6,454 to zero

GigaOM points to the work of Tateru Nino in compiling weekly visitors to Second Life locations.

"So how does anywhere from 6,454 to, well, zero, grab you?

That’s the spread of weekly visitors to real world corporate sites in Second Life, according to SL demographics expert Tateru Nino.The low end is littered with some of the world’s most prestigious corporations and brands. Despite entering Second Life to much mainstream media fanfare, companies like Sears, Sun Microsystems, Dell, Coca Cola, Reebok, Coldwell Banker, and Calvin Klein have so far failed to attract even 500 weekly visitors each (during Tateru’s headcount, at least)— some of them far less."

Just putting up a building with a brand logo is not enough to attract visitors. Given IBM's announcement last week of plans to staff a sales center, Steve Prentice of Gartner seems to have the right idea.

“[Y]ou’ve got to be able to go in there and interact [with people],” he said, “that’s the nature of 3D interactivity.” Though many companies will quit in frustration, Prentice believes they’ll learn from their early botched attempts— whether they want to or not. “Like the [early] Web,” he added, “most will be brought back to the table due to user pressure.”

Brand acceptance in Second Life

A recent survey by Komjuniti shows that Second Lifers are not that excited about brands in-world. The study shows 72% are disappointed with branded activities, 42% were unaware of brand presence at all and only 7% said that in-world branded activities had a positive influence on their brand impression.

“Disappointing, but not entirely surprising,” comments Dr. Nils Andres, managing director of Komjuniti. “All the hype about Second Life in the traditional media has served to raise people’s expectations to a level that the technology and the companies taking part simply are not yet in a position to fulfil”.

MIT Advertising Lab summarizes the learning, "The aim has to be to build communities around Second Life sites and look to serve them over the long term. One-off promotional initiatives are punished over the long term with a lack of attention by Second Life users and can provoke a negative consumer backlash effect on the brands in real life."

Bud.tv and Identity 2.0

Bud.tv launched this Monday only to get hit with immediate feedback as to the egregious registration requirements. While there have been other comments as to why Bud.tv is or isn't the next great thing in advertising, the registration issue cuts deep into an ongoing discussion about the web and Identity 2.0.

For a entertaining overview of Identity 2.0 issues, watch Dick Hardt's, CEO of Sxip Identity, 2005 OSCON keynote address.  I know its old but its still a great starting point.

Sxip's is working with the OpenID group which is a "a free framework for user-centric digital identity; and Whobar for web developers, which streamlines the user registration and login process with Identity 2.0 technologies, such as InfoCard, i-Names, and OpenID."

OpenID and projects like it seek to provide a "user-centric identity where by each website trusts the user, and the user is free to choose any identity agent that provides the appropriate technical functionality. Thus the user is in the middle of a data transaction. This does not mean the user has to approve every tr ansaction, but that the data always flows through the user's identity agent."

Identity management and verification could have prevented Bud.tv from having to invent its own authentication process and allowed them instead to focus on its real goal of providing original content to its target audience.  That's going to be hard enough.

The Desperation of Viral Campaigns

Scott Donaton's article on Advertising Age brings up a point that we all know: most viral campaigns suck. The fundamental reason they suck: "They are not the end result of an actual idea or strategy but are born of a desperate desire to do something, anything, in the new-media space."

Scott looks at the Folger's Tolerate Mornings: "This is Folgers' attempt to appear cool and ironic by offering slow risers such appealing goodies as a wake-up call on their mobile phone from "Lucy," billed as a "sexy way to rise and shine (for the fellas)," or a "boss tracker," in case you want to catch a few z's at your desk. The fact that it's meant to be tongue-in-cheek makes it somehow sadder, like a dad trying to act cool in front of his teenage daughter's friends."

Viral campaigns are so hard to create for brands because the viral aspect relies on the content being edgy, irreverent, graphic and funny.  Those are hard to manage for most brands. The best viral videos have, in most cases, not come from the brands themselves, but rather from the consumers, like the Diet Coke/Mentos videos. Therefore one strategy is to be watchful for consumer content and then have a plan to capitalize on that conversation.

Scott's take away: "Doing something just to do something still leads to nothing."

Monetizing Social Networks

Robert Young has an interesting post on GigaOm about monetizing social networks. His main prediction is that "social networks will prove themselves to be the most effective brand communication platforms on the Internet."  Robert continues on making four observations about better positioning social networks to make money.

1. Social network sites are bad platforms for call to action ads.
2. Social networks are people powered so advertising needs to be done with people not at people.
3. Social networks are too cluttered with ads. To increase CMPs you need to create scarcity.
4. Scalability is key; therefore, automation is critical.

As new and old media companies rush to fill the demand for social experiences online, monetization will decide which projects are successful.  I look forward to Turner's Super Deluxe as an example of applying the learnings of '06.

How to handle citizen marketers

Guy Kawasaki interviews Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell, authors of the new book "Citizen Marketers" and the blog "Church of the Consumer."

Guy asks the pair how companies should handle events like the Diet Coke-Mentos video.

Answer: There are three different ways to respond to amateur grassroots efforts like that:

1. Say nothing and let the citizen marketers have their time in the spotlight. It’s a safe and conservative approach.

2. Use your company website or blog to point to the citizen marketers in the spirit of “what people are saying about us.” This opens the door to ceding control, and that’s a good step. Just remember that citizen marketers don’t follow instructions. This approach requires company spokespeople to have a sense of humor. That wasn’t the case with the Coke, whose spokesperson was quoted in the Wall Street Journal as scolding people for not drinking their precious beverage!

3. Quickly build a program around what’s happening. It can be beneficial but also tricky because it can taint the grassroots nature of what’s happening. Keep it simple. The “firecracker” nature of something like Diet Coke and Mentos has a short half-life. Better to openly solicit ideas from the people or community involved and keep it simple. Follow the lead of the community. And keep the company lawyers locked in a cage.

Branded Entertainment: $7.5B by 2010

Will Waugh at the ANA reveals some data about branded entertainment from a recent ANA publication, "Best Practices in Branded Entertainment: Case Studies and Accountability," by Richard C. Sutton with Barbara Zack. The big data points are, according to PQ Media, branded entertainment will a 7.5 billion dollar industry by 2010.

Will also points to an excerpt from the book listing the ten best practices of branded entertainment:

1. Is it brand relevant and brand positive?
2. Does it build brand awareness?
3. Does it break through advertising clutter?
4. How long is the integration on-screen? Is it long enough for viewers to notice?
5. Is it organic?
6. Can the integration build buzz?
7. Is there a demonstration of your product or service in the program? Or, can the program highlight key brand attributes?
8. Will the program generate positive publicity and media coverage?
9. How does the program relate to the rest of your brand marketing? If it’s an event, does it have a beginning, middle, and end?
10. The prize is ROI. What’s the return on investment? What results do you plan to measure – and how will you do it?

As viewers turn from TVs to the internet for more of their entertainment, brand sponsored content is going to be more and more important for reaching your target audience. 

Second Life crosses million user mark

According to the Second Life blog, in-world residents now number over 1 million.  Not only that, they expect to sign up 50,000 new user today alone.

Second Life has been in the news lately with a number of major brands moving in-world. Recently Wired Magazine, Reuters, Intel and IBM all revealed Second Life projects. Advertisers like BBH and Leo Burnett are also moving into the new space. From an article in the New York Times today called "A Virtual World but Real Money," there are over 30 companies now in-world with scores trying to figure out how and why to join.

The buzz around Second Life could not be much stronger. Many marketers may be searching for a little perspective. 

Second Life is not a game.

Think back to the original definition of cyberspace by William Gibson: "Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts... A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding, (69)."

Second Life is a virtual location where people can meet to have conversations, make friends, create items, build buildings and make money.

Second Life is not free.

Well, its free to create a character but not to own land or build objects. Many brands choose to create islands so that their brand will not be influenced by other brands or residence's creations in close proximity.  A private island costs $1,250 to create and $195 per month to maintain, before construction begins.  While that is a drop in the bucket for major brand budgets, it still represents a commitment to exploring a new medium.

Second Life requires a fast computer and Internet connection.

Rendering out virtual worlds requires horsepower.  To really see texture details you need a good bit of video ram.  For today's gamer the graphics will look 5 years old. Second Life, as its is presented today, requires patience and a willingness to suspend desire for graphic quality found in most current games. 

With so much momentum its hard to predict what will happen next for Second Life.  However, the population of multi-player virtual environments continues to grow rapidly and marketers may find that the best place to engage consumers is in a world in which they are already immersed. (Chart from MMOG Chart)