I wrote a few weeks ago that I didn’t understand Second Life. After a few insightful comments, a few more kicks at the virtual can, and reading a plethora of articles about the online world, I now think I do understand it. Now, I just think it’s stupid.
This is not to say, however, that I don’t think it’s important. But I think that this is the infancy of metaverse marketing, not the pinnacle. From a communications perspective, I think the entire concept is fascinating, and if I was still a student, this is probably what I would write my thesis on. From a marketing and public relations point of view, I think that our bizarre fascination with Second Life is going to blow up in our faces.
What are the reasons to establish a presence in Second LIfe? At this point, it’s cheap headlines, it’s a minor outlet for sales, and it’s getting your brand in front of a few people’s avatars who probably don’t want you there in the first place. But now, first mover advantage is gone, PR people are being voted off the island, and yet we persist. If you have a brand – it must be in Second Life.
There are a lot of things that I think Second Life is great for - the odd meetup or conference, virtual presentations, and of course, naked skydiving. I also think that in the coming years, the metaverse will provide a number of incredible opportunities for performance, marketing and social communication.
The way I see it, Second Life is the medium-de-jour, and as marketers, we’re at risk of ruining it the same way we ruined MySpace. We go in hard and fast, build up ad clutter everywhere and all of a sudden, it’s not worth it for the community. We did the same thing to mobile, and now the advertising lemmings are jumping off the Second Life cliff.
If we, as marketers, really want Second Life to be the next greatest medium, we should be adding to the community, not just covering it in ads.
