Second Life Is Gaining Popularity with Professionals as a Marketing Tool

Adidas-Reebok, IBM and Sun-Microsystems are some of the big names immersing themselves in a virtual world where they’re building virtual stores and creating brand awareness.

by Helen Leggatt

Where in the world are they? They’re in Second Life (SL), an online society that currently boasts just over 1.3 million members. According to the statistics on the SL site, those members spent over US $500,000 today.

More and more companies are interested in establishing themselves in the virtual world. Crayon, for example, is the world’s first “new marketing” agency, that has just been launched both in the real world and in SL, which will be the agency’s primary location. “The world has changed, but marketing, advertising, and public relations have not. There is no question that the influence organizations can achieve through traditional marketing, advertising and PR is fading fast,” says Crayon’s founder and president, Joseph Jaffe.

Creativity and captivation are the keys to success in SL. Toyota, the first car manufacturer to arrive on the SL scene, created virtual Scions prior to their October launch in the real world this year. This helped them to see which colors were most popular and how the cars were modified in the virtual world.

Book publishers now hold virtual book launches and readings, the BBC is throwing the first pop festival on a rented virtual island and even Reuters has its own SL News Center.

A Universal McCann report entitled “Parallel Worlds” says that marketers targeting 18 to 34 year old males can look to Massively Multiplayer Online Games (MMOGs), like SL, for opportunities.

According to JupiterResearch, MMOGs generate around $350billion a year and are the fastest growing entertainment segment in the world.

Tags: online games, Second Life, virtual world

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When you see the potential, the interactivity that people love, along with the almost endless possiblities, it's going to be interesting to see if the people engaging Second Life and other worlds, will ever find TV that desirable to take part in much at all anymore.

Posted by: Gary Bourgeaut (bizofshowbiz.com) on November 9, 2006 05:24

I think that advertising in Second Life is very interesting, and opens up many possibilites for marketing. I wrote about Second Life in my own blog. Now there are not only business groups and companies ambassy in SL, but even whole cities. Manchester recreates city in Second Life: http://callfromnextlife.blogspot.com/2007/02/manchester-recreates-city-in-second.html

Posted by: volkov on March 7, 2007 13:27