When things close down...

ING's foray into Second Life has come to a close because of the fact that they are pumping their marketing dollars into their merger. For me it signals an end to all the hype and hysteria about Second Life. There is definitely a role for virtual worlds as a way of getting people together digitally and building communities of creative people who like a bit of escapism. But as an advertising channel it was never going to deliver.

ING's email explaining the end of the project is also interesting as it shows how to wrap things up. All too often engaging intitiatives just get pulled and no one hears anything about it.

"After a year of pioneering, learning and innovating ING Retail Netherlands has decided to close down the Our Virtual Holland activities in Second Life.
The main reason is the current merger of the ING bank Netherlands and the Postbank. The focus of our activities will be directed to the merger.

Virtual Worlds continue to be an interesting and for ING relevant development. Virtual worlds as a communication platform as well as virtual economies are important developments for a financial institution like ING. ING Asia Pacific will keep the presence in Second Life with their 'Cha Lounge' on our own ING island. In this way the knowledge about virtual worlds inside ING is not lost and we are ready to make a quick restart in the future.

We have learned a lot this past year and it was a pleasure to facilitate the Our Virtual Holland community. 50 % of Our Virtual Holland partners will continue their activities in Second Life. We are happy to tell you that community member willl take over part of the OVH community activities. The name of the community island will be changed to Virtual Holland. We wish the Virtual Holland community good luck.
We aim to finish our activities in Second Life by the first of March. At the Our Virtual Holland site you will find updates on the activities of ING Asia Pacific in Second Life and about the partners and community members.

Kind regards,

Gertjan Kaaij (Gavin Market) and the Our Virtual Holland team"

I don't bank with ING. But this email and their foray into Second Life has made me warm to them. It makes me think that they are innovative, forward thinking and are something I'd like to be part of. As opposed to Barclays who can't even manage to send me a cheque book. It's not like I've asked for one 4 times!

Coke Second Life Vending Machine

From 3PointD:

Coca-Cola is taking its first steps in the virtual world of Second Life with a contest in which SL members will be invited to “imagine a virtual vending machine with limitless possibilities.” In concert with new-media marketing firm crayon and virtual-world services outfit Millions of Us, Coke is running “an open contest for Second Life residents and the general population to design a virtual experience machine through its Virtual Thirst competition. . . . This contest is not a search for the virtual version of a real-life vending machine that distributes bottles and cans, but the mission to create a portable device for Second Life’s ‘in-world’ digital society that unleashes a refreshing and attention-grabbing experience, on demand.” The contest is to be announced today in an in-world press conference with Coca-Cola execs.

According to a press release, the winner will be selected by an advisory council of SL residents and then will travel to San Francisco, courtesy of Coca-Cola, to collaborate with Millions of Us in turning the concept into virtual reality. The virtual Coke machine will be unveiled at an in-world party and made available for free to SL residents.

One interesting aspect of the competition is that fact that entries can be submitted »within SL«, via YouTube, or at the Virtual Thirst page on MySpace. The entry deadline is 25 May 2007.

A number of companies have been coming into Second Life lately with similar initiatives, hoping to find the killer entertainment app that residents will either keep coming back to or will carry around with them and use. It’s a nice twist to ask residents themselves to design the device. And definitely a great contract for the crayonistas to have. Looks like we’ll see how refreshing the results are sometime this summer. Should be interesting.

Co Creation is the future

From a fascinating blog called Doing Business in an Expanding Reality:

Second Life: A platform for co-creation

Among the types of studies that may be conducted in Second Life, one area that seems particularly promising to us is that of co-creation: Businesses today are aware that they cannot innovate inside laboratories behind closed doors and that innovation will be successful if it is partly conducted by calling on collective creativity (see the book “Fabriquer le Futur 2” (Creating the Future 2, co-written by Pierre Musso, Laurent Ponthou and Eric Seuillet, who is the president of Fabrique du Futur).

These approaches will develop and are precisely a part of the societal trend of the “Participation generation” described by Thierry Maillet in his latest book “la Génération Participation”. Citizen/consumers are increasingly seeking direct dialogue with the brands and expect them to take into account their proposals.

We believe that Second Life is an ideal platform for this process of co-creation, namely because it allows those who wish to do so to provide their creative input to the brands and to present their designs under the form of 3D prototypes. Prototypes that may then be evaluated by other residents…

To activate this co-creative process, the organisation of a competition is amusing, stimulating and well-adapted to Second Life.

Our first experiments in this direction have been very positive. The first competition we launched, a building competition for a Repères showroom, was initially intended to propose an event for our panellists and to test the principle of competitions. The result is exceptional and I invite you to admire the design, presented in the next two snapshots, by Joshua Culdesac and Piper Pitney on the Repères Second Life island.

You will also find more information on this design and its creators on the Repères Second Life site.

The other competitions we have organised so far, have also been conducted experimentally by our panel, and we have found it more interesting and of greater impact to conduct this work for the benefit of partners who do not necessarily have the means to benefit from our services normally.

We are therefore moving towards two types of co-creation processes in SL:
. Operations for the brands, invoiced according to our usual conditions,
. and, for the purposes of communication and events organisation, joint operations with associations whose projects we support, with a sharing of the costs.

Second Life Brand Awareness

From the ever brilliant Adverlab:

"A March 2007 study of 1,085 Second Life avatars by CB News / Reperes found that "brands are still far from having succeeded in exploiting all of their SL potential. For instance no RL brand introduced in SL has succeeded in establishing a strong presence in the minds of residents." The graph above demonstrates the failure of brands to build strong "spontaneous" (unaided?) awareness. K Zero comments that these low levels, especially for the brands with longer history of SL presence, may be due to the high avatar turnover and the influx of the new residents.

The good news: "66% [of the residents] believe that the presence of RL brands has a positive impact on SL", which contradicts an earlier study by Komjuniti that showed that "72% of respondents [...] as being disappointed with the activities of the companies in Second Life."

A similar report by Market Truths shows that 49% percent of residents think that brand presence in SL is a good thing. Surprisingly, however, "of the 21 brands ultimately named (unaided), four do not actually have an official SL presence. They are, however, still getting positive brand impact from their “unofficial” (or perceived) presence." (quoted from SL Communicators).

But do check out the entire report by Reperes -- it has some interesting resident insights about specific campaigns.

[Update a few hours later] Ha, another study on Second Life: The latest poll by Global Market Insite, "found the virtual world of Second Life is a burgeoning market for real-life brands and product promotion. Fifty-six percent of users believe Second Life is a good promotional vehicle. Only 16 percent say they would not be more likely to buy or use a brand that is represented in the Internet-based virtual world."

Importantly although not surprisingly, " 55 percent watch less television since becoming active in Second Life." (press release)"

Second Life Poll

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