Advertising in Second Life

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Introduction

Linden Lab does not provide any advertising capabilities other than our Search listings in Second Life. In general, it's important to understand that Linden Lab views Second Life as a platform and focuses its efforts on development and improvements of the platform. We do not create content or services within Second Life.

Here are some suggestions of ways to use Second Life as an advertising medium.

Second Life to drive blog coverage.

One way to advertise is by simply creating a presence in Second Life and publicizing it. Many Second Life Residents are active in blogs and other internet activities. Many companies have found their activities in Second Life generate significant mentions in web and blog postings. Images in Flickr and videos involving Second Life on YouTube are additional ways to activate buzz from Second Life. Examples are American Apparel 108K Google hits and Addidas (87K impressions from their Second Life presence).

Presence in Second Life

Some companies have found success with an ongoing presence in Second Life and driving visitors though related or unrelated events - technical talks (Intel), or concerts, for example. The key, as with a web site, is to provide fresh content that gives Residents a reason to visit and interact with you. Others have created places with activities to engage residents (Vodaphone and Weather Channel). As with real world properties (whether web or physical), to be successful you'll need to promote your presence and activity to the Second Life community through group notices, event notices, articles and ads in Second Life related periodicals, or any other means appropriate.

Active advertising in Second Life

The most difficult, but probably the most rewarding in the long term, is to create an active presence in Second Life that drives the message or experience you are trying to promote for your product or brand. If it's a product, you can script ways for people to interact with the Second Life version of the product. For example, while avatars don't need to eat or drink, if your product was a soft drink, you could provide a script that had people laugh and dance around whenever they took a 'virtual' drink. You could also provide a hat with your logo which people could give to others, creating viral distribution of your brand. The hat could be scripted so giving it to someone opened a website or a Second Life notecard with more information about the product, or a coupon for a discount on the product.

Distributed Advertising in Second Life

There are many popular venues in Second Life, from malls to clubs. Many of them will put up posters or kiosks that can distribute information, links, objects, or provide teleports to the sponsoring location, for a small fee.

Advertising networks in Second Life

There are a number of businesses that have built distributed advertising systems in Second Life, so you can pay by location and time to have your ad displayed. Some of the systems are limited to images, while others enable some level of interaction with content (link to a website, teleport to a location, a notecard with additional information and links). You'll find some of them listed in the Tools section of the Solution Provider Directory on the Second Life Grid website.

Person-to-person advertising

Several companies has been very successful in using avatars as a promotional vehicle. Avatars engage people in conversation and offer links to websites, coupons, or other direct follow-up actions. Some companies offer camping solutions at a per-lead cost. It has been comparable or lower in cost than other media. The quality of leads is questionable as the effectiveness of using static camping chairs as the primary driver for residents provides only small amounts of $L currency as the draw for participation. Imax was reportedly successful with this approach.

An expanded form of Person-to-person advertising can take the form of brand personification, whereas brand icons or personalities are realized in Second Life for engagement with residents. An example of this would be Nestle Nesquik where the Nesquik Bunny Avatar entered Second Life, attended a variety of events, handed out in-world bottles of Nesquik Drink, drove visits to several campaign websites, and assumed the role of 'event maestro" over the course of 4 mouths. Nestle Nesquik was purported to be a successful example of how real & relevant interaction yields emotional, non-breaking connections with brand personifications.

Media in Second Life

Every parcel in Second Life can incorporate an audio and video stream. You can simply publish a streaming URL for audio or video and any land owner can add your URL to their land to enable the stream. You will need to provide them with a reason to do that - good content, or payment, as well as publicizing your stream so residents know about it. In addition, there are radio and tv stations in Second Life which provide streaming broadcasts. These streams can incorporate advertising, as radio and tv do in real life.

Media in Second Life

In-world publications offer reasonable advertising rates for products and services.

Articles about advertising in Second Life

• New Program Guarantees Visitors to Your Business
• Advertising in Second Life
• In 'Second Life,' a Virtual Ad Agency Arises
• While not exactly about advertising, this article has some ideas about advertising in Second Life:

Advertising Dos and Don'ts

Advertising networks in Second Life

These are links to companies with ad networks in Second Life. Some of these are listed in the Tools directory on the Second Life Grid website.

• Search in SLClassifieds under Services
• SL Business Directory - A lot of second life advertising services, including free ones: guaranteed visitors, picks booster, Second Life search analysis tools. Free categorized listing of SL businesses, a largest one at the moment.
• Mainostaulu Network - seems to be gone
• Subscribeomatic
• Moderne Interactive - Formerly TheSLAgency
• SLContext Ads
• Apez.promote advertising service
• RezAds Grid-Wide Advertising
• SLearth Advertising Network
• RezzMe Advertising
• Crash-Vertisement

In-World Media and Publication, Magazines

• Second Life Business News magazine
• Role Magazine
• The Best of SL Magazine
• Second Style Magazine
• Sxy2nd Magazine
• Prim Perfect Magazine
• Essence of Style Magazine
• Avenue Magazine

See also

• Second Life Radio & TV
• Best Neighbor Ad Hiding Script
• A listing of resident traffic to commercial properties (Tateru's Mixed Reality Headcount
• Marketing Your Products In Second Life