Business Communicators of Second Life®

MTV Avatar Marketing?

MTV is expanding its fans’ virtual “playgrounds” by enabling avatar widgets for three of its online and virtual properties; partnering with Oddcast and using its Voki platform for the widgets (example below).  MTV refers to its online environments as “thematic galleries” – an interesting concept in itself.

MTV hopes fans will use the customized, speaking avatars to interact with each other exchanging gossip and messages. Voki offers an impressive number of combinations of avatar features to allow for quite a bit of personalization – but the fun is adding the text-to-speech or synchronized recorded voice to deliver content via the avatar.  (Warning:If you are going to browse some recently created avatars some of the audio content is very un-PG.)

MTV of course also hopes fans will place the avatars on their other online spaces, such as social networks, blogs, or other virtual environments.  The availability of embed code is immediate upon creating your Voki avatar.

But way more importantly for MTV, is that they may be looking to these distributed avatars as an advertising channel.

Checking out the very-hard-to-find-until-you-create-your-MTV-avatar Voki terms of service, it appears you will be giving them the right to do just that.

I’ll not bore you with the TOS language (relevant portion posted below) but it basically says, we own you, your avatar, anything you record or create, and we can do anything we like with it – anywhere it is – without compensating you in any way if we do.

ClickZ reports that MTV banks on being able to eventually push messages directly to those distributed avatars.

It’s a little disturbing to think MTV may be planning to co-opt its fans by making it appear their avatar is endorsing something without their explicit permission nor endorsement.  This takes “word of mouth” to a new level, I suppose.

I think it is a great idea to think about concentrating on the avatar, since it is the only constant in a sea of social spaces – indeed I’ve been advocating the idea for quite a while now.  But I can’t say this particular kind of potential co-opting is a “best practice” I’d recommend jumping into.  I sincerely hope MTV treads into these waters very carefully. 

Social networks are just beginning to feel the restlessness of members, who are collectively coming to the realization that it is they who create the market value of the network.  It is just a matter of time before they will be exerting that power, and perhaps the expectation of reaping at least some of the benefit.

I see another, bigger Beacon potentially brewing.

Voki Terms of Service
…you agree that any materials, including but not limited to questions, comments, suggestions, ideas, discoveries, plans, notes, drawings, arts, original or creative materials or other information, provided by you in the form of email or submissions to Oddcast, or postings at this Web Site, are non-confidential and shall become the sole property of Oddcast to the fullest extent permitted by applicable law. Oddcast shall own exclusive rights and shall be entitled to the unrestricted use of these materials for any purpose, commercial or otherwise, without acknowledgment or additional compensation to you. In the event applicable law operates to prevent Oddcast from becoming the sole owner of any such property, then this provision shall be effective as granting to Oddcast (with unfettered rights of assignment) a perpetual, worldwide, paid-in-full, non-exclusive right (including any moral rights) and license to make, use, sell, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, communicate to the public, perform and display the content (in whole or in part) worldwide and/or to incorporate it in other works in any form, media, or technology now known or later developed, for the full term of any rights that may exist in any such material.

April 30, 2008

Real Voices in Virtual Business

Mike O'Hara started an an audio podcast series a few months ago, he calls Voices in Business: The Virtual Worlds BusinessCast.  He's a skilled and enthuastic interviewer, and more importantly,  he's building a library of the audio thoughts of early adopters of virtual worlds for business.

Mike was kind enough to interview me last week, and our conversation ranged from virtuals worlds as social media to our avatar selves.  If you are interested in listening to our conversation it is here. 

But browse around his site.  He's got a joint interview with two of my favorite metaverse evangelists, Roo Reyonds and Ian Huges of IBM; and a separate interview with Kevin Aires, Virtual Universe Community Leader at IBM.

Others include Nick Wilson, known for the Metanomics series in Second Life, and he has just launched an  intriguging "lower the barriers for business" project, Clever Zebra; Peter Dunkley of depo consulting; and Frank Campbell, Chief Business Officer of MindArk, and Karl Alberts, Vice President Product and Marketing at Paynova who are working with the Chinese Government creating the Cyber Recreation District, a project aimed at linking up the virtual and real worlds for e-commerce.

Go have a look.  Mike  does his homework before each interview, and as a listener that is most appreciated!

February 10, 2008

Industrial Designer Syd Mead Shares Near-Future View

"...the house will become a place where you are - even when you’re not there."    --Syd Mead

Syd Mead, award-winning visual futurist, industrial designer and artist treated us yesterday via National Public Radio to a rather fun and sometimes slightly disturbing peak into our near future.  Mead consults with companies helping them to design entertainment, environments and products based on his legenary future-vision.  He designed the scientific worlds of StarTrek, Bladerunner and Tron; the interior of King Fah’d’s private 747; and the 360-degree format Jules Verne time tour for EuroDisney, to name a few Mead projects.

Luckily you can listen to the full 7.5 minute segment at All Things Considered, but a couple of things are just too fun not to share here. 

Mead was asked about the future of transportation – enter mainstream holography:

Mr. MEAD: "The future of travel involves getting there either physically or by electronic means of duplication. And as we perfect the whole art of holography, you will find that a lot of human contact, face-to-face, will be accomplished by telemedia, duplicating the person, much like portrayed in “Star Wars” when Princess Leia appears on his little, tiny holographic figure. And it’s reality reduced and then recreated at destination, and it’s very valid."

Mead guesses mainstream holography is less than 15 years away, but says it has been proven through technical history that we “always estimate too conservatively.” 

I have to admit, it was this one that really caught my attention - a new service model?:

Mr. MEAD: "Bill Gates is housed up in Redmond. He is buying the rights to some of the world’s best known paintings. So you will rent the picture on your wide-screen or your wall-screen. You’ll rent “Pinkie” or “The Blue Boy” or a Degas or a Rubens. And you’ll rent that picture on your wall on your screen for a certain length of time, just like cable TV."

Mead mentions fabrics that will instantly change colors and patterns, and tells us that Mercedes is working on automobile colors that will change on demand through shifts in light refraction.

It all sounds just a little like my current Second Life.

Hear the All Things Considered segment here.

You can purchase the transcript here.

January 2, 2008

Virtual/RealWorld Custom Manufacturing Project: Double Happiness Jeans

It took me some digging to put all the pieces together, but this is just too fascinating not to have made the effort. 

Without a doubt Second Life is helping companies innovate products and processes - even though 2007 mainstream media was seemingly all about SL marketing efforts.  Often such innovation is being done inside organizations that are quietly tapping the collaborative, cost-saving virtuality of it all.    But Double Happiness Jeans is a public and shining example of the innovation potential of Second Life.  This is product innovation, design innovation, process innovation, business model innovation - and perhaps much more lying just below the surface.

Double Happiness Jeans are real world custom-made jeans that are "manufactured" virtually – and then delivered to your local Kinkos or Double Happiness Jeans express store location. The jeans are the product of the  Invisible Threads, project that explores telematic manufacturing through Second Life. 

The project is virtually replicating a RL assembly-line manufacturing facility, with ten manufacturing stations each correlating to a specification of the custom jean order.  The physical “just in time” inventory system allows customers to place an order for one of several styles of jeans with a live factory representative at a terminal.   The process then enters Second Life. 

Customers can watch their jeans being created in real time in the virtual factory via projection screens.  At the end of the manufacturing process the jeans are output on Tyvek material to a large-format printer in physical space.  With simple assembly the jeans are ready to wear. The manufacturing process takes about 20 minutes. 

Double Happiness Jeans is employing an “indentured servitude” model for its SL workers.  Workers will be given land (and Lindens) in exchange for their factory service over three months’ time, emphasizing the relationship of the exchange of real world dollars for virtual assets. 

From the Invisible Threads web page:

"At the start of each workday, workers will need to clock-in. The worker will then be assigned to a specific department and workstation and given a specialized task to perform. Just as in a real life factory, workers will be monitored by a department supervisor and be held accountable for their speed and efficiency and any production errors. The erratic flow of supply and demand and extenuating circumstances such as equipment failures and irrational dispositions may result in docked pay, layoffs and overtime."

Project collaborators and Double Happiness Jeans co-owners, Dr. Stephanie Rothenberg and Jeffrey Crouse of Eyebeam also hope to shed light on the politics of outsourced labor and the role of “play” in cultural production, according to Adam Elenbass over at Reality Sandwich.

The project will have a special debut at the Sundance Film Festival in the New Frontier Theater on Main Street in Park City, Utah January 17 – 27.  On-site sales staff in Park City will help you customize your jeans, or you may order your jeans on the web site through February 2008.

Double Happiness is currently hiring and training SL factory workers.  Check out their promotional video.

Eyebeam is supporting the project on their Second Life Island, and the profits from the project will be used to maintain the project and pay factory workers.

Double Happiness Jeans is located in SL here: secondlife://Eyebeam%20Island/204/43/27.

Questions come to mind: 

How might this disrupt the clothing manufacturing industry?

How might this open up unseen revenue opportunities for Kinkos?

What new businesses might develop to “receive” in the physical world that which was “manufactured” in virtual space?

Might this potentially impact equipment manufacturers in the future?

Edward Castronova’s book Exodus into the Virtual World dicusses the possible impacts on the economy when segments of the population are spending time and energy producing in virtual economies rather than real ones.  How might such virtual telematic workers impact economies, labor, laws, society?

Are you at least considering how practical virtuality might impact your business?

Is SL really just some cartoon interface?

December 31, 2007

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

Roo Reynolds' Enterprise 3D Presentation

IBM Metaverse Evangelist, Roo Reyonlds, has posted his excellent presentation, Enterprise 3D: Living and Working in Virtual Worlds, delivered this week at Online Information 2007 in London.

Roo discusses the internal virtual world IBM is building for its eventual use by 300,000 employees in the context of the importance of social networking in the enterprise.

Favorite concept:  WoW (and virtual worlds) is the new golf, with structured rules, funny clothes, and almost entirely for socializing and conducting and brokering business.

His remarks harken back to my previous post... here is a snapshot of Roo’s desktop (from his presentation) that beautifully illustrates my point about distributed virtuality: 

Case in point:  The "avatar" is the most valuable asset in the cosmos.

December 8, 2007

Gartner Sees Virtual Worlds As A Growing Shopping Experience

Yesterday Gartner Finland released their predictions to retailers about emerging shopping habits and venues.  These are actually not so much predictions as a “heads-up display” of what is already happening.

By 2010, says Gartner, 20% of global Tier 1 retailers will have some kind of marketing presence in virtual worlds and online games.  This isn’t surprising considering Gartner’s 2007 Emerging Trends report from their April Symposium predicted 80% of active Internet users and Fortune 500 enterprises will have virtual world presences by 2011.  And, with virtual worlds on track with Moore’s law of doubling every 24 months, it is no big stretch of the imagination that retailers are riding the wave.

Networks are a Channel and a Place

No matter what lens you look through, 2007 saw an enormous embrace by organizations of “virtuality,” from social networks to Second Life.  The various different types of virtuality (2D and 3D) which organizations are trying to get their heads around are simply mashing up into an information and social space.  Soon we won’t be making distinctions among the technologies used to facilitate these spaces. 

And shopping certainly isn’t waiting around.

Brookstone launched their Kinset store for this year's holiday shopping season.

Social shopping networks like Kaboodle, ThisNext and Stylehive were built as ‘visual’ social sites, socially bookmarking through images rather than text.  Stylehive is now offering “Nectar Hives” allowing  retailers to "snap in" social shopping communities around their brands.

H&M set up shop in SimCity (video link), and have launched their initiative at My Virtual Model, also distributing it to Facebook.

Of course, Sears and Circuit City are experimenting with virtual-to-real retail via IBM in Second Life; and in-game advertising and product placement is old news.

Gartner encourages retailers to expand their definition of customer touchpoints to online games and virtual worlds – and cites the mobile shopping web as a big growth opportunity, as well.

The important point in all this is this:   it is not about the virtual “place.”  Like everything else today, the shopping opportunity lies with the avatar. 

See Gartner’s press release here.

See Kinset’s 3D shoppping videos here.

December 8, 2007

Science Friday: Ahhh…An Intelligent Second Life Media Discussion

Maybe it is the flow of Ira Flatow’s voice, or maybe I’m conditioned to expect the exceptional from his radio show, Science Friday.   Either way, it was just refreshing to sit back and listen to the calm and intelligent conversation about Second Life and virtual worlds that Ira gave us yesterday on NPR’s Science Friday show. 

Flatow, in the avatar persona of Ira Flately was taking questions in Second Life live yesterday afternoon during the taping of the show.  I was listening on delayed radio broadcast last night, but the Science School sim where the action was taking place in world was reportedly maxed out during the taping,

Ira, with his characteristic curiosity, focused on the sociology and psychology of human behavior in virtual worlds as well as the very real research potential of Second Life.  He brought on Dmitri Williams (USC), Sherry Turkle (MIT), Eric Lofgren (University North Carolina), and Cory Ondrejka (Linden Lab) to weigh in on various aspects of human behavior in virtual spaces. 

Dmitri, Assistant professor at the USC Annenberg School for Communication, honed in on an oft-overlooked aspect about extrapolating (or predicting) real life behaviors from virtual world behaviors.  Incentives and risks in virtual spaces are often quite different than they are in real life.  Rules, morality, laws, cultural imperatives may have no connection in a particular virtual space to the person’s real world constraints.   Mapping incentives to those in real world environments – as well as environmental control – are key to making any kind of viable rl/vl behavioral research connection.

Turkle, Director of the MIT Initiative on Technology and Self Program and well known for her research on virtual identity, is particularly focused in this discussion on the bridges between real world and virtual world personas and behaviors.  I have to say I found a good deal of dissonance in her continual distinction between the virtual and the real.  Although she said she prefers to refer to rl as  “rest of life,” and said she doesn’t like to make a distinction – she went on throughout the discussion to underscore “real” versus “virtual.”  She mentioned she is particularly concerned about the impact of virtuosity on the political realm: that people put in real work to create virtual communities and yet don’t vote because they feel their virtual politicking is more potent.  Turkle would like to see them move these organizational skills into the “real” political realm.

The dissonance for me is that she is surprisingly missing a key point in her remarks - we are increasingly melding our real presence into the virtual (okay the other way around too). 

Virtual (in all its forms) facilitates our expanding global knowledge and presences and the imperative to do so is only broadening. 

It seems to me we have virtual “presences” that we consider part of our “real” life – telephone, email, video conferencing, ecommerce, PayPal, eBay, WebEx, IM, text messaging, logins to our various networks.  I’m sure your list goes on.   The march is on toward taking our “virtuosity” as much for granted as we do the telephone.  Yes, eventually, even the rl politicking Turkle is particularly concerned about will be played out in virtual spaces as seamless adjuncts to the real.  Candidates are certainly using the virtual to expand their campaign organizations!

Dmitri pointed to a tangentially related thought – that scope and scale are quite different in virtuosity.  What may be small(er) group dynamics of community and society in real space suddenly becomes the potential coordination of large(r), more diverse groups.  Real skills come into play – and are learned - "there."

Perhaps we need to consider that those who feel politically (or otherwise) potent in virtual spaces just possibly, partially may be a function that they may be more rl/vl “melded” than others.  I call it “sociology, not technology” in many of my presentations.  (Yes, virtuosity can also be an escape.  Okay, that is a huge topic for another post…. just consider my point for now.)

We won’t meld our virtual and real presences linearly or predictably. History takes jumps.  Rudimentary case in point – mobile phones suddenly brought many parts of the world voice connectivity.  They didn’t move through a “linear” progression of wired lines. 

Back to Science Friday – and a final important point.  There is a wide range of interpretation about the effects and/or benefits of virtuosity.  Dmitri (again) pointed out that virtual must displace some real (or what we accept as “real”). The individual isn’t scalable, after all. 

His research shows that “virtual” activities mean, for example, watching less television, but that certain news gathering behaviors are not displaced (radio, newspaper-reading….hmm would that be online (virtual) newspapers - isn't that real??).  Virtual spaces also tend to be existing-relationship maintenance tools, but that relationships with casual friends may change – rl casual friends may be displaced with friends met in virtual places.  The important question to ask: is what we displace better or worse?  Not a simple “good” or “bad” answer to that.

Listen to the show at NPR here. Lots of other topics were discussed besides those I focused on here.  Come back and tell us your thoughts!

Science Friday show notes here.

Science Friday– Making Science Radioactive.

Photo Credit:  Science Friday


September 1, 2007

Second Life Entertainment Study Discussion Panel

We've lined up a panel discussion to delve into the recently released study, Second Life Entertainment Market.  We've aimed at getting expertise from several sectors in Second Life to contribute to the discussion and we invite you to come and get involved in the conversation. 

I will be moderating the panel and Mary Ellen Gordon of Market Truths will be among the panelists.  She will give us a briefing on the report and provide some additional insights.

The panel discussion will be held on Friday, July 27th at 9:00 a.m. SLT.

Panelists include:
Mary Ellen Gordon/Pebbles Hannya, President of Market Truths
Troy McLuhan, Director, SL International Spaceflight Museum
Link Pippen, Galveston Island
Giff Constable/Foresti Svarog, Electric Sheep Company
Ian Teepoot, Infinite Vision Media
Gary Goldhammer/G24khamr Goodfellow, Edelman Interactive Services
Moderator:  Linda Zimmer/Znetlady Isbell

We will be holding the discussion on the Depo Business Hub, at Market Truths 50/185/34.

Join the discussion and bring your questions for the panel!

July 23, 2007

Engagement Redemption

A couple of weeks ago I Twittered my Virtual Strategy Quip of the Day as:

Engagement is a means to an end - it is the touchpoint. Use Engagement but get to Involvement.

I’ve gotten several emails asking just what I meant by that.

Although  I publicly bashed “engagement” as the hottest, emptiest term in marketing communications today – engagement is actually a vital element in today’s marketing equation.  But (as I noted in a response to Joel Greenberg’s post on reach and frequency) engagement is a means to an end.  It is a tactic – not a strategy.  Engagement needs a third dimension that I described in that post as “Depth.”

My  working illustration here is far from perfect, but here is where I see engagement fitting into today’s marketing and communications.

As marketers, I think we’ve got Awareness down pretty well.  And unfortunatly, we still center most of our strategies there.

Engagement is how we move people from Awareness to Involvement. It is the method we use to open the door, invite people in, start a conversation, touch a nerve.

But, Involvement is personal relevance – and the more personal connections created, the more the involvement.  Involvement has varying levels (category, product, ego) and it encompasses key qualitative concepts like motivation, intensity, and attitude.  Getting to involvement means the customer has accepted the invitation, walked through the door, given the permission, taken up the conversation – but most importantly joined us in building that all-important third dimension:  Depth (of relationship).

Our strategies need to be aimed toward Depth.

July 15, 2007

Virtual World Strategy Quip of the Day

Speaking of Twitter, you may have noticed a new little area on the sidebar of this blog, VW Quip of the Day. It posts there from my Twitter page.  It is my daily virtual world thought in 140 characters or less.   

I use it as a bit of a challenge to myself to see if I can boil down salient concepts about marketing in virtual space that normally run around in my head within Twitter's limitation.  You know, get to the essence of virtual space strategies.   I also am including other voices that grab me, maybe a quote or a re-ordered thought I see along the way.

Join in!

 

July 6. 2007

Crowne Plaza Opens Place to Meet in Second Life

At the moment of rez, I was greeted by avatar, MaggieBrowning and was promptly escorted into the Theater Room and asked to sit on the left. “We’ll be starting in just a moment,” MaggieBrowning informed me.  I walked down the center aisle and sat in a front row seat.  The atmosphere was hushed and a little anticipatory.  The chairs were roomy and inviting and sitting on the stage in front of me were the five panelists facing the podium, clearly waiting to start the program.

Steve McGookin of Forbes Magazine soon took control of the podium as moderator of the program, “Leading Brands Summit on the Impact of Emerging Media.”  and with his opening words about the impact of emerging media  InterContinental Hotels Group launched The Place to Meet, their Second Life initiative and island.

The Leading Brands Summit held last Friday morning was excellent.  The assembled panel responded thoughtfully to some smart questions.  The panelists were the attraction and the topic delivered nicely:

• Henry Jenkins, Head of the Comparative Media Studies Department, MIT
• Del Ross, Vice President, Distribution Marketing, InterContinental Hotels Group
• Cory Van Arsdale, General Manager, Microsoft Online Services, New Business Integration
• Andrew Markowitz, Director, Digital Marketing & Media, Kraft Foods
• Michael Donnelly, Director Worldwide Interactive Marketing, The Coca-Cola Company

I have to say I think this is one of the smartest launches in Second Life to date.  But then I am also smack inside their target market.

To say the launch was quiet is beyond an understatement.  The event was invitation only, professional and dignified. But, more importantly, the whole thing just felt so right for ICH’s Crowne Plaza brand.

Del Ross, Vice President, Distribution Marketing for ICH managed to work in the fact that this event was indeed their SL launch, explaining that meeting offerings were a large part of what Crowne Plaza provides their RL customers (“the place to meet” is after all the brand’s tag line).  Thus, offering similar services seemed logical for them in SL.

As someone who holds regular business group meetings in SL, I have to admit it is a welcome service – and an approach that feels comfortable since it closely mirrors corporate meeting spaces in RL.  While there are many great meeting places available in SL, the approach here will feel in sync to corporate meeting planners.

Much of the island seems to be restricted to those on the access list.  I suspect this is to restrict access to only people who are there for meetings and which also ensures corporate meetings the security they need.  You can teleport to a small section of the island, however, and get a view of the facilities and grounds. 

The Theater Room where we gathered for the Emerging Media Summit event is only one of three areas specifically designed for professional meetings.  There is also the Executive Conference Room for small groups and the Lounge Room meant for social or casual meetings. The spaces accommodate groups of about 10, 20, or 30.  They each offer streaming video and audio capability and image (slide) projection.  And, according to Ross, staff is on hand in SL to assist you with meetings. I like the idea of a dedicated greeter being available and I hope that is part of the meeting space package.

But I think the best part is the SL Place To Meet website.  It is fully integrated into the Crowne Plaza RL website.  You can check availability of each of the Crowne Plaza SL meeting spaces there and reserve your time slot.    You will have to register on their website, but in doing so you get a dedicated page that lists your SL space reservations with dates and times.

Del Ross indicated the SL meeting space is being offered free of charge.

I’ll comment on some of the insights from the Emerging Media Summit discussion in a seperate post.  But I will say the topic of IHC's SL launch was not really even subtext to this launch event.  The panel discussion was focused on the advertised topic and I for one applaud IHC for providing an interesting event which allowed me to experience Place To Meet.

For those interested the island was developed by SpunLogic.

You can check out the Crowne Plaza SL website here.

Visit Place to Meet here.

Read the press release, see more photos, and get additional background information at the Crowne Plaza SL media site here.

July 1, 2007

S.Pellegrino Celebrates Opening of its Cafe Society in Second Life

If you've ever wanted to be part of the high-brow Italian art and club scene, come join in on Sanpellegrino's launch pool party in Second Life Tuesday, June 26 at 1:00 p.m. SLT (9:00 p.m. GMT).  Residents "who really know how to 'live in Italian'" are invited.  I visited the island last evening, Virtual Italian Parks, and I must say there is definitely a vibe going on - Italian, high-class, and oh so chic. 

During the event Sanpellegrino will also launch the Second Life Map of Stars, a free in-world navigation device to the top bars in Second Life.

Sanpellegrino is opening the Cafe Society with a vernissage to promote their two new sparkling adult beverages, as well as their sponsorship of the RL annual Cafe Society photographic competition. The recent RL event captured 35 of Melbourne, Australia's most exclusive cafes, photographed by students of the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology.  The top 12 images appear in the Cafe Society's annual calendar - and they will be featured in SL during Tuesday's vernissage event.

I chatted with avatar, and the project's manager, Betta Munro of Accenture, Italy who brought Sanpellegrino into Second Life.  Betta told me that Second Life is part of Accenture's marketing services offerings. Accenture corporate officially moved into SL last month with a tradeshow on the island, and appropriately sits next to one of my favorite SL places, Parioli.

But back to Sanpellegrino... . The Cafe Society event is the first in a series for S.Pellegrino that aims to promote new talents in design.   In my opinion, the brand - and the purpose of their SL initiative - is impeccably represented in their sim.  Even without partying avatars, and with almost no signage, it captures the brand experience.

The Sanpellegrino presence accomplishes what Playboy's should and does not - "an exclusive club, a chosen few" experience. This is a brand that knows who it is.

What is particularly interesting, is that while this space clearly invites in SL residents, it is a space intended to be used by Sanpellegrino for Sanpellegrino purposes and unapologetically doesn't try to be an SL resident destination.  A strategy; well-executed.

The Cafe Society exhibition will be open throughout the summer.  Visitors will get swag too - SL Murano glasses and some "sparkling" gadgets.

Learn more about S.Pellegrino's Cafe Society and their Design Arts & Lifestyle programs here. 

Visit Sanpellegrino SL, (and work the bar) here:  Virtual Italian Parks 17, 198, 43

June 23, 2007

SLBC Meeting Transcript: The Weather Channel

A big thank you goes out to The Weather Channels' Lawrence Pede, Sr. Manager, Corporate Development, for meeting with us and sharing his perspective on their Second Life presence and initiative.

We met at the welcome center, flew over to the beach to see the surfing area, then up the mountain to see the extreme skiing area.  Although the trip up the mountain was a bit dicey, we all eventually managed to re-group there for the balance of our discussion.  Below is the transcript of the entire meeting - there was lots of Q&A along the way. 

Welcome & Weather Channel Introduction
[12:06]  You: Everyone, this is Weather Merlin, aka Lawrence Pede of the Weather Channel Companies. Thank you so much for hosting us today!
[12:06]  Weather Merlin: My pleasure. thanks for coming!
[12:07]  You: Is it okay with everyone if I record the chat and post? any objections or want to be edited out?
[12:07]  You: If so, just IM me and I'll honor your wishes.
[12:07]  Weather Merlin: Great
[12:08]  You: Weather Merlin is going to tell us a bit about the island and then show us some of the activities here. It is great fun if you haven't been here before.
[12:08]  You: He will take questions, which we can do along the way so feel free - we'll try not to talk over each other, Weather.
[12:09]  Andy Evans: I went skiiing once in RL and went off a cliff... should be safer here!
[12:09]  Maryrose Mariani: lol it's not
[12:09]  Pagan Bishop: afraid not ;P
[12:09]  Andy Evans: hahaha
[12:09]  Weather Merlin: :)

Why is TWC in Second Life
[12:09]  You: So, please tells us why you came into SL and what is happening for TWC in SL, Weather!
[12:09]  Pebbles Hannya: I'm curious about the weather in SL generally. Do you know much about that Weather -- is it different here than everywhere else in SL?
[12:09]  Weather Merlin: Sure. Happy to.
[12:10]  Weather Merlin: We launched Weather Island primarily to promote a new show we launched in March called Epic Conditions
[12:11]  Weather Merlin: Our objectives were to pick a topic that we felt was right for the strengths that the SL platform provides and to develop something that residents would enjoy
[12:11]  Weather Merlin: An unofficial tag for Weather Island is Stay. Play. Watch
[12:12]  Weather Merlin: because the island is focused on 3 game like activities, skiing, surfing, and mountain biking and we have video scattered throughout the spacew
[12:12]  Ana Herzog: /has it been a successful? how do you measure that succes?
[12:13]  Xzavia Yifu: did you time this to coincide with sl's new 'weather' capabilities?
[12:13]  Chime Bellman: Weather, are you with TWC or with the agency that built this?

Thoughts on Success & Agency, Infinite Vision Media
[12:13]  Weather Merlin: It has been successful. We believe success for this project is best defined by the initial promotional support we received, about reenforcing our brand message (Bringing Weather to Life) and about connecting with consumers in a truly interactive way
[12:14]  Weather Merlin: And we believe we have done all that
[12:14]  Ana Herzog: :-)
[12:14]  Weather Merlin: We have been in the top 5 of the New World Notes ranking of real lworld brands in SL since we launched with the exception of last week when we were #6
[12:15]  Weather Merlin: And people continue to come to the island...without any promotion up until this point!
[12:15]  You: Weather was the concept developed internally?
[12:15]  Outbreak Fastback: may i ask how you gathered such information?
[12:15]  Weather Merlin: I saw a questioon before about whether I am from TWC...and yes I am.
[12:15]  Chime Bellman: `Thanks.
[12:15]  Chime Bellman: Who was your agency for this?
[12:16]  Weather Merlin: I work in the Corporate Strategy group
[12:16]  Weather Merlin: Our agency was Infinite Vision Media
[12:16]  Pagan Bishop: where do you find the New World Notes brand rankings?
[12:16]  Weather Merlin: Linda, please tell me your last question again.
[12:16]  Xzavia Yifu: was the timing for this planned to coincide with sl's new weather capabilites or was that just serendipitous?
[12:16]  Weather Merlin: Sorry trying to catch up!
[12:16]  You: Was the concept for the build developed internally?
[12:16]  Ana Herzog: You "got" SL. How did a corp group manage that?
[12:17]  Weather Merlin: Yes. We developed the concept internally. Strategy together with our Consumer Marketing group
[12:18]  You: New World Notes does a ranking every money.
[12:18]  You: Monday - ha what a slip.
[12:18]  Ana Herzog: LOL!
[12:18]  Outbreak Fastback: and this ranking could be found where?
[12:18]  Codeme Sands: Could you perhaps briefly explain what the weather channel in RL is? (For us Europeans)
[12:19]  Weather Merlin: Yes, it is the only source of such a comparison so until someone like Nielsen gets into the SL measurement game, there;'s not a lot to go on!
[12:19]  Weather Merlin: Sure happy to.
[12:20]  Weather Merlin: The Weather Channel is an independent media company with a cable television network distributed in 90 million homes, weather.com with over 30 millino unique visitors per month, mobile products, etc.
[12:20]  Codeme Sands: thats pretty sharp for the typing limits:) thanks
[12:20]  Xzavia Yifu: was the timing for this planned to coincide with sl's new weather capabilites or was that just serendipitous?
[12:21]  Albert Falck: it's a blog
[12:21]  Weather Merlin: I think the timing has been quite good!
[12:21]  Weather Merlin: Is that an ok explanation? :)
[12:21]  Albert Falck: from hamlet au
[12:21]  Heidi Sturm: New World Notes: : http://nwn.blogs.com/nwn
[12:21]  Andy Evans: yep
[12:21]  Andy Evans: thx
[12:21]  Andy Evans: What is New World Notes, where do we see it?
[12:22]  Weather Merlin: Should we take a tour or are there more initial questions?
[12:22]  You: Ana asks: You "got" SL. How did a corp group manage that?
[12:22]  Weather Merlin: Your call Linda
[12:22]  Weather Merlin: Sure...
[12:22]  You: Let's do a tour and then we can ask more along the way.
[12:23]  Weather Merlin: That is a good question. Perhaps a little luck in that we had the right content for SL and hopefully a little bit of just understanding the medium
[12:23]  Codeme Sands: very modest
[12:23]  Ana Herzog: so many corps that should have gotten it haven't Nike Coke....
[12:23]  Weather Merlin: Epic Conditions was the right content for this phase and SL provides an excellent platform with which to bring weather to life, if you will.
[12:24]  You: Would you mind sharing how you chose the agency who would do the build?
[12:25]  Weather Merlin: By the way, I am happy to accept friendship with anyone on my personal avatar, Larry Abruzzo.

Tour Begins - To the Beach! - And Weather in SL Questions
[12:25]  You: Shall we take a tour?
[12:25]  Weather Merlin: Sure.
[12:25]  You: We'll follow you Weather!
[12:25]  You: Where to first?
[12:25]  Pagan Bishop: need a tour bus ;P
[12:25]  Weather Merlin: How about the beach?
[12:28]  Albert Falck: ok here we are
[12:28]  You: I just love the surfing here!!
[12:28]  Maryrose Mariani: it is fun
[12:28]  Weather Merlin: Linda, how should we proceed?
[12:28]  You: Tell us what is available here and how someone can surf. please.
[12:28]  Weather Merlin: What is great is that you can do that in SL on Weather ISland!
[12:28]  Ana Herzog: did i miss the answer to who did the build and how you found them
[12:28]  Pagan Bishop: seems like the surfing area gets the majority of the traffic
[12:29]  Pebbles Hannya: What bits of the weather here were done for you and what parts are just the basic SL stuff -- for example those little puffy clouds going by...
[12:29]  Weather Merlin: ok. There are a few questions...we used IVM and yes the beach gets the majority of traffic on the island
[12:29]  Weather Merlin: We build our own dynamic weather systems for rain and snow
[12:30]  Weather Merlin: Precip happens randomly over the beach, desert, and mountain
[12:30]  Pebbles Hannya: And the wind?
[12:30]  Weather Merlin: The beach is all about surfing as you can see
[12:31]  Weather Merlin: We waves are supposed the biggest waves in SL and we hope to continue to improve them
[12:31]  Weather Merlin: Residents seem to love them and we want to keep those folks coming back
[12:31]  Weather Merlin: We also have video behind me and on similar screen throughout
[12:32]  You: You've used audio a lot on the island - why did you decide to incorporte that?
[12:32]  Weather Merlin: The video consists of clips from Epic Conditions and some other shows in our headquarters building on the pier
[12:32]  Weather Merlin: We used audio to incorporate our talent in a somewhat subtle way
[12:32]  Weather Merlin: If you know our television network, you may recognize several on air folks in the audio on Weather Island.
[12:33]  Weather Merlin: But we did not make a big deal of the fact that they are talent because we know it would only be meaningful to some folks in the US
[12:33]  Pebbles Hannya: Do you have any plans to stream you live content here?
[12:33]  Pebbles Hannya: *your
[12:33]  You: Does anyone want to give a surfing demonstration?
[12:34]  Albert Falck: yep znet make as see
[12:34]  Weather Merlin: It is a possibility but there are some issues to work out first
[12:34]  Weather Merlin: with streaming live that is.
[12:34]  Heidi Sturm: I can if you don't mind me surfing in heels
[12:34]  Maryrose Mariani: get your boards in the hut
[12:34]  You: Go Heidi!
[12:34]  Zeb Ewing shouts: Lilla !
[12:34]  Heidi Sturm: ok
[12:34]  Weather Merlin: There are free boards and wetsuits for everyone
[12:34]  Outbreak Fastback: May I ask the reason why you decided to join second life?
[12:35]  Maryrose Mariani: tthere goes Heidi
[12:35]  Maryrose Mariani: lol
[12:36]  Maryrose Mariani: I think we've lost the goup Z
[12:37]  Maryrose Mariani: Weather how can I get rain on my island?
[12:37]  Pagan Bishop: very nice :)
[12:37]  You: Thanks to Heidi!
[12:37]  Weather Merlin: We shoudl talk about that.
[12:37]  You: Shall we go on to the next area?
[12:38]  Weather Merlin: We are thkning about ways to offer other SL land owners and residents weather in various forms so I'd love to speak with anyone who is interested.
[12:38]  Heidi Sturm: So there you go, surfing!
[12:38]  Maryrose Mariani: I wou ld love to have some rain at the beach
[12:38]  Ana Herzog shouts: full sim ---- don't lose us
[12:38]  You: Thanks Heidi, well done!
[12:38]  Chime Bellman: do you need a towel?
[12:38]  Weather Merlin: So then, shall we fly to the mountain?
[12:39]  You: lol
[12:39]  Pagan Bishop: mountain next, or desert?
[12:39]  You: Mountains we'll follow you!

On the Mountain - and Comments on Lessons Learned
[12:40]  Weather Merlin: Inside the cabin is more video and the free skiis if anyone wants it.
[12:40]  Weather Merlin: Behind the cabin is our ski lift which is very cool.
[12:41]  Weather Merlin: What is the group interested in seeing?
[12:41]  Weather Merlin: The mountain top, desert, ski lift, etc
[12:41]  Pebbles Hannya: Ski lift :)
[12:42]  Albert Falck: let's begin with the ski lift
[12:42]  Noneget Barnes: :>
[12:42]  Weather Merlin: Great ski lift it is
[12:42]  Codeme Sands: and maybe throw in an avalanche:)
[12:42]  Weather Merlin: One cool thing is...at the top of this tower is a weather vane that actually measures wind speed SL.
[12:43]  Albert Falck: cool
[12:44]  Weather Merlin: So this is the ski lift...and attraction itself.
[12:44]  Codeme Sands: love the sound effects
[12:44]  Weather Merlin: if you touch the button behind me and then sit and touch the chair, the ride wil start. Its a bit long so you might want to stand up and fly to the top
[12:45]  Pagan Bishop: looks like you can also touch the sign here to get to the top
[12:45]  Weather Merlin: That is one of the great details that our developers at IVM provided for us
[12:45]  Outbreak Fastback: are you ok sir?
[12:48]  Weather Merlin: So we have audio up from one of our talent
[12:48]  Weather Merlin: and three trials of varying degrees of difficulty
[12:48]  Chime Bellman: this is a huge ski lift
[12:48]  Rissa Maidstone: This is really great.
[12:48]  Weather Merlin: although all of them are pretty challenging!
[12:49]  Rissa Maidstone: I think I'll bring our InfoWeek group here sometime.
[12:49]  Codeme Sands: now how to get off elegantly;)
[12:49]  Weather Merlin: My apologies if I am not seeing everyone's questions
[12:50]  Weather Merlin: I am trying to keep up
[12:50]  You: Sorry I got delayed so I couldn't keep up. Please ask again.
[12:50]  Ana Herzog: can we get a notecard of question and answers. i've missed the last 5 minutes
[12:50]  Weather Merlin: Any questions at this point?
[12:50]  You: Yes, ana.
[12:50]  Maryrose Mariani: Z will pose the log on the web site
[12:50]  Pagan Bishop: now may as good a time as any to ask,
[12:51]  Weather Merlin: The noise you hear is supposed to be an avalanche
[12:51]  Ana Herzog: which web site?
[12:51]  Codeme Sands: 'serious injury' ouch!;)
[12:51]  You: I love the sound effects, but I've not quite mastered the skiing.
[12:51]  Chime Bellman: let me get my umbrella
[12:51]  Maryrose Mariani: lol I've been caughtinone o f those here
[12:51]  Weather Merlin: The skiing is pretty difficult
[12:51]  Pagan Bishop: I'm curious what some of the lessons learned in coming to SL and doing this project were for TWC
[12:51]  Weather Merlin: Lessons learned...
[12:51]  Rissa Maidstone: Good question.
[12:52]  Weather Merlin: That there is a lot to do in Second Life and not a very effective way to finding all of it
[12:52]  Pagan Bishop: and also, what parts were you most happy with in the result?
[12:52]  Maryrose Mariani: too true
[12:52]  Albert Falck: yes true
[12:53]  Weather Merlin: That there are many things that people and companies create in SL but only some truly effectively use the medium for its strengths
[12:53]  Joachim Liveoak: So what do you think is most effectve then?
[12:53]  You: Hve you gotten any direct feedback from people in SL, those using the island?
[12:53]  Ana Herzog: and you are successful, so without any proprietary divulging, what is your secret
[12:53]  Rissa Maidstone: Good point, Weather, couldn't agree more.
[12:53]  Weather Merlin: And that SL is certainly a peak into what is to come for the internet and interaction with content in general

Comments on Promotion/Community
[12:53]  Mikki Writer: How has TWC been promoting this? Only in SL or in RL too?
[12:54]  Weather Merlin: I see the last question
[12:54]  Joachim Liveoak: Yes. I've already heard it called 'web 3.0'
[12:54]  Weather Merlin: We have not been promoting it at all until this point
[12:55]  Weather Merlin: We will be launching a custom registration page for Weather Island on epic. weather.com in the very near future and starting to run on-air promos
[12:55]  Weather Merlin: What were the two other questions?? sorry!
[12:55]  Chime Bellman: oops
[12:55]  You: and you are successful, so without any proprietary divulging, what is your secret
[12:55]  Chime Bellman: fell off the mountain
[12:55]  Chime Bellman: you were not kidding
[12:55]  Codeme Sands: How did you search for a technical company?
[12:55]  Weather Merlin: Our secret?? Good question
[12:55]  Pagan Bishop: another question was, what were you most pleased with in how the project turned out?
[12:56]  Weather Merlin: I think, again, that we simply picked an appropriate use for the SL medium and that we are appealing to groups that are already established in SL, like surfers.
[12:56]  Weather Merlin: There is actually a large subculture of Sl surfers and we want to give groups like that a great place to be
[12:57]  You: Have you gotten any direct feedback from people in SL, those using the island?
[12:57]  Pagan Bishop: that explains why the traffic at the beach is so high then I'm guessing
[12:57]  Weather Merlin: We have built in a "comment box" feature throughout the space to gather visitors' feedback and it has been largely positive
[12:58]  Maryrose Mariani: lol
[12:58]  Dragan Milev: think it has been asked before, how did you search for a development company?
[12:58]  Weather Merlin: I took a look at about 5 companies and did a simple RFP for the project
[12:58]  You: Pagan Bishop: another question was, what were you most pleased with in how the project turned out?
[12:58]  Pagan Bishop: Z, I think he already spoke to that one :)
[12:58]  Pagan Bishop: thanks
[12:59]  You: sorry...
[12:59]  Weather Merlin: We went with the group who showed the most passion for our concept and could deliver onbudget and on time of course!
[12:59]  Mikki Writer: can you share what the budget was?
[12:59]  Weather Merlin: It was a very fast process though...RFP to launch in about 6 weeks.
[12:59]  You: whoa - that is fast.
[12:59]  Weather Merlin: I would rather not
[12:59]  Mikki Writer: k
[12:59]  Codeme Sands: 6 weeks!!!
[13:00]  Heidi Sturm: Weather, you said a 'custom registration' on epic.weather.com. Are you meaning a custom introduction via TWC into Second Life (similar to Showtime's L Word)?
[13:00]  Pebbles Hannya: Is there a plan for how it will evolve over time?
[13:00]  Joachim Liveoak: How many developers to do this in 6 weeks?
[13:00]  Dragan Milev: just what i wanted to ask, how many developers
[13:00]  Weather Merlin: The custom reg wil be like Showtime's, yes.
[13:00]  You: You have an orientation island here, yes?
[13:00]  Heidi Sturm: great, thanks for the clarification.
[13:00]  Weather Merlin: I am not sure how many IVM had working on it, to be honest.
[13:01]  Weather Merlin: We have a very small orientation island that we might have to enhance before we launch the registration page
[13:01]  Rissa Maidstone: Can you divulge how much you spent for the development and production of the island?
[13:01]  Weather Merlin: I would rather not, rissa.
[13:01]  Rissa Maidstone: hehe ok
[13:01]  Rissa Maidstone: had to ask!
[13:01]  Dragan Milev: ballpark?
[13:01]  Weather Merlin: Of course!
[13:01]  You: Pebbles Hannya: Is there a plan for how it will evolve over time?
[13:01]  Rissa Maidstone: yes a ballpark...or range would work
[13:02]  Weather Merlin: Less than $1M. :)
[13:02]  Pagan Bishop: lol

Goals in Second Life
[13:02]  Joachim Liveoak: Is Weather Channel clear on what it hopes to get out of SL? If so what?
[13:02]  Codeme Sands: lol
[13:02]  Weather Merlin: Perhaps off line?
[13:02]  Weather Merlin: Our goals?
[13:02]  Joachim Liveoak: yes
[13:03]  Weather Merlin: Right now, we are here to understand SL consumers better, virtual worlds and the opportunities they might present TWC, and perhaps offer partners and advertisers a way to try out something new
[13:04]  Weather Merlin: We were one of the first on the web with weather.com, in a truly scalable way and we tried to be one of the first in a virtual world like SL
[13:04]  You: How do you see advertisers integrating here.
[13:04]  Pebbles Hannya: Ads on the lift posts like in RL ;)
[13:04]  Weather Merlin: Not sure about that yet but not in traditional ways
[13:05]  Weather Merlin: we do not want to put up billboards and the like but could have a virtual sunscreen product for example
[13:05]  Maryrose Mariani: ski equipment
[13:05]  Majuscule Munro: has there been any consideration for event sponsorship, weather?
[13:05]  Albert Falck: LOL
[13:05]  Weather Merlin: Or an SUV challenge in teh desert
[13:05]  Weather Merlin: An event on our island?
[13:06]  Pagan Bishop: wasn't there a surf competition here a while back
[13:06]  Joachim Liveoak: Maybe you could sell wether packages for other sims?
[13:06]  Majuscule Munro: or a way to liaise with other organizations. sundance channel has a sim that is screening films on global warming, for example
[13:06]  Weather Merlin: there was. we sponsored the "prize money" for it
[13:07]  Albert Falck: or bringing him other biz interested in selling and creating equipment for ur entertainement
[13:07]  Pagan Bishop: how'd that go?
[13:07]  Weather Merlin: The surfing contest was great. We had lots of people here...by SL standards
[13:07]  Weather Merlin: And the contestants enjoyed the waves
[13:07]  Weather Merlin: we hope to do more of these events

Wrap Up and Thanks
[13:07]  You: We are past our promnised hour - so before we wrap the "formal" meeting can you share any future plans?
[13:07]  Mikki Writer: why did you decide to go after the extreme sports demo as opposed to broader demos? do you feel that better typifies SL users?
[13:09]  Weather Merlin: We are past the hour and i have another meeting. I'm sorry. I didn';t realize the time.
[13:09]  Weather Merlin: i woudl love to continue the conversation and answer other questions. My email is lpede@weather.com
[13:09]  Joachim Liveoak: Thanks for the hour Weather
[13:09]  You: Thanks so much!!! This was very interesting, Weather.
[13:09]  Maryrose Mariani: Thank you Weather
[13:09]  Codeme Sands: Really interesting... :) thanks.. we could do with another hour (or 10!)
[13:09]  Heidi Sturm: This has been really enlightening - thanks Weather!
[13:10]  Weather Merlin: Sorry that I have to run. And thansk for coming. I would love to know who was here, if that is possible, linda
[13:10]  You: Yes, Weather. Will do.
[13:10]  Outbreak Fastback: A great tour indeed. Good job sir
[13:10]  Maryrose Mariani: if anyone hasn't done the biking, that is also fun.
[13:10]  Weather Merlin: Sure. Thanks all! I have to run. My apologies again
[13:10]  Dragan Milev: thank you...
[13:10]  Ana Herzog: Thank you!
[13:10]  Albert Falck: tk u very very much
[13:11]  You: Thanks everyone! We didn't make it to the biking area, but stop by there - it is fun too.
[13:11]  Albert Falck: lol I will not miss
[13:11]  Codeme Sands: Thanks for an excellent event Z
[13:11]  You: I think getting everyone up the mountain was quite an ordeal. lol
[13:11]  Rissa Maidstone: thank you all, was great
[13:11]  Albert Falck: thank to u too znetlady
[13:11]  Ana Herzog: wonderful!
[13:11]  Heidi Sturm: Z, I'll try to send you what chat I have
[13:11]  You: I'll post it - and I think we should have a beach party here. lol

Party planning and extreme sports activities by avatars ensues....

Thanks to Heidi Sturm whose transcript helped fill in what I missed!

June 13, 2007

1-800-Flowers Opens Pavilion in Second Life

This Second Island  is hosting 1-800-Flowers.com pavilion and greenhouse, featuring flower facts and seven free bouquets for residents to carry away.  They held a launch party on June 1st, according to their blog.

On Friday, June 15th, 1800Flowers.com founder and CEO, Jim McCann, will kick off a planned series of events with a roundtable discussion at 7:30 a.m. to 8:30 a.m. SLT.  A floral design contest is slated for July and a series of focus groups with residents will guide the future of Flowers in SL.

The promotional pavilion and greenhouse is dubbed “Summer Flower Show” and residents are being invited to consider it open for small group events and gatherings.

According to their announcement, 1-800-Flowers has representatives and nearly two-dozen volunteers available in world to dispense flower knowledge or handle limited real life customer service issues.  The plan is to have the area staffed from 3-9 p.m. SLT weekdays, and 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.  The blog indicates the staffing is planned only through June 30th.  They are likely still getting their staffing up, as I was there a little after noon today (Saturday) and didn’t find any 800-Flowers.com people to chat up.   

SL marketing agency, This Second Marketing brought 800-Flowers.com into Second Life and is handling the recruitment and training of the Flowers volunteers, who will travel the grid promoting the new space, in addition to greeting and guiding. It appears from a hiring announcement near This Second Marketing's offices on the island that promoters and greeters will be paid for their resident-facing services.

[update 6-13-07]  Seth Lasser, Director of Special Projects/Assistant to the CEO, of 1800Flowers.com was nice enough to contact me after reading this post to answer questions and provide me a bit more information.  We chatted by phone yesterday about their SL initiative and he clarified a few things for me.

Staffing at the sim is being handled by a "volunteer army" of employees who are quite enthusiastic about the SL presence.  Staffing is currently planned only through June. 

800Flowers is looking at this initiative as a new path to innovation, primarily because they can be close to customer interaction.  Customer interaction has been a core activity of the company, according to Lasser, and has been at the heart of many past innovations at 800Flowers.

While the company is spending time listening in order to decide on next steps, they already view the initiative as successful based on the number of visitors to the virtual shop, which has already exceeded their expectations. And, they do have future plans in this arena.  Lasser said they are considering entering other virtual worlds. [end update]

Visit the 1-800-Flowers Second Life pavilion here.

The 1-800-Flowers.com Second Life microsite is here.

The initiative blog is here.

The press release is here.

June 9, 2007

Forrester Social Technographics: A Lens for Second Life Marketers

Forrester's recently released its Social Technographics report examining participation of the U.S. online population in “social media,” such as reading or publishing blogs, offering online reviews or using social networking sites.  Forrester groups people into six categories based on how they participate in today’s Read/Write web.

Social Technographics gives us some important clues to what our virtual world strategies need to look like.

Although I don’t agree with the “ladder” stratification Forrester uses, - which suggests a hierarchy of more or less significance to a social media activity (they are all equally important) - but the categories are extremely important indicators that marketers should examine and use as a framework for all social media strategies – virtual worlds included.

The heavy resident-created content and “early adopter” nature of Second Life may immediately suggest that the social technographics of Second Life residents is significantly weighted toward the “creators” at the very “top” of the Forrester hierarchy.  Especially since the technical learning curve is so steep to just get functioning in Second Life, much less getting productive enough to create there. 

But, don’t confuse technical savvy-ness, with the social networking behaviors of social technographics.  Social technographics focuses on the various participative activities a person or “population” engages in. 

Its true early SL residents rather obviously tend toward “creators” – they collectively, after all, built the SL environment. But, as the population is growing, the social technographics start to look more generalized.

Recent Second Life initiatives seem to make some pretty sweeping assumptions about the activities residents will find engaging.  But without looking at all the potential activities different types of social media participants are likely to value, it is impossible to create a truly successful presence – or better yet, to offer interesting content across preferred behaviors to engage the largest possible audience.

Forrester’s study shows that social technographics tracks fairly reliably within generations.  It is no surprise, for example that young millenials are heavy creators of social media content and that a large percentage of seniors are “inactives.”

I thought it a valuable exercise, though, to look at Forrester’s Social Technographics through the lens of age distribution in Second Life.

I graphed Forrester’s preferred activities percentages by generation; excluding ”Inactives” altogether since by definition they don’t participate in SL.  The following shows the graphing results.  Because Forrester specially notes that people engaged in social networking activities for entertainment purposes had a little different social technographics profile, I included them as a separate category.

We see that GenYers are heavy content Creators, but they are even bigger Joiners, and GenXers and Boomers like lurking and critiquing.  Entertainment seekers are also big Joiners and have a tendency to engage in creating, collecting and criticizing relatively equally.  Everyone, except GenYers are bigger Spectators.

Now let’s look at the generational makeup of Second Life to get a sense of participative activities that might appeal to the SL generations.  The graph below is based on Linden Lab’s most recent data of “active” users (1 cumulative hour in last month) and is international.  Just for some comparison I also included age information from the First Opinions Panel's most recent data, which is demographic information from FOP U.S. research panel members.   While neither data set allows us to scientifically extrapolate because the data has no valid segmentation, the contrast is pretty interesting in itself – and the trend tells us something that may be unexpected.

Here is what the generations look like in SL:

Looks like we have a bunch of GenX “Spectators” in Second Life!  Boomers are very heavily represented in FOP's data, which is likely a function of their methodology in recruiting panel members - but it should not be discounted as a significant trend.  But both data sets do tell us GenX is most heavily represented in SL.

There is overlap in preferred activities of the generations – people that do one activity are likely to do at least one or more of the others – so don’t generalize your strategies to something akin to GenXers want to walk around your corporate museum.   Spectator doesn’t necessarily mean passive – these people are also enthusastic Joiners.

I expect, ethnographically, the social technographics profile of SL may more resemble the Entertainment category, but more research on that is in the works.

Charlene Li, author of Forrester’s report, is a social media star to me as she starts the report with these two sentences of wisdom:

“Many companies approach Social Computing as a list of technologies to be deployed as needed — a&