Second Life Hits Trough of Disillusionment

Lots of coming and going on the grid. American Apparel and Starwood Hotels were among the first marketers that came to Second Life. Now they appear to be some of the first to leave according to The LA Times.

Starwood's second thoughts may make you wonder what the Crowne Plaza is thinking with its new Second Life meeting rooms.

Perhaps Crowne Plaza execs understand the big picture when it comes to Second Life. Experimental marketing projects may come with experimental results. But how else are you going to learn?

There are plenty of other interesting projects going on in Second Life right now -- consider the 1 million trees project being promoted by Paull Young and Converseon.

My visits to are infrequent enough that when I log on to Second Life I have to download upgrade software...EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. This is just one reason that, while I think virtual worlds hold promise, Second Life is now in the trough of disillusionment.

This reminds me, veteran Second Life residents were pissed when marketers took a shine to their virtual world. And now that marketers are giving Second Life back to them, I'm sure they'll still manage to be offended.

tags | marketing | aloft | American Apparel | Crowne Plaza | Second Life

Comments

[Bryan Person, Monster Blogger]

At day-long conference of sorts -- in the physical world -- hosted by Linden Lab in Boston back in September, a Second Life developer said that the American Apparel store was a pure PR play from the start. The store went it up, AA got a ton of press over it, and never did much or anything more in Second Life to continue to engage in-world residents.

Seems plausible enough to me. But you have to admit, AA did get some great PR mileage out of the move. People are still using it as a an example in presentations of companies that are getting involved in Second Life.

Paying developers $100,000 to build a cool island is the easy part. The bigger challenge for companies is figuring out what to *do* with these fancy new spaces they've had built. "Build it, and they will come" usually isn't true in Second Life.

[Kevin Dugan]

Bryan - If PR was their goal, they definitely reached their goal. From what I've been reading, it looks like a brand that is serious about SL should not be focused on an island but more about integrating into the marketplaces that already exist and where the real business is going on in SL. Makes sense from a resource perspective too as it would be easier to accomplish and, perhaps, maintain.

Aloft's project and departure still makes sense to me. They launched a brand in second life, used feedback from visitors to tweak the design. Re-launched the design and now they are more focused on launching it in the real world. They built a following online that will surely want to see the hotel in real space.

Temporary projects like this are something most folks probably do not think about...not unlike temporary event blogs.

Thanks!