Colgate Smile Power Un-Fixed

Colgate launched the Second Life version of their Smile Power campaign last Friday.  For seven days and encompassing 500 avatar-hours, brightly Colgate T-attired BuzzAgents will be roaming Second Life handing out smile animations and a list of ten places in SL that will make you smile. Should they not encounter a Colgate gifter-agent, avatars can snare these items at the Smile Center vending machines on This Second Island.  This Second Marketing, the agency behind the promotion, has hired people to interact with island visitors.

The theme behind the campaign:  sharing a Colgate smile.

The SL promotion is an element of Colgate's Smile Sweepstakes in which they are giving away $100 American Express gift cards each week for sharing smile photos on their campaign web page.  They've enabled photo sharing, slideshow sharing and photo tagging there.

Aleister Kronos who writes an excellent SL travelogue and critique was frothing a bit over his recent visit to the SL Colgate smile vending area and suggested Colgate damaged their brand and should rethink their SL presence.  I couldn’t disagree more.

Colgate takes the absolutely correct approach – they went un-fixed.

A couple of relevant notes:

• Second Life is a social network
• Social media is sharable
• Social media is un-fixed (distributed)
• The “avatar” within social media is the channel

Kronos’ comments points to an interesting social media conundrum:  “network” versus “place.”

In subsequent posts Aleister published his email exchange with Joni West, President of This Second Marketing as to the intention of the campaign.  She points out the tendency to focus on “place.”

"No matter how much we say it is about a live promotion, people tend to focus on the build because to date, that has been what marketing efforts in SL have consisted of."   

If we looked at this campaign through the Facebook lens, it would not look “out of place” -  it would look like this:  Colgate creates Smile Power widget.  Widget is added to the Applications list (a tiny “place” in FB).  People who find it fun/useful spread widget by distributing it via Facebook friends. Everyone is smiling. (BTW, Colgate Smile does have a Facebook group.)

Yet, as Aleister’s post illustrates, Colgate was judged on the “place” in SL – because SL has a unique “presence” characteristic that in our minds mirrors RL while Facebook doesn’t have that legacy. In some ways, FB is more virtual than SL.

Colgate's is definitely not the only "un-fixed" campaign in SL. Many more companies are using limited time or shared presence strategies.  Much has changed this year in the way brands are thinking about marketing efforts in SL.  They increasingly are beginning to see it functioning like the distributed social network it is – thanks to the frequent and vocal critiques of its residents.   

Colgate could have significantly improved the way it communicated its SL initiative, - and it could have easily oriented SL visitors by visibly tying in its web site - but its distributed approach is on target.

The avatar is the most valuable terrain online – 3D or 2D. But networks are also a “place,” and brands need to balance both channel and place in their strategies.

Colgate's SL smile vending machines are here.

December 26, 2007

Comments

[Lost]

I did visit the Colgate location and thought it was a disgrace. I was stunned that a international brand would allow such a ridiculous build. With all the great builders in SL why would anyone allow such a crude structure to go up. It gives marketing in SL a bad name. Yes, the vending machines look good but the build location was a joke.

[Aleister Kronos]

Hi. Glad you like Slambling, and yes, I probably was frothing a bit, and I am glad that Joni both contacted me and was happy to have the email posted.

I remain intrigued. Evian did a perfectly reasonable job of promoting their brand without (as far as I know) any location build in SL. I firmly believe that if you are providing a location, then the build needs to reflect well on your brand.

[Linda/Znetlady]

Hi, Aleister and Lost!

I don't disagree with you at all! As I said Colgate *could* have done a much better job in the way they communicated their presence all the way around.

Aleister, your post was a great example of how in SL "place" is more important than in other social media. But, I do believe the emphasis is on connecting people to each other.

Anyway you look at it - *everything* in SL communicates and strategies need to balance both elements.

Thanks so much for commenting here...and Aleiser, I think your blog is excellent and I'm there reading it often!

[Aleister Kronos]

:-)

I guess this is another step in the evolution of marketing in virtual worlds.

[Linda/Znetlady]

Ya - I think you've hit that one on the head! :-)

[Linda/Znetlady]

Ya - I think you've hit that one on the head! :-)

[Peter Haik]

I do appreciate the emphasis on it "not being about the place", as well as the value in the people campaign, but they should have chosen not to have a place rather than having such a poor build representing the brand.

[Drew Stein]

it only goes to show you, as we have long said the avatar is the star of marketing in SL, but as a brand you need to select your developer very carefully. There are many new companies out there in the VW market that are starting to grok the importance of avatars, but lack the fundamental skills needed to create a build that properly sets the tone for your campaign.