL 1; the second announces the sim closing, Corporation 2 : SL 0.
Can you imagine opening a brand-oriented sim today and being the laughing stock of Forbes et al?
anon
Jun 19th, 2007
I’m with the above poster. I’ve never heard of American Apparel until they received the publicity for entering second life. Since that time I had taken a look at the sim and found the work to not be up to snuff. I hope they produce better apparel in real life than they do in world.
I cannot see the connection with corporate interests in SL at all. It seems to be as another long known proprietary company jumping on the open source bandwagon.
Now I will say this, “Sears” has the right ideas. Creating their own products for modeling with SL tools. But if Sears cannot create duplicates of their products out of prim, they too will be looked at as American Apparel. To advertise within SL a company would have to be both “Skilled and Crafty”.
I see it as other posters do. Just another corporate entity jumping on the wagon to sell RL goods to people within the SL virtual world.
The problem is, they are less than skilled in SL and won’t take the time to learn. They offer no service whatsoever and produce little benefit to the SL community.
marilyn murphy
Jun 19th, 2007
i was wondering what the fan boyz position pays? i mean….no, no i would never but…i wonder what it pays?
*thinking the fan boyz job will last longer than any corporate job.
tjwelles
Jun 19th, 2007
Hey website owner,
Can you please give the name of the person that is writing. The above
Posted by: Khamon | June 19, 2007 at 03:22 PM
Was posted by ANON. What are you doing? Can you put the name with the person writing please. This is twice in two days now.
Artemis Fate
Jun 19th, 2007
And it begins.
But yeah, Aloft and American Apparels are good examples of doing it wrong really. I mean, what are you going to do with a hotel in Second Life? Besides the obvious National Second Life pasttime, which the owners seem to be characteristically against, there’s not much else. And American Apparel sold bland SL copies of their bland RL clothes for extremely high prices, so I don’t think there’s any surprise there.
I wonder if this will be the spurring of recognization that maybe Second Life isn’t great for a real life advertising billboard, or just that the businesses that come here need to be a certain type of applicable product. i.e.: all the entertainment based ones seem to be doing popular, the L word sims have a consistently hefty haul of people lounging about pretty much around the clock.
Kekken Biberman
Jun 19th, 2007
Personally I like the corporates moving in. Take Scion City. They sell some fairly well made vehicles there for SL, these corporate types will sell copies of their products in SL, that could help with advertising. Take comcast, if they offer a SL TV service before anyone else, their buisness will be booming. Say a TV with a touch interface, channel lists with what they want on it. Instant hit. Take Wal-Mart. What better way to get advertisements out than to build just that? WAL-MARTS! Place them where you can, give ultra-cheap pricing for vendors. INstant hit. Dell? Make SL laptops and computers , that can interface with say, Gmail, or other things. Intresting gadgets, cellphones. Apple? Iphones, Ipods, everything under the sun. Coca-Cola? Make SL drinks! Sell them off with vendor capabilities for clubs, get custom scripts and animations to make it look good! Valve? Hell, they have an instant hit there, make HL:SL. Half-life, Second Life! They could make a combat system, so you could go out and blast zombies in your SL! Woot! You name a company, I can give you ideas what they can do.
Homeland Security
Jun 19th, 2007
Poo Bear,
Bottles of liquid over 3 oz in size are not permitted past the security check in airports. How that relates to the article is up to you to figure out but that, I think, is the reference.
Reality
Jun 19th, 2007
tj – the format is Post followed by the poster’s name.
tjwelles
Jun 19th, 2007
Okay,
Thanks Homeland, but honestly, the lines are wrong then. If a site is to have the name below, the name should be within the boundries of the dividers.
Thanks for the clarification however.
Reality
Jun 19th, 2007
Heh, still having problems with it though TJ. I’m Reality – not Homeland
Hypertext Mark Uplanguage
Jun 19th, 2007
Thanks for clearing up the mystery of the 3 oz bottles of liquid Kekken – it was bugging me too.
Also the reference to the sippy cup makes sense now. All the puzzle pieces are in place and I can now go on with life. I hope poo bear can too (without the baby talk).
And off topic (even further), yeah, the poster’s names below the dividing line is confusing – who ever came up with that format?
(thanks Homeland Security – I know it was you, heh. I was just razzing on the silly forum format here)
Lucy
Jun 19th, 2007
I think a lot of people here are missing a fairly fundamental point.
Before the corporations got on board Second Life’s population was what 60,000 residents?
The economy was correspondingly miniscule.
I, like many many others, found SL late last year because of the huge wave of positive media it was attracting because “X” corporation was opening up in SL. It was a mutually beneficial thing that media. The corporations got their day or two in the sun because they were doing something new age and exciting, and SL got attention in the mainstream press which in turn created massive growth for the platform.
But then reality set in, for the corporations and I must also say the users like myself. There was nothing much to do in SL that wasn’t sex related. The long term users – the oldbies – were a curious lot who seemed resistant to any “mainstreaming” of their virtual world and tenaciously defended their rights to say engage in virtual pedophilia.
The lack of diverse, mainstream options in terms of activities in SL has meant that (generally) the people that tend to persist with Second Life are not your average joes but rather your social miscreants, perverts and those that are more generally isolated from real life society. It is these people that go on to shape the dominant culture in SL.
This culture is antithetical to the values and goals of the corporations that have tried to build a presence in SL. This culture is also alien and at times even distressing to people with mainstream values such as myself.
Linden Labs made the decision to embrace the mainstream and exclude the miscreants too late in the piece. It needed to clean itself up BEFORE the corporations and the average joes arrived. Now that the corporate world has black marked Second Life user growth rates have almost come to a standstill. The economy is already regarded as being in recession. Things are only going to get worse as the free publicity dries up.
Voice will not save SL and LL. Ultimately it has alienated both its original core miscreant ‘outsider’ residents and the newbie mainstream audience by trying to hedge between the two and coming down on one side too little, too late.
mootykips
Jun 19th, 2007
It’s nice to know you’re making a difference in waking up corporate brands from the illusion SL is a legitimate social and economic platform.
Alyx Stoklitsky
Jun 19th, 2007
I simply laugh at real world corporations who try to push their way into SL, expecting profit – especially as they have no hold in the community and thus must pay someone real US Dollars to build and script everything in their sim for some ludicrous amount of money.
There’s no sight more entertaining than an expensive, deserted corporate sim with two avatars standing behind the counter doing their ‘job’.
Pirate Cotton
Jun 19th, 2007
Strangely, there IS stuff to do in SL that isn’t sex, furries or shopping (usually combined), but you have to look hard to find those things, and LL do NOTHING to help those activities get some attention. It’s a shame, because it ruins the world’s reputation.
Pie Psaltery
Jun 19th, 2007
My hope:
Once the corporate smokes clears and they depart, scratching thier heads and still not “getting it”, SL will go back to what it was when I joined over 3 yrs ago, an interesting, creative, quirky enviroment filled with friendly and helpful people who liked to “play house, play store, play war, and ban people from your land while trying to get laid.”
Anonymous
Jun 19th, 2007
This explains why MillionOfUs are losing interest outside of SL because of all the RL companies started to see some poor results and told their “friend” network that MillionOfUs ripped them off for heavy bucks.
Prokofy Neva
Jun 19th, 2007
Lucy, you make some interesting comments. I would say it isn’t so much the entry of corporations as it was the media itself — the old media, the Business Week cover with Anshe, the CBS coverage, etc. — this all led to lots of sign-ups. So yes, the corporation coming into SL was the tail wagging the dog, the media, which then brought the sign-ups. The sign-ups didn’t come because somebody was dying to see some miniature American Apparel story in a virtual world.
Pirate Cotton, I agree there are other things to do, but sex and griefing are the two main industries. And you can’t look to LL to make it for you, you have to make it yourself.
I think there’s a more serious reason for all of this recession, however:
http://secondthoughts.typepad.com/second_thoughts/2007/06/a_funny_feeling.html
Compare all the photos, November 2006 with now, June 2007. I think we need to be afraid, and we need to call those greasy kidstuff people.
Tenshi Vielle
Jun 19th, 2007
@tjwelles
“Was posted by ANON. What are you doing? Can you put the name with the person writing please. This is twice in two days now.”
Honey, it’s automated. We’re not mixing and matching to see fit here. If your post fucked up, it’s on your end. Not the Herald’s.
Kami Harbinger
Jun 20th, 2007
I’m baffled by what American Apparel thought they were going to get. Putting some mediocre clothing, vastly inferior to what most residents sell, in a small store and then never doing any events, never changing anything… Did they expect to actually make real-world money out of SL sales? Didn’t they understand the exchange rate?
As a marketing effort, it succeeded initially; like most people, I’d never heard of them before they came to SL, and I went and looked through their shop. But their clothes were unimpressive and uninteresting. I found nothing I would ever wear. They did nothing to hold interest. It’s like putting up a bare gray web page with a low-rez picture of a shirt, and expecting to get a lot of sales out of it.
Companies who want to use SL for marketing need to make in-world products and events which are interesting in comparison to what is already in SL, and then funnel the results of that interest over to their real world product.
Nissan did much better. The SL Sentra is great. It’s one of my favorite vehicles in SL, because it was designed to handle well in SL’s alleged physics. They’ve put real effort into their sim; there aren’t any regular events to draw me back, so there’s room for improvement, but I still tell newbies to go there and get a good car. And when I next buy a new car in RL, they’ve earned at least a fair comparison from me by doing this.
Aloft have a good build, but didn’t do any events, either. So the place was a ghost town. It was impossible to visit and not think of the Overlook Hotel from The Shining, which I’m pretty sure was not the marketing message they wanted to send. Maybe they’ll learn something with their relaunch?
Second Life, to a real-world company, is about marketing your brand. Marketing takes effort, not just one billboard or web page.
(And hey, anyone who wants some real, practical help with these things… IM me and we can discuss rates.)
blaze@gmail.com
Jun 20th, 2007
Well, good to see that day still follows night.
We can thank ESC and various dumb fucks for overpromising us to death.