With the explosive growth of social network sites like MySpace and Gather.com, it’s easy to overlook one of the fastest growing social media phenomena on the web. Second Life is a 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents. Since it went live in 2003, Second Life has grown explosively and today is inhabited by 236,562 people from around the world.
And while brands see opportunties in social media, none have yet exploited it as a brand testing ground. At least not as purposefully as Starwood Hotels. Next month, Starwood opens a virtual version of aLoft, its new hotel, on Second Life.
Here’s what Starwood says about it: “This September, Starwood will become the first company in history to open a new hotel brand inside of a virtual world. Prior to opening to the public in 2008, aloft hotels will offer a sneak preview inside of Second Life. As we build our virtual aloft hotel, this weblog will track the progress of the development, giving you an in depth insiders view of how a virtual hotel is created.”
The potential for testing new products within these kind of virtual universes is pretty mindpopping. There is absolutely no reason it couldn’t work for a lot of other brands. It would obviously be an unreal tool for realtors. Automobile manufacturers could gain far deeper insights into consumer reactions to new concepts than they’re capable of now. It’s a big idea and one that we see gaining real traction in the future.
And Duran Duran will be holding a virtual concert there soon, as well.
What’s next? Perhaps Harpoon Beer should have their annual October Fest in Second Life. Why doesn’t Mayor Menino make Boston the first virtual “real” city?
When does Hill, Holiday open its “Virtual Web Marketing” office in Second Life? This office could take advantage of the user-generated content trend (think CNN’s iReport and Scoopt.com) and have contests for Second Life citizens to design, create, and manage marketing campaigns. Hill, Holiday serves as GC and SL citizens as independant contractors.
I would suspect that the creativity quotient of SL citizens would be super high. Why not think outside the box further and tap into that creativity by bringing them into your efforts to create the bext marketing and advertising for your clients.
Perhaps the winner would be hired to work inside Hill, Holidays Virtual Web marketing office? Think of it as the Apprentice in virtual reality.
Tim, that is a fantastic idea and definitely worth looking into. Thanks for the feedback. Maybe we’ll see you soon in SL:)
IF! has interviews the team behind hthis build here:
http://if.psfk.com/when/archives/interview_with_marc_schiller_of_electricartists_on_the_aloft_second_life_hotel.html