Coke announced and launched their official Second Life presence, Virtual Thirst, with a low-key press event in SL last Monday. Low-key is part of the strategy; as is the hope that Coke’s initiative will spread virally within and outside SL, according to Coke’s agency, crayon.
It inspired me to share some thoughts about marketing success in SL through the filter of some of the recent SL market research. Some of these general remarks here were also made over the weekend in SL during a presentation I made at the ITE Expo.
There was a question posed at Coke’s press event about how closely the “mean” demographic of SL (32-year old female) dovetails with Coke’s target market.
Michael Donnelly, Director Global Interactive Marketing for Coke admitted teens is Coke’s market “sweet spot,” but that they are also a “ubiquitous” brand so all consumers are important to Coke. C.C. Chapman of crayon quickly punted the question to the Second Life web site where the demographic information and SL statistics Linden Lab collects are available. C.C. did not want to offer an “interpretation of demographics,” probably based on the well-publicized debate about the meaning of LL’s numbers.
This puzzles me since there is credible demographic and behavioral data available to marketers that doesn’t require interpretation of LL statistics. There are at least three professional market research companies actively doing research in SL, gathering both detailed resident demographic information and credible in-world market data. One company, First Opinions Panel offers its growing research panel demographic data available free on their web site.
Besides this better demographic information, researchers are also releasing some insightful studies on resident attitudes towards brands that can help companies make informed decisions about their SL initiatives, strategies and audiences.
Some early and loud backlash caused many brands to tread so lightly in promoting their SL presence it borders on "sleuth marketing." Well, the research suggests that following such a strategy may wind up impeding the success of an SL brand presence.
Almost all the emerging market research shows that brands are welcome in SL - or at least not unwelcome. It suggests brands are however, doing a very poor job of employing an SL communications strategy to make their presences known and/or connecting with SL audiences (empty sims is different topic for another post).
A Reperes study about resident experience with brands in SL is particularly striking along these lines - and it supports the earlier Market Truths' research about unaided brand awareness of RL brands versus SL business. In the Reperes study 44% of respondents said they have visited a RL brand sim, and 42% said they would if they had the opportunity.
Also, 37% said they have talked about a RL brand in SL to a friend, and an equal number said they would if they had the opportunity.
Opportunity in SL is just a teleport away, so there is no real barrier to opportunity - except awareness, choice and appeal.
Word of mouth and RL media are the two most important information paths for SL. The SL search function is about equal to WOM in effectiveness - each reporting about 30% penetration, and blogs are next, at roughly 20%. Yet, many brand presences cannot be found via SL search, they are not actively engaging in blogger outreach, and not creating word-of-mouth-generating activities. There are a number of dedicated SL media outlets that are also highly under-utilized. As is any integration with RL marketing efforts.
Metrics is the holy grail of measuring a successful marketing initiative. Very few brands are integrating their SL presence with any RL marketing channels, such as a blog, a web site or a RL call to action. Because SL metrics are very immature, integration with RL channels is vital. Until SL metrics mature, that is the only hope for any real measure of success.
Most companies are hoping only, as Coke articulated, "to land well" in SL. That humble goal dismisses the opportunity to measure successful SL initiatives and diminishes the probability that brands will receive ROI and therefore have sound business reasons to stay on in SL.
April 23, 2007
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