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Mark your calendars for January 11, when MarketingProfs hosts a tour of Second Life especially for marketers. Hosted by emerging media evangelist Greg Verdino, “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Metaverse: Second Life for Marketers,” is a virtual tour, meaning that you don’t have to pack a sweater and board a bus. You can “tour” from the comfort of your own desktop....
I don’t usually pitch from this pulpit. MarketingProfs runs a virtual seminar a week, and this is the first time I’ve blogged specifically about one of them. But I am crazy-excited about this event. I’m convinced that anyone who isn’t up to speed on Second Life should be… how else will you know whether it’s right for you, your company or your brand?
Obviously, Second Life is hot right now. BusinessWeek, the NY Times and the Wall Street Journal have all written about how leading companies like Dell, Pontiac, Starwood, Adidas and Reuters have set up shops inside this burgeoning virtual world. Joe Jaffe and pals launched their company there. And today, actress and activist Mia Farrow, a UNICEF Goodwill Ambassador, hosts a virtual event there to talk about the worsening situation in Darfur and neighboring Chad at a virtual event in Second Life.
(The Darfur program, to be held today, Dec. 8, from noon to 1 p.m. (Eastern Time), will feature a virtual replica of the "Our Walls Bear Witness - Darfur: Who Will Survive Today?" - a photography exhibit of Darfur images that were projected onto the exterior of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C. The photo exhibit remains on display until Tuesday, December 12.)
But what I hear from marketers is that they still don’t really understand it, and they worry that their company is missing out. Or could be. What’s more, they wonder if there might actually be actual money to be made in the virtual world.
As Greg puts it: “Sure Second Life is hot but what are the real opportunities for brand marketers and how can you get your head around what those opportunities might be? In fact, now that the buzz is beginning to subside, should you even care about this anymore? The answer is yes, but probably not for the reasons you think…”
In his seminar, Greg (with help from long-time Second Lifer Tikaro Oxenberger, a.k.a. real-life Digitas technologist John Young) will take you inside the metaverse for a first-hand look at how people spend their time and how marketers are integrating their brands into the experience. He promises that you’ll discover “what the rise of Second Life –- and, the trend toward 3D virtual worlds in general –- means to you as both a marketer and a consumer, and learn what your company should think about before making a move into virtual world marketing.”
Check out more about what Second Life tourists will learn here on the MarketingProfs seminar page.
…and I hope to see you there!
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Comments
Congrats Greg, for contributing to MarketingProfs. I'm really looking forward to your SL Tour. Folks, if you don't yet know of Greg Verdino, he contributes a lot to this space as I'm always keeping up with his blog ( http://gregverdino.typepad.com/ ). Very smart and generous with his knowledge.
As for SL--as I've just become a citizen in the past 2 weeks--it's interesting in the "metaverse" (as opposed to the blogosphere). It will take some time for me to understand the opportunities for we marketers but I see it as time well spent.
Point blank: we need to be where our markets are, and the people...er, uh, "avatars"...I've met so far prove that our markets exist and are influenced by brands in both this life...and the Second One :-).
Note: It takes all of 5 minutes to download the SL app and get started. Plus you get to fly in Second Life!
Posted by: CK | 12.08.06
What a wonderful idea... I will be there!
Eric
Posted by: Eric Kintz | 12.08.06
Very, very cool!
I plan to be there with several of my clients.
Brilliant idea!
Posted by: B.L. Ochman | 12.08.06
A great idea from a great guy (and fellow Long Islander). :)
Should be very cool. And since I haven't gotten my Second Life yet, I'll be all ears.
Posted by: David Armano | 12.08.06
A great idea indeed. The more people that are educated about the potential of Second Life the better.
Posted by: C.C. Chapman | 12.08.06
I'm glad you all love the idea -- in other words, I'm thrilled that you are thrilled....!
I'm really psyched about this seminar, and I hope it's as well received from the larger audience as it has been here, so far. And David -- perhaps we should subtitle the seminar, "Time to Get a (Second) Life."
If anyone has anything specific they'd like to see, I'm sure Greg the Friendly Tour Guide would be all ears....
And by the way, Greg is now an invited blogger here. Check out his image when you get a chance. It's cool, if a little creepy....(according to Greg):
http://www.mpdailyfix.com/cgi-sys/cgiwrap/alorentz/mt32/plugins/Profiler/mt-profiler.cgi?author_id=75&tmpl=61
Posted by: Ann Handley | 12.08.06
The seminar sounds great! Excellent idea. I hope everyone attends! It will be great way to get a taste of Second Life and see its potential.
BTW, after the seminar if anyone is interested in delving into Second Life's potential on an on-going basis, you are invited to join the in-world group, SL Business Communicators which meets once a month in Second Life exploring business potential in Second Life - we always meet with very interesting people doing some very interesting work in SL. Everyone is welcome to the in-world meetings.
Go to the seminar!
There is also a blog: http://freshtakes.typepad.com/sl_communicators
Posted by: Linda Zimmer | 12.08.06
Wow, this is really cool. This will be very valuable. Very, very cool indeed.
As an SL newbie (Jackson Jacks), I'm simply fumbling around, so a tour guide will be much appreciated (can you help me look less stupid?).
Very timely, considering the talking going on about SL.
Posted by: Tim Jackson | 12.08.06
Hey this sounds great. I particularly like the way I can fly ... even if my sense of direction leaves a little to be desired.
I like BL's idea of bringing some clients along too. Now I just need to decide what to wear!
Posted by: Gavin Heaton | 12.09.06
Hi, good to see others also offering this service. I am also a marketing professional and have an established business running tours of Second Life. We run businesses in Second Life and develop content for businesses wanting a presence. Our tour involves some fairly hard hitting criticism of real-life companies' efforts. We also run a tour which showcases the best of in-world businesses, who are generally doing it a lot better.
www.sltourguides.com
Posted by: bret treasure | 12.09.06
Knowing about Second Life is important, but there are so many other places where so many more of your customers are playing right now... all the SL buzz seems really premature to me at this point. 15k-ish actives on at any given time? Heavy download? I think a lot of people are jumping on the bandwagon to avoid "missing out" but I think this is a bit of overkill. I wrote a post on it that touched off a good comment discussion:
http://www.thisisgoingtobebig.com/2006/11/10_reasons_to_g.html
Posted by: Charlie | 12.10.06
I'm not sure if this is right for any of my clients yet, but it looks very interesting. I look forward to learning more about it soon on MP.
Thanks,
David Reich
Posted by: David Reich | 12.10.06
as new comer on SL (just yesterday) i of couse got lost. the seminar is more than welcome.
Posted by: gianandrea facchini | 12.11.06
Just in case we need to read some more buzz about SL...
MediaWeek talks about Pontiac
ClickZ talks about Starwood
I joined Second Life to take a gander myself. I confess, I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to make the size of my avatar's butt just right. :)
Posted by: Shelley Ryan | 12.13.06
Ann,
I am delighted you are back and running and am so looking forward to this seminar. What a great and timely idea. Thank you! Robin
Posted by: Robin Stavisky | 12.14.06