Have you been to Second Life? If not you better hurry, the credit card brand is launching itself into the virtual world following in the footsteps of the likes of Vodafone and Coty. Some cynics have already said that Second Life is little more than the emperor's new clothes, lacking substance or value, while others are clambering to get on board. In the case of Visa it looks like they have gone off half cocked as there is nothing there but a building site with Second Lifers being invited to offer their thoughts on how the building should look, and what experiences they would like to participate in on the island. The press release asks, for instance, should the island be a "place to showcase different and innovative products? A testing ground for new services? Or is it simply a fun place for people to go to and experience a virtual Visa world? Who does Visa seriously think is going to visit Second Life to test new credit card services? Most people go there to get away from the everyday crap of real life. I imagine many people who use Second Life will suggest packing up and going home. I really don't see the value and it seems that Visa doesn't either otherwise it would be opening up its virtual island home with some ideas. What a lame duck. Scrap that, my personal suggestion is to fill the island with turkeys and allow people to teleport on and blast everything away with an M60. That's probably more relevant to Bernard Mathews should the king of turkeys ever open a virtual shop. I imagine that like others Visa was wowed by the numbers - Second Life has 4m plus users with a lot of Second Life users falling into the 25- to 34-year-old bracket - without much of a clue.
UPDATE: On the question of figures there was, of course, a recent discussion about this on Robin's blog which he has mentioned below where it was pointed out that 4m isn't really 4m.
I presume this was based on Linden Labs recent release of 'key metrics'. However, this is just shoddy journalism. Anyone with even a passing interest in Second Life and what it means for marketing will be aware that this is just not true.I refer you to Clay Shirky's widely referenced post on the subject. Or this follow up post. Or let's face it, the basic concept of "fact checking" which surely Claire or her editor, Craig Smith, should have learnt in the first year of their journalism courses.Don't get me wrong, Second Life is interesting (in fact I used the Pontiac and Mazda examples yesterday in a presentation to Peugeot), but it really isn't worthy of the hype and bandwagon jumping that was happening towards the end of last year, let alone Marketing's ridiculous act of closing of the stable doors once the horse has already bolted...
I presume this was based on Linden Labs recent release of 'key metrics'. However, this is just shoddy journalism. Anyone with even a passing interest in Second Life and what it means for marketing will be aware that this is just not true.
I refer you to Clay Shirky's widely referenced post on the subject. Or this follow up post. Or let's face it, the basic concept of "fact checking" which surely Claire or her editor, Craig Smith, should have learnt in the first year of their journalism courses.
Don't get me wrong, Second Life is interesting (in fact I used the Pontiac and Mazda examples yesterday in a presentation to Peugeot), but it really isn't worthy of the hype and bandwagon jumping that was happening towards the end of last year, let alone Marketing's ridiculous act of closing of the stable doors once the horse has already bolted...
Gordon Macmillan
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