A Second Life for Your Ad Campaigns - Reaching Your Audience
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In the few years of Second Life’s existence, it has attracted one million residents. Of these, it is estimated that about half are not from the U.S. While you don’t have to be rich to be in Second Life, the mere fact that it’s a virtual online world implies a few things about its residents: a certain minimum level of affluence and leisure time, access to a computer and a desire to use it for fun (therefore a certain level of technological savvy), and a real comfort with online interactions. These points tend to imply a certain mindset: an openness to new ideas, a willingness to experiment, curiosity, creativity, maybe even a desire for “thrills” in a “safe” environment (the media has, after all, made much of the more salacious opportunities in Second Life).
Please note that these are educated guesses; I don’t doubt for a second that you could go to a marketing firm in Second Life to get a much better idea of the virtual world’s demographics. Yes, there are marketing firms in Second Life – even clueless marketing firms. A company named Crayon launched there recently, claiming to be “the first agency to launch themselves in Second Life,” thus alienating many Second Life residents and business owners. If you want to avoid generating the kind of ill will they did, you will need to spend some time studying the landscape.
You could do worse than to follow the CDC’s example. John Anderton, employed with the CDC, first learned about Second Life when exploring other ways to reach people with the CDC’s messages. He created an avatar with a meaningful name – Hygeia Philo. The first name is the Greek muse of health, while Philo means “lover of,” so she is literally a “lover of health” which is appropriate for an in-world spokesperson for the CDC. He’s quite honest when approached in Second Life about who he really is and what he does, freely granting interviews to the press.
Birthdays are significant, so Anderton waited until July 13 before formally launching Hygeia into Second Life, since that was also the sixtieth birthday of the CDC. Indeed, here’s a point he makes that is worth keeping in mind for companies who use avatars in Second Life: “I don’t see Hygeia Philo as an alternate John Anderton, rather I see her more as the face of the Agency that I am working with to disseminate health information.”
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