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."

Universities: high touch and high tech (corrected)

CNET reports that California State University (corrected from comments) chancellor Charles Reed sees the future of education to involve virtual worlds. "It's not an either-or thing. We need the 'high touch,' but we need the high tech at the same time," Reed said Tuesday at Sun Microsystem's Worldwide Education and Research Conference."

Reed see a future where students will act more like telecommuters, attending virtual lectures, downloading podcasts and sharing information via other online tools. 

Gerri Sinclair, executive director of the master's degree program for digital media at the Great Northern Way Campus in Vancouver, Canada, said, "Our students are digital natives, and they don't want to be reached in traditional ways. So we're creating a virtual campus as we're building our real campus."

With over 70 colleges and universities already in Second Life and given IBM's top five trends to watch (3D Web) virtual worlds seem to be gaining momentum with the educational community.

Second Life research study

Reuters reports that a new study (PDF) on Second Life is available from EPN, a Dutch non-profit group that studies the effects of technology and communication.

The study found that “there is a strong correlation between well-being and success in Second Life and well-being and success in real life.”

The study has a number of informative graphics that range from motives for being in Second Life to gender, education and income.

IBM to invest $10m in 2007 on Second Life

The news broke Friday that IBM will invest $10 million in 2007 on Second Life projects. IBM Chairman and chief executive Sam Palmisano will address 7000 IBM employees in a town hall meeting tomorrow and then visit IBM's Second Life projects in-world.

IBM has been working in Second Life of over a year on its secret island and has 250 employees that regularly use Second Life to conduct meetings and seminars.

Irving Wladawsky-Beger, VP, Technical Strategy and Innovation at the IBM Corporation, stated Friday, "The essence of ecommerce today is built around the idea of catalogues. That's very useful, it fits with the idea of web pages and catalogue pages but most people don't think of shopping in terms of catalogues and pages but in terms of stores that they go into."

Led by IBM Second Lifers, Roo Reynolds and Ian Hughes, IBM plans to develop a v-Business strategy that includes thinking about getting data in and out of Second Life.

Coming on the heels of the CNN/Fortune article titled, "No, Second Life is not over hyped," the IBM announcement lends credence to the fact that Second Life may be more than what it currently appears to be.

(Second Life photos by Michel Leblanc)
 

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)

NBC Universal's Five New Media Principles

NBC Universal's digital czar, Beth Comstock commented on how NBC is going to deal with the new media environment at Mipcom, a programing trade show.

She said NBC Universal needed to "create the best, most innovative content, get used to sharing control, tap the power of the community, develop a keen understanding of constantly changing consumer behavior and, finally get used to the idea that the media marketplace from now on is going to be full of contradictions and tensions."

The Adage article goes on to highlight the difficultie s facing media executives in keeping up with consumer behavior.  At THINK we realize the media environment is changing rapidly and we believe the only way to keep up with the behavior is to be a part of the "consumer-led republic."

Telling stories on blogs, making videos for YouTube and building characters and buildings in Second Life are just a few of the things we have been up to lately.  The best way to know the consumer is to be the consumer.