Virtual marketers have second thoughts about Second Life]

["David Farber" <dave () farber net>]

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: [Dewayne-Net] Virtual marketers have second thoughts about Second
Life
From:    "Dewayne Hendricks" <dewayne () warpspeed com>
Date:    Sun, July 15, 2007 1:22 pm
To:      "Dewayne-Net Technology List" <xyzzy () warpspeed com>
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[Note:  This item comes from reader Ken DiPietro.  DLH]

Virtual marketers have second thoughts about Second Life
Firms find that avatars created by participants in the online society
aren't avid shoppers.
By Alana Semuels
Times Staff Writer
<http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-
secondlife14jul14,1,3135510.story?coll=la-headlines-business>

July 14, 2007

SECOND LIFE — a three-dimensional online society where publicity is
cheap and the demographic is edgy and certainly computer-savvy —
should be a marketer's paradise.

But it turns out that plugging products is as problematic in the
virtual world as it is anywhere else.

At http://www.secondlife.com — where the cost is $6 a month for
premium citizenship — shopping, at least for real-world products,
isn't a main activity. Four years after Second Life debuted, some
marketers are second-guessing the money and time they've put into it.

"There's not a compelling reason to stay," said Brian McGuinness,
vice president of Aloft, a brand of Starwood Hotels & Resorts
Worldwide Inc. that is closing its Second Life shop and donating its
virtual land to the nonprofit social-networking group TakingITGlobal.

Linden Lab, the San Francisco firm that created Second Life, sells
companies and people pieces of the landscape where they can build
stores, conference halls and gardens. Individuals create avatars, or
virtual representations of themselves, that travel around this online
society, exploring and schmoozing with other avatars. Land developed
by users, rather than real-world companies, is among the most popular
places in Second Life.

But the sites of many of the companies remaining in Second Life are
empty. During a recent in-world visit, Best Buy Co.'s Geek Squad
Island was devoid of visitors and the virtual staff that was supposed
to be online.

The schedule of events on Sun Microsystems Inc.'s site was blank, and
the green landscape of Dell Island was deserted. Signs posted on the
window of the empty American Apparel store said it had closed up shop.

McGuinness said Starwood's venture into Second Life did accomplish
something. Feedback from denizens gave Aloft ideas for its physical
hotels.

The suggestions included putting radios in showers and painting the
lobbies in earth tones rather than primary colors. But now that the
design initiative is over, he said, it's difficult to attract people
to the virtual hotel to help build the real-world brand.

For some advertisers, the problem is that Second Life is a
fantasyland, and the representations of the people who play in it
don't have human needs. Food and drink aren't necessary, teleporting
is the easiest way to get around and clothing is optional. In fact,
the human form itself is optional.

Avatars can play games, build beach huts, dress up like furry
animals, flirt with strangers — sometimes all at once.

Their interests seem to tend toward the risque. Ian Schafer, chief
executive of online marketing firm Deep Focus, which advises clients
about entering virtual worlds, said he recently toured Second Life.
He started at the Aloft hotel and found it empty. He moved on to
casinos, brothels and strip clubs, and they were packed. Schafer said
he found in his research that "one of the most frequently purchased
items in Second Life is genitalia."

Another problem for some is that Second Life doesn't have enough
active residents.

On its website, Second Life says the number of total residents is
more than 8 million. But that counts people who signed in once and
never returned, as well as multiple avatars for individual residents.
Even at peak times, only about 30,000 to 40,000 users are logged on,
said Brian Haven, an analyst with Forrester Research.

"You're talking about a much smaller audience than advertisers are
used to reaching," Haven said.

Some in the audience don't want to be reached. After marketers began
entering Second Life, an avatar named Urizenus Sklar — in the real
world, University of Toronto philosophy professor Peter Ludlow —
wrote in the public-relations blog Strumpette that the community was
"being invaded by an army of old world meat-space corporations."

He and other residents accused companies of lacking creativity by
setting up traditional-looking stores that didn't fit in. His column
was reproduced in the Second Life Herald.

Nissan Motor Co., a subject of such protests, has since transformed
its presence in Second Life from a car vending machine to an
"automotive amusement park," where avatars can test gravity-defying
vehicles and ride hamster balls. Sun Micro has made its participation
more interactive and fanciful, Chief Gaming Officer Chris Melissinos
said.

Ludlow isn't impressed. He said most firms were more interested in
the publicity they received from their ties with Second Life than in
the digital world itself. "It was a way to brand themselves as being
leading-edge," he said.

[snip]



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