Coke in Second Life: Inspires Thoughts on How Companies Market In SL

Coke announced and launched their official Second Life presence, Virtual Thirst, with a low-key press event in SL last Monday. Low-key is part of the strategy; as is the hope that Coke’s initiative will spread virally within and outside SL, according to Coke’s agency, crayon.

It inspired me to share some thoughts about marketing success in SL through the filter of some of the recent SL market research.  Some of these general remarks here were also made over the weekend in SL during a presentation I made at the ITE Expo.

There was a question posed at Coke’s press event about how closely the “mean” demographic of SL (32-year old female) dovetails with Coke’s target market.

Michael Donnelly, Director Global Interactive Marketing for Coke admitted teens is Coke’s market “sweet spot,” but that they are also a “ubiquitous” brand so all consumers are important to Coke.  C.C. Chapman of crayon quickly punted the question to the Second Life web site where the demographic information and SL statistics Linden Lab collects are available.  C.C. did not want to offer an “interpretation of demographics,” probably based on the well-publicized debate about the meaning of LL’s numbers.

This puzzles me since there is credible demographic and behavioral data available to marketers that doesn’t require interpretation of LL statistics. There are at least three professional market research companies actively doing research in SL, gathering both detailed resident demographic information and credible in-world market data.  One company, First Opinions Panel offers its growing research panel demographic data available free on their web site.

Besides this better demographic information, researchers are also releasing some insightful studies on resident attitudes towards brands that can help companies make informed decisions about their SL initiatives, strategies and audiences.   

Some early and loud backlash caused many brands to tread so lightly in promoting their SL presence it borders on "sleuth marketing."  Well, the research suggests that following such a strategy may wind up impeding the success of an SL brand presence. 

Almost all the emerging market research shows that brands are welcome in SL - or at least not unwelcome.  It suggests brands are however,  doing a very poor job of employing an SL communications strategy to make their presences known and/or connecting with SL audiences (empty sims is different topic for another post).

A Reperes study about resident experience with brands in SL is particularly striking along these lines - and it supports the earlier Market Truths' research about unaided brand awareness of RL brands versus SL business.  In the Reperes study 44% of respondents said they have visited a RL brand sim, and 42% said they would if they had the opportunity. 

Also, 37% said they have talked about a RL brand in SL to a friend, and an equal number said they would if they had the opportunity. 

Opportunity in SL is just a teleport away, so there is no real barrier to opportunity - except awareness, choice and appeal. 

Word of mouth and RL media are the two most important information paths for SL.  The SL search function is about equal to WOM in effectiveness - each reporting about 30% penetration, and blogs are next, at roughly 20%.  Yet, many brand presences cannot be found via SL search, they are not actively engaging in blogger outreach, and not creating word-of-mouth-generating activities.  There are a number of dedicated SL media outlets that are also highly under-utilized.   As is any integration with RL marketing efforts.

Metrics is the holy grail of measuring a successful marketing initiative.  Very few brands are integrating their SL presence with any RL marketing channels, such as a blog, a web site or a RL call to action.   Because SL metrics are very immature, integration with RL channels is vital.  Until SL metrics mature, that is the only hope for any real measure of success.

Most companies are hoping only, as Coke articulated, "to land well" in SL.  That humble goal dismisses the opportunity to measure successful SL initiatives and diminishes the probability that brands will receive ROI and therefore have sound business reasons to stay on in SL.

April 23, 2007

Comments

[C.C.]

Punting? Hmm....not sure if that is what I did or not, but I certainly did not want to go down the rabbit hole of analyzing numbers and such in SL during this event. That is for sure.

I get asked this question a lot when I present on Second Life and what I try to stress is that no matter what some people say this is not about the numbers.

Second Life is not a mass market of users YET. Will it be? Hard to know for sure, but I can tell you that it is an ever growing group of alpha-adopters and creative types who are looking for something new and that is why Second Life excites me.

[Maureen]

Not about the numbers? Good luck running a marketing company based on that revenue model! Crayon is a scam. There are nearly 50 other developers in-world that can do the same campaigns while providing a successful measurement of results. Ride it out while you can CC! Your 15 minutes are nearly up.

[C.C.]

To each their own, but I personally and professional stand behind the thought that new media is NOT all about the numbers.

Yes, we certainly have to measure success on every campaign done, but for each initiative how that is measured is different. When talking about SL based campaigns if someone only wants to base success on the numbers of avatars we hit then that is not a project I am interested in. Same goes for podcasting where I always ask the question of if they'd rather take the old fashion way of hitting as many people as possible who might have no interest in your product/service (think of putting an ad on television) or would you rather hit a dedicated audience that you know is the right one for you but may have hugely smaller numbers then the shotgun approach?

Campaigns I like working on are ones that are interested in making a connection with the user. This isn't about CPM and such. Some campaigns are based around those and yes those can be important.

All I'm saying is that if all a company cares about is the numbers they will hit in a Second Life campaign then they are going about it all wrong in my mind. Second Life (and new media across the board) is about connections, conversations and people. That is a lot more then just a bunch of numbers.

[Linda]

C.C., thanks for your comments. I too am exicted about the potential of virtual worlds.

We are on the same page in that Sl is not a mass medium. It is niche marketing, the way almost all "social media" is. And, I am the first to say SL is an experiment for nearly everyone who comes into a VW at this early stage. But I don't think we should operate on the assumption there is no way to measure - I think we need to look for ways - and integration is one - in order for the staying power to emerge.

[C.C.]

Linda said, "I think we need to look for ways - and integration is one - in order for the staying power to emerge"

I agree fully.