I've mentioned before that I think there's a lot of ill thought out brand presence in Second Life, and PR/Tech blogger Steve rubel would seem to agree. In fact a recent study found that Second Life residents are largely disapponted in corporate blundering in Linden Lab's virtual world. That being said, there's a great deal of opportunity for thoughtful, creative engagement in the Metaverse. Brands that take the time to do their homework, and can create brand experiences and brand extension rather than replicas of what they do in real life and harness the power of their existing brand advocates, enthusiasts and entrepreneurial customers have the potential to go far.
Nic Mitham, who's Avatar is Nic Whizenhunt if you want to contact him inworld, recently created a luxury brands case study which you can request a copy of. In it he gives an overview of the opportunities available, and the history of brands in Second Life. He points out a number of paths brands might take to reach the Second Life population (over 5M registered users now).
- Product launches
- Product placement
- Competitions
- Sponsorship
- Virtual retail
You can find more detail on each in the report. For now I want to draw your attention to a much bigger opportunity mentioned in the study.
Many brands aleady exist in Second Life, created by passionate brand enthusiasts and opportunistic, industrious virtual entrepreneurs. Residents create, and sell replicas of real life brands continuously, and this devotion and passion should be harnessed, envouraged and facilitated. Call off the legal department, it'd be like trying to kill peer to peer technology, you squash one, a dozen more spawn to fill the void. This is where smart brands should be looking to enter the virtual world. Not creating lame stuff like this, but working with residents that are already enthusiastic about their brand and helping those residents to create wonderful, challenging opportunities to spread the world.
Customer evengelism is alive and well inside of Second Life, and it's up to brands to work with it to everyone's benefit. That's the real opportunity.