Aap! - Alternative Advertising Possibilities

Last night two of the senior partners at Aap!Global ventured for the first time into the exciting, surreal, and captivating world of Second Life, the online virtual reality chat world in which anyone can create nearly any kind of place or area within its world.

Second Life allows you to be anyone you want, your avatar is fully customizable and users are given tools to add to and edit in the Second Life world and participate in its economy. The majority of the content in the Second Life world is resident-created.  From giant casinos to a mockup corporate building resembling the Matrix to a giant strange building selling lighting equipment, the world is filled with overly creative people building what only their dreams can imagine.

When you first join, one arrives at Tutorial Island where through a lengthy but straightforward tutorial one learn the complex controls over the system.  Most importantly, like the “meatspace� world , slang for the real world, appearances matter.  Avatars are fully customizable with myriad variations of skin tone, eye color, hair type, clothing, shoes, and so on.   Building in Second Life is similar to using a 3-d modeling program like Blender.  The strange thing was the more I met other people in the world, the more I felt a particular desire to improve the appearance of my avatar.

After finishing your time through the tutorial, you are transported to a standard starting area. Here you can move through the world by walking, teleporting, or flying. The last is definitely the most fun.

Second Life is an open toy chest of fun.  The world is constantly changing as the players add and change the entire landscape. Creativity is rampant  the range of customization present particularly impressed us.  Our stock avatars looked simple compared to the “flurries� or animal like avatars and even more dull compared to the transformer robot and giant winged black angel walking next to us.  Definitely impressive.

Rosedale, president and founder of the Linden Lab, the company responsible for this particular engine stated that his goal with Second Life is to demonstrate a viable model for a virtual economy or virtual society. In his own words, “I’m not building a game. I’m building a new country.”  Lofty goals but he might have achieved them.

For simple users like us, Second Life lets you explore the world and interact with the other denizens and their creations for a one-time charge of $9.95.

If you want however to add your own creative touch to the world and make a permanent addition of your own, there are is a range of monthly charges depending on how BIG you want to get.  Users pay commissions on landed purchased or rented and can then make money off of these holdings.  The virtual economy is ruled by a singular monetary called the Linden Dollar at today’s exchange rate – 250 Linden dollars equals 1 USD.  Millions of real dollars are exchanged between the two worlds.  Players / residents exchange them for a variety of virtual and real services.  From buying virtual land, to selling pre-made outfits, to running a virtual tattoo shop, users have ported many real life professions to the virtual world. Residents spend—in Linden dollars—the equivalent of $5 million a month on transactions for in-world products and services. Introducing real-world brands is just a logical step.  Things are getting more interesting.

So what’s in it for us?

Both real and virtual companies are using the space to target a hard to reach early adopter demographic as the line between virtual and real world blurs.

Lets explore some recent examples of advertisers in the Second Life world.

‘American Apparel’ Establishes ‘Second Life’ Island

Clothier American Apparel will soon officially launch its own island, store, and clothing inside the virtual world of Second Life. Famed Second Life resident Aimee Weber headed up the building of the island, which, as she told me during an in-world chat, will operate as a beach resort hangout. “The idea is that by making a public space where people enjoy hanging and holding events, it will help generate some exposure for the AA brand,” Weber said. American Apparel’s own architect was involved in the project, giving Weber floorplans for a store, and offering consultation. Weber in turn offered the company insight into Second Life’s digital nuances. She’s particularly proud of the faux lighting applied to the store exterior. By day, the store is lit by the sun. By night, the exterior appears to be lit by floodlights.

Unlike a handful of recent big-business appearances in Second Life, American Apparel seems to be taking a sensible, integrated approach to creating a lasting brand experience. Fashion is possibly the biggest industry in Second Life (aside from the sex industry)–surely official American Apparel merchandise will sell well in the virtual world, possibly resulting in real-world sales, too. It’s conceivable that the company could also offer new clothing exclusively in Second Life, or even use the virtual world as a place to test new clothing lines.

With American Apparel in the game, can other real-world clothiers be far behind? Will the effort be worth it? How will the businesses of Second Life’s native fashionistas be affected?â€? ( American Apparel information from Clickable Culture blog)

We commend American Apparel for this creative usage of a new marketing space.  It fits with the worlds demographic and targets a real demand – fashion items in the virtual economy.

So you Think only hip brands are advertising virtually?  Read about Wells Fargo attempt at an online world to reach young adults – a tactic that we are less favorable on.

A press release from the company reads:

“Stagecoach Island – Industry’s First Virtual Reality Online Game to Help Young Adults with Financial Literacy�

With the help of Swivel Media, Wells Fargo’s Stagecoach Island aims to teach young adults how to handle their finances, presumably by using Wells Fargo’s financial services.

Well Fargo’s move into virtual space doesn’t necessarily indicate that big business is taking game-like environments seriously–rather it shows that Linden Lab has successfully positioned its Second Life world as a viable marketing platform. With Second Life membership now free, however, it remains to be seen what the incentive of visiting a bank-sponsored virtual island might be. While we applaud the idea, the business PR that it might generate – I don’t understand why teens, or any virtual reality residents would be interested in visiting.

Sounds like a cool idea – right? But what about the negative potential – Will residents like the idea of their world a giant advertisement?

Tony Walsh of Clickable culture is worried:

“While resident-created advertising can be found almost everywhere in Second Life, the Wells Fargo portion of the virtual world is not normally accessible to members of the so-called “Main Grid”–for all purposes, Wells Fargo branding isn’t seen by the general population. There are bound to be strong reactions to real-world advertising once it invades the Main Grid, particularly if avatars themselves are used as an ad medium. Community-created ads are one thing. Corporate ads are sure to be another, although arguably such ads are already in-world. Currently there are innumerable corporate IP violations executed by Second Life residents. Linden Lab does little to remove or address such infringements, let alone prevent them. Once big business becomes a way of life in Second Life, I think we’ll see pressure on Linden Lab to begin actively policing intellectual property issues. Definitely there will be changes to the Terms of Service to forbid residents from damaging brands. If the future of cyberspace is a corporate theme park, count me out.â€?

I can’t imagine kids, or young adults ever wanting to learn financial education in a virtual world and while we don’t want costs were associated with the project, I think it creates more PR and buzz for WellsFargo than its intended educational effect.  Nice try, but not very exciting.   I for one am not running to try out the virtual banking training institute.

And while the current quoted 280,000 residents of the system is enticing how many people join in the world on a regular basis? Is this a fad or long lasting phenomena?  Will this explode to a level reach more populations?  Do the virtual residents really want their virtual paradise turned into a corporate playground?  With video games now becoming another target space for advertising – creative real world brands will probably link up effectively to reach these virtual residents.

And while this new marketing world and demographic comes loaded with barriers and challenges – IE technology still in development, possible resistance to real-world commercial sabotaging and privacy concern – we are definitely curious to see where this is all going.

For now we’re content with trying to figure out how to get Aap!Rails – escalator handrails advertising set up for residents of Second Life.   If you see a virtual escalator be sure to contact our Virtual resident – Aap!Global – he’s a giant gorilla stomping on the ground surfing on a giant banana shaped board.

Want more - Get started!

Go to secondlife.com – download the client – walk around for yourself – create – explore, enjoy.

Want more on theory and concept of Advatering – Read what Paul Hemp from the Harvard Business Review thinks in his detailed introduction to “Avatar Based Marketing�

Tell us what you think – have you gone virtual?