Second Life Marketing: Still Strong

Almost exactly two years ago, a BusinessWeek cover story about Second Life sparked a swarm of interest from real-world companies looking to advertise in the user-created virtual world. Most of the early efforts were glorified 3D billboards that drew little reaction, and so the gold rush quickly died down. But that doesn't mean the notion of marketing in virtual worlds died with it. The three largest "metaverse" ad agencies have merely shifted their focus to worlds with larger user bases and less free-form creativity than Second Life. And new marketing campaigns continue to show up in Second Life as well.

Despite downbeat reports in Wired magazine and elsewhere, more than a dozen metaverse agencies are still developing virtual ad campaigns for major real-world clients, often returning impressive results. Last year, for example, a tiny San Francisco agency called This Second Marketing rolled out an avatar-driven promotional effort for the IMAX screening of the latest Harry Potter movie. "A huge proportion of our opening weekend tickets came from advance Internet purchases, and a large number of those people came from interacting on Second Life," one IMAX executive told the Hollywood Reporter.

So what kind of virtual world advertising campaigns are working?

Read more here.