It's official, Second Life is dead as a Dodo. The virtual world which a lot of people hyped as the Holy Grail of online advertising as consumers increasingly adopted massively multiplayer online gaming, is rapidly going down the tubes.
Fascinated by Second Life's commercial potential, marketers, news publishers, even interactive ad shops bought the hype. And, if you wander through Linden Lab's virtual world, you can still see virtual replicas of Pontiac's cars, American Apparel stores, an NBA theme park or a Reuters news bureau. But, as Michael Donnelly, Coca-Cola's worldwide head of interactive marketing says, you can also find yourself feeling totally alone. On a recent trip through Second Life to explore branding opportunities, Donnelly noticed, "There was nobody else around."
But he spent money anyway, creating a "Virtual Thirst Pavilion" for Coke. Unfortunately, the vast majority of those "unique" marketing opportunities presented by Second Life have failed to meet the hype. Marketers moved into Second Life because it created something tangible for them to control, unlike user-generated content sites like MySpace, Facebook and YouTube.
They assumed Second Life would be a world where they could create marketing campaigns similar to those produced offline. Unfortunately, the numbers no longer support their initial enthusiasm: In June, there were 4 million Second Life avatars created. (Mostly with big knockers and huge John Henry's - But not on the same avatars, I hasten to add!) Of those, about 1 million had logged on in the last month. In all, about 100,000 Americans enter Second Life per week. To be honest with you, I always believed it was one of the world's dumbest ideas, and have said so repeatedly on my various blogs. So, perhaps now, marketers will come back to reality and get on with their First Life.
George Parker
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Member since: 03 Jun 2008
Last login: 17 Nov 2009
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