by: Alain Thys
Not so long ago, Ilya featured an awareness study on brands in Second Life. But as the last time I checked Second Life was still supposed to be about conversations and communities, the real proof for brands lies in "how long do people actually hang out in your wonderful virtual building".
The slide I attached to this post gives some insight into this (click to enlarge).
It is based on an excellent analysis by Gary Hayes over at Personalise Media where he compared the traffic or "dwell" at a number of key brand locations in the virtual world. This is a relative measure operated by Linden Labs which creates an index based on the number of visitors and the time they hang out on a piece of land (for a fuller explanation, check out this post by Sue Baskerville.)
Gary also made a nice video compilation of brands in Second Life.
This blog reflects the personal opinions of individual contributors and does not represent the views of Futurelab, Futurelab's clients, or the contributors' respective employers or clients.
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Alain Thys says:
08 May 2007, 05:18
Hi !
If you are a brand who seeks more than the quick press release out of a second life presence, imho there are only two sensible reasons to be there:
A) experiment with virtual world environments for own R&D and learning (i.e. make your own furniture online and see it magically appear from Fablab around the corner - style)
b)establish conversations with people in second life or even a community.
As (a) is only for the very few enlightened, we end up with (b) as a pragmatic alternative for brands & agencies. To be able to have these conversations, the people however need to be "present" in the first place => my statement.
I'm not saying that dwell time is the "only" measure that is relevant, though I still think it's a reasonable first indicator of whether brands are actually connecting to the SL community (or at least get people to show up).
csven says:
08 May 2007, 17:42
"To be able to have these conversations, the people however need to be "present" in the first place => my statement."
I disagree.
What exactly *is* the "conversation"?
If the "conversation" is actually engaging with consumers, that can occur anywhere. And considering most of these virtual stores are devoid of adequate corporate representation... from my experience... that's probably not a bad thing.
If it's communicating the qualities of the brand, which I believe is what we're actually discussing, that too can occur anywhere.
For example, if a newspaper is distributed at a vending machine, does it stand to reason that the "conversation" is on the street corner where the vending machine is located? No. The vending machine is a distribution center, nothing more. The interaction with the product/brand occurs wherever the product is engaged (at the point of distribution, but often to a greater degree elsewhere... the bulk of the Experience).
Now take this a step further.
If someone gets on the bus with a paper from the vending machine and hands a section to someone else on the bus who never stops by a vending machine, doesn't this other person also have a "conversation" with the brand? Of course they do.
The issue is whether or not these other people are *counted*. That's not having a conversation with the consumer; that's determining the metrics for use in another conversation; one revolving around business.
Of course that kind of pseudo-replication of product (sub-dividing a newspaper into usable chunks) doesn't apply to Pontiac's and Nissan's. Not in the REAL world, that is. But in the virtual world, where anything can be perfectly replicated and distributed among users like a virus, then "place" becomes irrelevant.
When I first modeled the Black & Decker jar opener I designed in RL, my intention when I contacted my former employer wasn't to open a store. My intention was for the "conversation" to occur wherever the product spread. Why on earth would I not prefer this method? After all, just like any computer virus, each replicated object can feed me with all the metrics I need (and better one's than just who showed up on a virtual plot of land).
csven says:
07 May 2007, 15:05
"the real proof for brands lies in "how long do people actually hang out in your wonderful virtual building".
I disagree. In fact, I don't understand why anyone would suggest or agree with this. Please explain.
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