It’s the Experience, Stupid!
News flash! 72% of survey Second Life residents are disappointed with brand presences in-world.
Yeah. We could’ve saved Komjuniti the time by taking them on a tour of the abandoned brand ruins, those monuments to Stalinesque architecture whose designers’ mottos must be "Bigger is better. So is brushed concrete." The ones whose traffic graphs would show a spike of activity on launch day, followed by a precipitous drop that has the head of marketing asking, "Why are we paying for this, again?"
But there’s more here than builds that instill feelings of dread and insignificance (though it sure doesn’t help). This feels a lot like the early days of the Web, when companies panicked, grabbed the nearest intern by the mullet and said, "Quick! We need a website! Take our latest brochure and copy it!" No company would do that today because everyone understands that what drives the Web is conversation. It’s not enough to push content onto an audience; people expect the ability to push back, and woe betide the organization that ignores its customers. They’ll create critical websites of their own, flood forums with negative reviews and take their business elsewhere.
So, if the Web’s core value is conversation, what drives virtual worlds? Interaction. Engagement. Experience. It’s not enough to make a replica of the company HQ or a giant mockup of your shaving cream can. You need to give your audience something to do, to make them a part of what you’re selling.
The Weather Channel, known for its bold and inventive programming like Your Weather Today, gets this, as shown by their new Weather Island build. Created to promote their series Epic (which could be subtitled Stupid Meteorological Tricks), Weather Island features different environments and the fun stuff people can do in them, like surfing and skiing. There’s also a little bit of, gasp, education in there, too. Notecards explain the mechanics of waves and avalanches and erosion, but I was too busy surfing to pay attention.
Despite the clunkiness of LSL, I had fun playing around on Weather Island, enough that I’ll probably come back so I can keep practicing. Now imagine if TWC started adding contests and special features for returning visitors, and you’ll start to get an idea of how to run a successful virtual world campaign. TWC has given residents free stuff, and its given them something to do with said stuff. Now, this doesn’t mean your ball bearing company has to make a game that features Rollo, The Happy Ball Bearing, and his adventures against the evil Friction Family. But it does mean you’ll have to think hard about what you’re trying to do in a virtual world and ask yourself: are you creating a new experience for your audience, or just another brochure?
