New Media: Mismanaged and Misunderstood

It's interesting how this industry of ours absorbs new media. Second Life (SL) is a prime example. It started out as a virtual reality chat line that grew too large. That’s when corporate America got a hold of it. Suddenly, everybody was putting it in media plans to seem hip and with it to their clients. As anybody my age knows, any 30-something trying to be cool, isn’t. You hear that, Crayon? Currently, Second Life is over saturated with poorly executed advertising in a world not quite as full as people think. Only a few thousand members actually use the service everyday.

SL is not the first company to try this new medium. There is another virtual chat room just like Second Life that still holds on to its nerdy roots. However, it has unfortunately been passed over by the majority of marketing gurus of today in favour of the greener pastures of SL.

Now that Second Life has fallen by the wayside so to speak, we have a new focus for our advertising dollars, Facebook. The MySpace killer that has been an internet goldmine of late is taking over the PR airwaves of every available ad & marketing blog around the world. Everybody is talking, nobody is understanding. Same old story.

 

If I had to call it, I'd say the Facebook phenomenon has yet to reach maturity. Marketers still have the opportunity to spend their ad dollars wisely and they can still make a positive impact on the service.

Facebook is all about connecting with people, plain and simple. In my opinion, any advertisement or application that does not improve the connections between people is not working hard enough.

Take this image for example:

Why is classmates.com, a site that connects old classmates from highschool, advertising on what is essentially their competition? My friends and I primarily use Facebook for the very same function classmates.com is advertising. Not a smart investment.

The TD Canada Trust FB group, The Money Lounge, is an example of a pretty good promotion in my opinion. Some of their promotions include $40 off at retailers like Best Buy and Zellers for students who join the facebook group and tips on how to live with roommates, something many university students have to struggle with on a daily basis. I tip my hat to you, TD.

So please, take the time to learn about Facebook before you start spending. It will be good practice for the when the next hit website starts attracting the world's youth. Best of Luck. Contributed by: Angus Gastle

Comments

[Dave Forde - The Connector]

Agreed that SL is dead and it never really grew to be as big as the hype. I think the one thing that many marketers forget, we live in a "real" world. SL, MySpace, Facebook can't be accessed when the user's power is off.

[Ari Shomair]

The reason classmates.com ads appear on Facebook is likely because Facebook has excess banner ad capacity, and are selling their remanent inventory for pennies on the dollar. You need to be a big-volume purchaser like classmates.com to cut a remanent deal.

You see the same thing occurring on all the websites which generate huge #'s of impressions, i.e. MySpace and YouTube.

Re: Secondlife, it first had to be alive to die -

When an independent research firm (Forrester) attempted to verify Linden Lab's usage numbers, they discovered something shocking: There aren't millions of active members online. In fact, there are rarely more than 40,000 online at any point in time (source). It looks like the marketers just got sucked in by some great marketing ;)

[Angus Gastle]

Thank you for finding that Second Life usage number!

"It looks like the marketers just got sucked in by some great marketing ;)" is priceless.

[Scott Monty]

As long as you treat these properties as trends rather than as communities, you're always going to be looking for the next one. Facebook is the latest craze for connecting people, but there will always be alternatives.

The key is - and I think you began to touch on it when you suggested "learn about it" - spending time in the community and getting to know how the members interact. Then and only then, as a marketer, will you be able to effectively interact within the space.

Second Life is not dead; it's just that companies found that old media approaches - creating a location and requiring people to show up - do not work so well. Companies are succeeding when they find a way to integrate into avatars' existence. And let's not forget that there are many alternate virtual worlds to consider. Each one is unique and each one may deserve your attention, depending on your audience.

Oh, BTW - how's that tree working out for you?

[Angus Gastle]

Scott, I was so intrigued by your reply that instead of responding here, I wrote an entire post about it.

http://angusgastle.com/blog/2007/10/24/crayon-has-responded/

[Biggie]

Just because Crayon's launch was a fiasco (they p-ed just about evryone off, or were ignored) doesn't mean that SL is "over". Disappointing also that they advise not "building a location and hoping people will turn up" when that's exactly what they have done ...
How about treating it like any other "medium" and assessing it based on objectives, targeting, role, creative synergy and RoI.

[Angus Gastle]

Biggie, definitely agree. They could be making better use of their island which would help sell me (to some degree) on the idea of Second Life.

You should drop by their weekly (on thursday, 9am) Coffee with Crayon shindig that takes place in SL. I'm sure the boys' will have interesting responses to your questions haha.