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Second Lifers Feel Invaded By Big Companies

By B.L. Ochman More than a few Second Lifers are feeling like the owners of mom & pop variety stores in small towns invaded by Wal-mart or Home Depot. This rant in Second Life Herald is vitriolic, but not wrong.

This is not to say that there is no creativity left in any agency or corporation, because clearly Nissan, Wells-Fargo, Adidas, Sun and Reuters are doing some very interesting Second Life marketing. But critics are certainly right that the vast majority of traditional marketers are totally clueless about the Internet in general and social media in particular. Otherwise, how could you explain the fact that so many sites are still full of flashing banner ads and spiders and roaches racing across articles you're trying to read? (Did you ever click on one of those? I sure haven't)

Turnaround is fair play: Why don't some Second Life marketers have an in-world conference for RL marketers and tell us how they think we should be proceeding. Cause I guarantee you one thing: more big companies are coming to your world soon.

The Second Life Herald's most recent hissy fit about RW companies calling their entries into the metaverse "firsts." says:

"Where we come from it is not merely bad ettiquette [sic] to falsely claim a "first" and ignore three years of pioneering hard labor by the people you are supposedly trying to market to, it is something of a crime to take credit for what others have done, and it is no less a crime to give credit to late-coming billion dollar corporations for what hard working people did all on their own many times over for three years. Until you learn that keep the fuck out of my way." says UrizenusSklar.

(He's right, and Wikipedia lists actual firsts in Second Life)

Adrants publisher Steve Hall comments on that post:

"I would be more than eager to speak with you or anyone else who might help me shed some informed light upon the dim witted ad community so that things might be set straight before the ad stampede begins as it inevitably will just it it does with every new thing."

Me too.

Categories: Virtual Marketing

BL Ochman | Oct 26 06 1:43 | TrackBack (0)

Comments

BL, You, Adrants - and anyone interested in really learning about Second Life - are more than welcome to join us at our monthly in-world meetings of Business Communicators of Second Life: http://freshtakes.typepad.com/sl_communicators.

The whole purpose of our group is for RW companies to learn important cultural issues in order to operate effectively there. We do it by meeting, greeting and listening to those who know SL best - residents and organizations already operating there.

And, there are all kinds of other opportunities - conferences, presentations, gatherings, classes, group meetups, etc. happening all the time in Second Life - nearly every day. There is no lack of ways to learn what SL residents value - and they are amazingly generous and helpful.

Join in! Or, I'd be happy to arrange a special tour, presentation, meetup or ?? for any group of RW marketers that need or want a briefing.

Posted by: Linda Zimmer at October 26, 2006 11:20 PM

I think they are rightly pissed off by the massive invasion of brands into their virtual world. These concernes were raised in the recent Economist review :
"Will Second Life, that realm of individualism and pure creativity and spontaneity, get plastered over by the same mega-brands and mass culture that have, arguably, made the physical world such a homogenous place? In real life, many avatars argue, big business tends to push out small artisans. If the same happens in Second Life, the metaverse will lose its raison d'être".

for alternative list of the "firsts" on SL see:
http://nomansblog.typepad.com/no_mans_blog/2006/10/the_first______.html

Posted by: Asi at October 27, 2006 6:40 AM

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About BL Ochman

Blogger, social media strategy consultant to Fortune 500 companies, and sought-after corporate speaker B.L. Ochman heads the creative team of whatsnextonline.com. She also publishes the Ethics Crisis blog for SRF Global Translations

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