If I had to guess, many of you have heard of Second Life, but probably don't know exactly what it is. Second Life is a virtual world that is available to users on the internet. It allows people to interact with one another through the world using characters known as avatars. Users can customize their characters to look however they want and they can explore the world of second life (known as the grid).
Currently, there are over 20 million people registered for second life. This sounds like a marketer's dream; a internet "world" where marketers can have more control over whether their advertisements are visible, as opposed to the real world, where people can select what they pay attention to. There are already several companies utilizing the Second Life opportunity; such companies as Coke, Dell, and Coldwell Banker have some sort of presence. As people play the game, they come across advertisements and can even use the companies' products in the game.
Unfortunately, it is easy for users to tune these ads out. For the most part, it is up to the user what they see and use. For example, one of the better known aspects of the game is that characters can fly as a means of transportation. This is only used for short distances, teleportation is used for longer distances and is much more popular. For this reason, most of these ads are skipped over. Also, many of these companies operate on islands and they are only accessible through teleportation, so users elect not to go to these islands.
While marketing through Second Life sounds like a great idea, due to the large amount of users, it seems like it isn't very effective. If users are able to avoid the advertisements, and people are typically apt to ignore them, then odds are they will skip over yours if you choose to put it on there. If it were up to me, I probably wouldn't choose to advertise on this social media outlet.
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