Virtual marketers have second thoughts about Second Life
Firms find that avatars created by participants in the online society aren't avid shoppers.
By Alana Semuels, Times Staff Writer, July 14, 2007
SECOND LIFE — a three-dimensional online society where publicity is
cheap and the demographic is edgy and certainly computer-savvy — should
be a marketer's paradise.
But it turns out that plugging products is as problematic in the virtual world as it is anywhere else.
At http://www.secondlife.com
— where the cost is $6 a month for premium citizenship — shopping, at
least for real-world products, isn't a main activity. Four years after
Second Life debuted, some marketers are second-guessing the money and
time they've put into it.
"There's not a compelling reason to
stay," said Brian McGuinness, vice president of Aloft, a brand of
Starwood Hotels & Resorts Worldwide Inc. that is closing its Second
Life shop and donating its virtual land to the nonprofit
social-networking group TakingITGlobal.
Linden Lab, the San
Francisco firm that created Second Life, sells companies and people
pieces of the landscape where they can build stores, conference halls
and gardens. Individuals create avatars, or virtual representations of
themselves, that travel around this online society, exploring and
schmoozing with other avatars. Land developed by users, rather than
real-world companies, is among the most popular places in Second Life.
But
the sites of many of the companies remaining in Second Life are empty.
During a recent in-world visit, Best Buy Co.'s Geek Squad Island was
devoid of visitors and the virtual staff that was supposed to be online.
The
schedule of events on Sun Microsystems Inc.'s site was blank, and the
green landscape of Dell Island was deserted. Signs posted on the window
of the empty American Apparel store said it had closed up shop.
McGuinness said Starwood's venture into Second Life did accomplish
something. Feedback from denizens gave Aloft ideas for its physical
hotels.
The suggestions included putting radios in showers and
painting the lobbies in earth tones rather than primary colors. But now
that the design initiative is over, he said, it's difficult to attract
people to the virtual hotel to help build the real-world brand.
For
some advertisers, the problem is that Second Life is a fantasyland, and
the representations of the people who play in it don't have human
needs. Food and drink aren't necessary, teleporting is the easiest way
to get around and clothing is optional. In fact, the human form itself
is optional.
Avatars can play games, build beach huts, dress up like furry animals, flirt with strangers — sometimes all at once.
Their
interests seem to tend toward the risque. Ian Schafer, chief executive
of online marketing firm Deep Focus, which advises clients about
entering virtual worlds, said he recently toured Second Life. He
started at the Aloft hotel and found it empty. He moved on to casinos,
brothels and strip clubs, and they were packed. Schafer said he found
in his research that "one of the most frequently purchased items in
Second Life is genitalia."
Another problem for some is that Second Life doesn't have enough active residents.
On
its website, Second Life says the number of total residents is more
than 8 million. But that counts people who signed in once and never
returned, as well as multiple avatars for individual residents. Even at
peak times, only about 30,000 to 40,000 users are logged on, said Brian
Haven, an analyst with Forrester Research.
"You're talking about a much smaller audience than advertisers are used to reaching," Haven said.
Some
in the audience don't want to be reached. After marketers began
entering Second Life, an avatar named Urizenus Sklar — in the real
world, University of Toronto philosophy professor Peter Ludlow — wrote
in the public-relations blog Strumpette that the community was "being
invaded by an army of old world meat-space corporations."
He and
other residents accused companies of lacking creativity by setting up
traditional-looking stores that didn't fit in. His column was
reproduced in the Second Life Herald.
Nissan Motor Co., a
subject of such protests, has since transformed its presence in Second
Life from a car vending machine to an "automotive amusement park,"
where avatars can test gravity-defying vehicles and ride hamster balls.
Sun Micro has made its participation more interactive and fanciful,
Chief Gaming Officer Chris Melissinos said.
Ludlow isn't
impressed. He said most firms were more interested in the publicity
they received from their ties with Second Life than in the digital
world itself. "It was a way to brand themselves as being leading-edge,"
he said.
Angry avatars have taken virtual action. Reebok
weathered a nuclear bomb attack and customers were shot outside the
American Apparel store. Avatars are creating fantasy knockoffs of
brand-name products too.
Some buying and selling does go on in
Second Life. An avatar can acquire currency — called Linden dollars —
by earning it or buying it with U.S. dollars. (The exchange rate is 268
Lindens to $1.) With a stack of Linden dollars, an avatar can spice up
his or her look or while away the time in a casino.
Only a few
other virtual worlds allow avatars to create and sell content as Second
Life does. But users are flocking to the other worlds, in part because
some don't require people to download software to take up residence.
Others
just want to access a larger community than Second Life offers. Between
May and June, the population of active avatars declined 2.5%, and the
volume of U.S. money exchanged within the world fell from a high of
$7.3 million in March to $6.8 million in June.
Companies are
following them. IBM Corp., which has an extensive presence in Second
Life, is expanding into the other environments, including There, which
features a digital version of the popular TV show "Laguna Beach," and
Entropia Universe, which pits users against one another in a sci-fi
civilization.
Consulting firms that were set up to bring brands into Second Life are busy helping clients explore other worlds.
One
such agency, Millions of Us, recently announced that it had formed a
partnership with Gaia Online, a site popular with teenagers, and CEO
Reuben Steiger said it would be unveiling more soon. Millions of Us had
previously worked only with Second Life.
"It's not about whether Second Life is good or bad," Steiger said. "It's just that there are a lot of alternatives."
