I haven’t been to an Imax theater yet, so I have no opinion on anything concerning it, but an interesting marketing campaign was run in SL, This Second Marketing Llc. hired about 2 dozen avatars and paid money, real money even, to act as virtual street teams that handed out promotional items like virtual 3-D glasses, Imax T-shirts, directors’ chairs with the Imax logo and virtual movie tickets, which you could redeem for real life movie tickets, but with only about 300 being released. They are saying that this is the reason Imax broke all of its box-office records.

According to Imax and This Second Marketing, 15,099 unique avatars engaged in conversation about the Imax “Potter” and accepted promotional items during 840 total hours of street marketing efforts in the week surrounding the Warner Bros.’ film’s July 11 opening. The campaign logged 25,189 individual Imax brand interactions when including all conversations with Second Life avatars, many of which occurred on more than one occasion.

“As far as everyone can tell, this was the highest one-on-one branded interaction known to date that ever took place on Second Life,” said Greg Foster, chairman and president of Imax Filmed Entertainment. “Reaching 15,000 people in exactly the demographic you’re shooting over seven days is sort of hitting the marketing bonanza.”

“A huge proportion of our opening weekend tickets came from advance Internet purchases, and a large number of those people came from interacting on Second Life,” he said. “We had more than 15,000 one-on-one unique interactions on Second Life, and we captured over 15,000 avatar names. Those people virtually became walking billboards,” he said, referring to the fact that whenever an avatar put on the virtual 3-D glasses, the “Potter” Imax cube appeared, spreading the viral campaign. Source: ‘Phoenix’ soars into Second Life, Virtual avatars credited with boosting film’s Imax 3D showing

These guys sound like they know how to market in Second Life, unlike most of the businesses who are leaving, who just built a sim and expected loads of people to show up. They took the message to the people and made them part of the conversation, a great idea. Imax also opened an office on This Second’s Island where you can get free promotional items for upcoming movies.

Be sure to check out the Harry Potter Sim at the Wizards Alley.

Popularity: 4%

JON ERICKSON

Listen to the long-time editor of Dr Dobb’s Journal talk about new media projects and business developments in SL and global collaboration.

When: July 29, 16:00

Where: Microsoft (101, 123, 30)

Popularity: 1%

Group Notice From: RavenPhoenix Zenovka

Discussion Topic (All Fires): Obstacles to Using SL Professionally, and How to Overcome Them

Dance Floor Theme: Come as you are!

Date and Time: Thursday, 07-26-07 at 6pm SLT

Mark your calendar! See you there! :))

Second Life URL

Popularity: 1%

There have been lots of articles recently about businesses leaving Second Life, although most of those seem to have come about because of the first person posting the article and the others regurgitating it over and over, and others that say businesses are wasting their money there. As an example, this one from Wired magazine titled How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life, and that seems to be the focus, all businesses are wasting money since no one is there when you visit them in Second Life.

The author is missing the mark on lots of things in this article, the one thing that is correct is they are wasting money in some respects, as with all things, if something is created for a promotion and it looks beautiful, the best example ever created, etc, but they don’t market it properly, no one is going to go look at it. As I am writing this, I am standing on the platform at the Coke Virtual Thirst Pavilion, crayon 172, 83, 532 (PG), Second Life URL, it was deserted of course when I got here, but in the ten minutes I have been working on this, many other people have already teleported in and are walking around checking out the various things they can do. I believe the traffic total has grown by at least 40% since I have been here, granted, the traffic total currently is only 37, but hey, it is growing because of all the press recently and people are actually finding out these things are here.

This best part about this little trip is the virtual pavilion is on a platform floating about crayon’s island, so I took the opportunity to parachute down. It is kind of exciting to see how long you can wait to open the chute, hehe, check out the pic.

See how easy it is to get sidetracked. My second trip to jump off again, I saw Eric Reuters on the platform, I think everyone named Reuters actually works there, correct? Anyway, he didn’t stay long as he looked like he was having trouble stopping, he was running in place. Could’ve been exercising I guess and hit the teleport by accident. LOL

Anyway, in the Wired article he talks of these big companies like Coke wasting advertising dollars on something that they get no traffic from. I mentioned above that the traffic was growing as I was there, nothing meteoric mind you, but the wired article alone was probably a big part of that. With all of the publicity that Second Life gets, just having a presence there can get you some good media coverage, one just has to search for Coca Cola and Second Life at Google news to see that.

Now, their first question when building something for Second Life should have been, why would these people come to our island to start with? Avatars don’t need to drink anything, so what good is Coke to them? I can see many ways to get people to visit a Coke machine or one of their spots in SL. They just had a virtual coke machine contest to see what people from Second Life would like it to do, but, not sure of the results of that competition as of yet. Me, I think it should offer some kind of coupon they could offer each avatar once for them to print out, a coupon they could change occasionally to give them some incentive to return, they could offer a different t-shirt every month that every avatar could grab for free, if they wear it, it’s free advertising, and could be designed for practically nothing and hired out easily. They could give away free Coca Cola branded radios, any number of things they could offer for free at little cost to them.

Anyone who is looking for some help in creating a good presence in Second Life can email me at this address, eubeenhadd at gmail.com, that is a serious address, hehe, just a nick I used to use when gaming. If you need some help, contact me there, if we can’t get you what you want, we know people who can. We are doing many builds for celebs and businesses, and we have ideas on how many businesses can have a presence that helps them in world and out.

Popularity: 4%

How Voice Will Affect Marketing in Second Life

Panel Discussion with Jeska Linden, project manager, Linden Lab; Mitch Wagner (Ziggy Figaro), Information Week; Reuben Stieger, Millions of Us; Celebrity Millionsofus, moderator.

July 19th 10:00 a.m. SLT

Popularity: 2%

Write-up in the LA Times says Virtual Marketers are rethinking their position on whether Second Life is worth the time and money required to have an SL presence, one of the main reasons cited, is it’s a virtual world, duh huh, where nothing is really required, even clothing is optional.

Their interests seem to tend toward the risqué. Ian Schafer, chief executive of online marketing firm Deep Focus, which advises clients about entering virtual worlds, said he recently toured Second Life. He started at the Aloft hotel and found it empty. He moved on to casinos, brothels and strip clubs, and they were packed. Schafer said he found in his research that “one of the most frequently purchased items in Second Life is genitalia.”

Another problem for some is that Second Life doesn’t have enough active residents.

On its website, Second Life says the number of total residents is more than 8 million. But that counts people who signed in once and never returned, as well as multiple avatars for individual residents. Even at peak times, only about 30,000 to 40,000 users are logged on, said Brian Haven, an analyst with Forrester Research.

“You’re talking about a much smaller audience than advertisers are used to reaching,” Haven said. Source: Virtual marketers have second thoughts about Second Life

Lots of money is being spent from people buying Islands and building shops, clubs, and attractions to get the visitors there buying stuff. Everywhere you look, stuff is for sale, anything imaginable, heck, I tried out a sex bed in the store the other night, no we weren’t actually doing anything, just checking the various features out. That is another problem with Second Life, most places you go there is hardly anyone there, unless it’s a club, casino or brothel, you browse most shops by yourself or with the avatars you brought with you.

Some businesses are already shutting down, Aloft, a brand of Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. that is closing its Second Life shop and donating its virtual land to the nonprofit social-networking group TakingITGlobal, Signs posted on the window of the empty American Apparel store said it had closed up shop.

But the sites of many companies remaining in Second Life are empty any time you go there, like Best Buy Co.’s Geek Squad Island was devoid of visitors and the virtual staff that was supposed to be online, the schedule of events on Sun Microsystems Inc.’s site was blank, and the green landscape of Dell Island was deserted. Most people blame the lack of creativity on these sites as being the main problem, and one such person, an avatar named Urizenus Sklar — in the real world, University of Toronto philosophy professor Peter Ludlow — wrote in the public-relations blog Strumpette that the community was “being invaded by an army of old world meat-space corporations.” He and other residents accused companies of lacking creativity by setting up traditional-looking stores that didn’t fit in. His column was reproduced in the Second Life Herald.

There is lots of money to be made with Second Life, and like anything else, there will be some people who make it hard for everyone else. They want it all to themselves before the bottom falls. If, you haven’t already, signup for a free account at Second Life, signup at SL Exchange, get you a good looking outfit and shoes, and do some exploring, there are some really cool spots out there just waiting for people to come use them. You need to visit some of them quick before they sell the space or stop renting.

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May be too late, but there was a panel discussion involving SL stock exchanges, investors and businesses and it will be moderated by a Cornell University professor at 12 noon Linden time in the amphitheater at Dr. Dobb’s Island.

The panel will include representatives of AVIX, WSE, SL Capital Exchange, SL Exchange Commission, the SL Business Bureau, and Mystik Designs, a business represented on WSE. It’ll be moderated by Robert Bloomfield, aka Beyers Sellers in Second Life, a professor at Cornell University. Source: Join Us For Our Friday Geek Meet To Talk About Second Life Stock Exchanges

Here is the Second Life URL.

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Just finished reading this good post over on GigaOm by Wagner James Au called Debunking 5 Business Myths about Second Life, where he, being a former Linden Lab employee and soon to be published author on the subject, debunks 5 business myths about Second Life. He is setting the record straight on some stories the news outlets have grabbed onto and some of the shoddy research they have been doing, like saying there are almost 8 million users, when that is the total number of signups. Second Life can take some getting used to, believe me, if the avatars didn’t go away when users signed off, the start areas would be clogged with abandoned avatars, I can see millions standing around with their heads down right now.

He mentions a unique user number, about 500,000, that sounds like it should be higher, considering there are over 20,000 signups a day, if everyone of those login once, and I know they don’t, that would be 600,000 users right there. Looking at this page on SecondLife.com, Economic Statistics, they have listed over 1,000,000 avatars logged in during the last 30 days. Which probably means that lots and lots of people have multiple avatars, which is probably throwing some of the counts off, such as average time online, etc?

All I know is, there is a lot more money being created by Second Life than is shown in some of these reports I have seen. And while there may not be many big corporations in Second Life yet, the smaller business man is certainly making up for it by purchasing islands and starting businesses from scratch, franchising and more. I bet a big portion of the islands they have sold, over 8,000, are owned by a small number of people in one form or another.

Anyway, it’s a good read, check it out, Debunking 5 Business Myths about Second Life.

Popularity: 1%

An entrepreneur in SL, Kevin Alderman, avatar name of Stroker Serpentine, is suing another avatar, named Volkov Catteneo, for copyright infringement over a sex bed that made Stroker a lot of money. The SexGen bed contains over 150 animations to allow residents to sexually interact with each other, and is sold by Eros LLC for $12,000 Linden, or around $45 dollars, Stroker says that Volkov is copying and selling the bed for much less, $4,000 Linden or around $15 dollars. Stroker’s lawyer plans to subpoena Linden Labs to force them to disclose Volkov’s real identity, chat histories, and financial records from Linden Lab and PayPal.

Catteneo told Reuters in a Second Life interview that Alderman had never been in touch with him. Catteneo said he had sold about 50 of the beds on behalf of a third party who pocketed the proceeds.

Catteneo, who declined to provide his real name, said he doesn’t fear the subpoena. “I’m not some kind of noob,” Catteneo said. “My name isn’t on [Linden Lab’s] file. I don’t even have a permanent address [in real life] either.”

Alderman said he tried to report the copyright violation to Linden Lab in accordance with its Digital Millennium Copyright Act compliance policy, but that he was told to use the in-world “abuse reporting” system.

Linden Lab was not immediately available for comment. Source: SL business sues for copyright infringement

Stroker estimates that Volkov has sold about 100,000 of the beds, while Volkov says he sold about 50 of the beds on behalf of a third party, who kept the proceeds. Stroker says he is not really interested in damages or getting money from Volkov, he is just interested in protecting his income. Stroker is also the avatar who sold his Amsterdam sims to Dutch media firm Boom BV for US$50,000.

Stroker was contacted by the website GigaOM who asked him why he took it to trial instead of going in world and making sure the residents know so the can ostracize him. Stroker said he tried that route before,

Stroker tells me he did try that method in another case, but ironically, it backfired. “[T]he last time this happened I confronted the individual about it and requested that they cease and desist…,” he says, “I was made out to be a bully and dragged through the [SL community] forums.” Linden Lab has a system for letting users file DMCA suits against each other; Stroker tried that twice, but wasn’t happy with how Linden responded. So he found a law firm specializing in copyright/trademark disputes. “We weighed all alternatives and listened to a lot of advice. So here we are.” Source: Second Life Avatar Sued for Copyright Infringement

GigaOm also referred to the bed and avatar as not existing, something I’m sure most SL residents would disagree with, as well most software developers, I would think. They both exist at least in source code, they bed can be purchased and used by residents, and, residents can buy land to live on or resell, much in the same way you can buy a web server and resell it to others. The big issue will be whether they decide if it’s a knock off or a direct copy, but the biggest issue will be simply getting a jury to understand what is going on. Many residents will be following this one closely.

A copy of the filing is available here.

Popularity: 3%