Phil’s Supermarket is slated to open in Second Life with grand ceremonies tomorrow, May 7 at 8:30 a.m. SLT. Kraft Foods is showcasing more than 70 new food and beverages in the virtual market as well as sponsoring its SL version of the Kraft Food Institute.
Phil Lempert is the “Phil†of Phil’s Supermarket. He also happens to be MSNBC’s Today Show Food editor and contributor, food marketer extraordinaire and every-media personality.
Phil's Supermarket on Food Island is as intriguing a build as it is expansive. From my solo tour and sneak-preview it looks like a lot of food education, events, and discussions will be going on. Rick’s Wine Cellar has all the trappings of a vibrant wine education center. There are “frequent shopper†incentives, and email interface to product information. There are little community applications sprinkled around like gifting virtual items to other avatars.
The Focus Group and Forum areas suggests Kraft will be doing some serious market research with avatar shoppers.
According to Phil’s website, SL shoppers will be able to pre-shop for real world items – and he is promising over 100,000 items in the virtual store by summer’s end. Shoppers will be able to personalize product lists, recipes and nutritional profiles and receive real world coupons. Phil plans to host celebrity chefs and cooking demos, all manner of food seminars and offer expert advice from Betty the Baker and Fred the Fishmonger. The Supermarket Guru Podcasts will take questions from the Second Life audience.
All signs point to an ambitious and truly integrated RL-SL marketing presence that just might set a standard.
During a mixed reality event from the Food Marketing Institute Supermarket Convention being held this week in Chicago, Kraft will be making a donation of $450,000 to American’s Second Harvest – the Nation’s Food Bank Network to commemorate Phil’s Supermarket virtual grand opening. You too can make a donation at Phil’s Supermarket at Food 118, 94, 28.
[update 5-7]: As I suspected based on the scale of this initiative, IBM has a hand in bringing Phil's Supermarket to life and will support the project going forward. Toyshoppe Productions is responsible for all the design and scripting. It is obvious that "marketing" is only a part of the mix - that new business touchpoints are being developed here and new merchandising concepts prototyped. This is a build that is clearly going beyond marketing.
At the opening ceremonies, it was announced that America's Second Harvest will have a permanent home in SL at Phil's Supermarket.
You can find lots more photos here.
May 6, 2007
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