THOUGHT (aka Centric's Blog)

The press coverage of Second Life has reached a fever pitch. You’ve probably heard about it. You’ve heard about the high-profile brands entering the world, and you may even have attended some of the big-name events.

And you’re probably wondering, “How do I get in on this, too?”

It’s a good question. Do you sit back, like the first web boom, and say, “Well, nobody’s making money in Second Life?” Oh, wait, there’s Anshe Chung and her million. And all those big names. Including your competitors. So that’s out.

Or do you go in, buy as many islands as your marketing budget will allow, and start building grandiose structures? Oh, but wait, a sim will only support so many people. And beyond the initial press conference (and possible griefing), will anyone bother to show up? Many corporate builds are virtual ghost towns, while the nightclubs on the mainland do brisk business. And will your employees really use this virtual world as a collaboration space, without deep training in the nuances of controlling avatars, parcel media streaming options, object permissions, and even kludging together voice communication? The possibilities are endless, but the learning curve is steep.

Well, here’s an idea about how you can discover the world, learn the nuances, and make a lot of friends in the process. We call it the Region Reserve program, and it automatically allies your brand name with worthy causes in Second Life.

One of the problems with Second Life is, well, almost anyone can do almost anything. Including putting up fields of ugly banner ads, leaving half-built junk lying around, and in general fragmenting the landscape. This isn’t just an aesthetic issue—adfields can also cause performance problems and region crashing. Needless to say, they are one of the most-hated features of Second Life.

So here’s the idea:

• Pick a region to sponsor
• Buy up the adfields and trash land and clean them up
• Describe the land with your corporate name and charter
• Explain what you’re doing with the land on a simple monument
• Build forests, parks, beaches and other areas of natural beauty
• Repeat for as many sims as you would like

For Second Life residents, this means a more beautiful, better-performing world. For your brand, it means broad exposure, both in Second Life and in real world PR.

“Wait a minute,” you’re saying. “Not a dang thing here has a logo on it. How does anyone know what we’re doing in Second Life?” Well, in Second Life, every piece of land and every object is tagged with the owner, a name, and a description. So if an adfield dissappears overnight and is replaced by a lush forest, residents will look at the land description to see something like:

• Name: BigBrand Second Life Region Reserve
• Description: Beautifying Second Life, see www.BigBrandSL.com or visit Region (134, 22)
• Owner: Avatar Name (link to complete profile)

Also, once you own a significant amount of land, you can donate parts of it to worthy in-world causes, further enhancing your profile in Second Life.

Most importantly, Region Reserve gives you a home base in Second Life that integrates seamlessly with the world, and allows you to learn its nuances. You’ll make a lot of friends–people who have been in-world two or three years–friends who not only know the ropes, but have the answers many people are still looking for.

Want to learn more about Region Reserve? Talk to us–IM Fallon Winnfield in-world, or contact us here via email or phone.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 5th, 2006 at 12:05 pm and is filed under Ruminations. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.