The Post-Hype State of Virtual World Marketing: What Works, What Doesn't, and Why
Two years ago, a BusinessWeek cover story about Second Life sparked a swarm of interest from real-world companies looking to advertise in Linden Lab’s user-created virtual world. Most of the early efforts were glorified 3D billboards, and so the gold rush quickly died down. But while the three largest “metaverse” ad agencies largely abandoned Second Life, more than a dozen boutique agencies are still developing virtual ad campaigns for major real-world clients in Second Life, often returning impressive results.
Why are they working where bigger campaigns failed? And what are the pros and cons of marketing in a user-created world, as opposed to other virtual worlds? The author of HarperCollins’ new book The Making of Second Life: Notes from the New World takes you on an illustrated tour spanning several worlds and marketing campaigns.
comments
I'm with Nate. James, do a dialogue session at Web2Open - you'd be great!
Hi. A few comments
1) Virtual World: The Viral marketing methods used today are what I see as reinforcements and a good way to create a general buzz for a certian product or brand. Many refer to the people that actually buy things from viral marketing as "Hyper Responsive" Buyers. This could be a CRM tool advertized on Facebook for example that a person buys on the spot.
2) Traditional Sales: Since the old montage that nothing good is for free is in most ways true (in business) there is still a strong relationship between what is put in and what you get out of a marketing startegy. Our companies Accelerant Sales Group and Brand Frog for example focus on a hybrid Viral/Field Selling and Branding approach to selling several types of solutions and products. Where people miss the boat is in assuming that the "web" and Virtual World replace or substitute relationships that only people can have with other other people.
Both things need to work together for success and the real world and virtual world will always be one.
Hope This Helps
Thanks!
Joseph Roman
I got more than I hoped and also realized that we need to take it a bit slower before Jumping on the bandwagon!
Hope you can share some of these thoughts in the Web2Open!