Not Getting It
I love it when friends forward me posts like this one. It may not be a duck, but it’s certainly not getting it either. I’m sick of reading crap like this.
Every day I have discussions with people about “what is Second Life.” It’s not an easy conversation. I don’t think it was meant to be. Remember back in 1996 trying to explain to people what the web was? I remember tons of conversations with people as I showed them a web browser and they shook their heads going “this will never catch on. There is no point.”
Listen up all the doubters who shun all things new and unknown. You are the same people who say Podcasting is a fad. That Blogging will never catch on. That Second Life is pointless.
If that is truly what you believe then keep on believing so. It’ll mean more success for the people who get it. The people who realize that Second Life is NOT about marketing. Bingo! It’s about a community of people doing their own thing. It’s a big old gathering in a virtual space where professors are teaching classes, musicians are building followings, organizations are raising funds to find a cure for cancer and a whole bunch of people are pixel bumping. (that’s something I still don’t get the appeal of *grin*)
As with any place in the world that people gather there is an opportunity to market to them. That’s marketing 101 for anyone who cares to think about it for a minute. The problem is that it’s not the same as the markets that people are use to. It’s not a magazine so print ads don’t work. It’s not radio (thankfully) so the 30 second spot is dead and won’t fly here. But, guess what, avatars do fly….perhaps there is something there? Think about it.
I love reading articles like this because it reminds me that there are so many people locked inside their boxes while I’m out crushing mine and trying to think of new ways to approach and succeed in this new space.
Is Second Life the golden goose for marketers? Is it the eagle that is going to swoop down and carry us all up to higher success rates? Beats the hell out of me. But, your right, it’s not a duck.
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Comments(10)
Not a duck, but it could be a turkey! I’ve been aware of Second Life for a long time and freely admit I still don’t get it though I find the discussion fascinating when it is well argued. Unlike you, some people are unwilling to accept that there are two sides to the argument, though must take issue with you on two points.
Firstly, even if podcasting isn’t a fad and blogging does catch on, it doesn’t follow that Second Life is therefore not pointless. More seriously, marketing 101 should not tell you that where people gather you can market to them, that’s old and discredited and the source of my personal problem of seeing Second Life as a marketer’s bonanza. It can only be a bonanza if the people in Second Life want to be marketed to and my intutiion is that they go there to escape just that sort of real world intrusion. Time will tell if I am right. In the meantime, here’s a related piece from yesterday’s Sunday Times which is indicative of the growing noise around the subject even if it’s tone is somewhat sceptical.
http://technology.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,19509-2267041.html
You go, dude! Don’t just think outside the box. Bust out of it like the Kool-Aid man and then burn it to the ground! (all of which you can do in SL *shameless plug*)
I really can’t get my head around people who assume they understand everything inside and out well enough to dismiss something that other people find so interesting and important. Not only do I find it a bit silly, I find it insulting. Maybe, just maybe, 300k people might know what they’re doing! What a concept!
Let’s pretend for a minute. Let’s pretend that SL is a fad and won’t be going anywhere. Let’s pretend that marketers aren’t going to get any benefit in SL from marketing to avatars.
Ok, now let’s look at the RL value of a presence in SL.
– if you’ve read a blog in the last 2 weeks, you know that Lego is doing some stuff in SL.
– if you’ve read a blog in the last month, you know that American Apparel has a store in SL.
– this afternoon the president of our agency is being interviewed by the Business Journal about our virtual agency.
so, although I think that working in SL does great things to build brands to avatars in SL, it also serves to provide some RL branding.
so will SL be the next big thing? who knows. but something like it probably will be. let’s face it, after visiting SL, surfing the Web for fun isn’t as fun as flying around an island.
“Crap”? Ouch, harsh. Did you apply your topical cream first as recommended? =)
SL has value, I don’t argue that. However, there’s nothing that’s come out of it that hasn’t been done before within say, a year. Building a brand presence (ie store) in a game? Neopets has done it. Having meetings/conferences/lessons in games? MMORPGs have done it. Promoting music/book/whatnot? Do I need to list the example on this one? I guess no one has done it with the ability to fly around an island, I’ll have to chew on that one.
SL participants feel like futurists but I’ve been an MMO gamer for over a decade and I can tell you that nothing there is new. Find me something truly out of the box and maybe I’ll buy it. Until then, it’s all an esoteric exercise that looks great conceptually and catches PR like flies to crap. (had to take a jab)
Speaking of “crap”, thanks for the visit. It appears our interests are similar, maybe one day we’ll agree on a topic. =)
Jab noted.
I agree that many of the things happening in SL have been done before in similar fashions elsewhere, but I don’t think it’s ever been done in a system with a built in currency system that allows cashing out and a very open environment that allows people to make it what they want. Those two pieces together I have not seen anywhere else.
And you are correct that we seem to have similar interests. Thats why I subscribed to your blog this morning after reading the post.
Comment from American Apparel:
You know why we have that SL store? Because it’s fun. Someone proposed it, it was cheap, and we thought, Why not? Now my avatar, Weronika Skronski, has made friends with a virtual chicken who talks. And when she took off her virtual panties and sat down, this Weronika discovered that that the standard issue avatars lack pubic hair and had an idea for a new American Apparel product…. A surpise. Virtual exclusive, coming soon to the Lerappa American Apparel.
[...] One of my fellow SL residents Cleon Goff (CC Chatman, podcaster and blogger at Managing the Gray) wrote a blog post arguing the opposite. [...]
Dammit, I didn’t anticipate the fun answer! C’mon, someone in AA had to have done the numbers in their head and figured it came up positive. No one has fun anymore! It’s not allowed! My marketing books say so.
Ok, fine, I know when I’m beat. I can’t argue against fun. But hey, everyone has a different definition of fun; for me, it’s shopping at Banana Republic. =P
[...] Plenty of good discussions lately, including one on C.C. Chapman’s Managing the Gray podcast blog, about whether Second Life marketers should be spending some of their time in Second Life. [...]
[...] Finally for today, a number of commentators are talking around the ‘whether it’s important’ question. Robert Fuller has his take the business model at play – although I suspect he forgot to read the fine print on IP rights in Second Life. CC Chapman has varying commentary on Second Life and this post comments on a ‘non-believers’ post.. Im not going to ‘buy into’ this debate until I had a closer look… [...]