Archive for August, 2007

I’m convinced that the worlds of social networking and multiplayer online games (MMOGs) will soon be one.

They moved a step closer today. It was annouced that superbig Japanese ad agency Dentsu (bless you!) is putting a virtual Tokyo on marketers’ favorite alternate univese, Second Life. They paid many Yen for the virtual landspace, but are convinced the investment will reap big rewards from brands who wish to have a presence in their new virtual city.

It’s funny, but the online virtual worlds found in MMOGs - of which Second Life is loosely one - are usually strange and mystical ones that offer an escape from the humdrom of everyday “real” life, but in Second Life one is being created that more and more is starting to resemble the Real Thing (now there’s an idea - a world EXACTLY like our own called “The Real Thing” and sponsored by Coke). Soon they’ll be so similar, there’ll be little point in going to visit the virtual version. Or will it be the other way around….?

I was pretty uninspired by the sound of Google’s new ad service on YouTube that was announced Tuesday. The way it’s described in the media, about 15-seconds into the video a semi-transparent image appears on the bottom portion of the screen, inviting viewers to click for more information. It disappears after 10 seconds if the viewer doesn’t respond and the viewer can rid of it earlier if desired.

I thought companies like Google got the need to move away intrusive ads. With its Adwords program had found an innovative - and hugely lucrative way - to show “sponsored links” without getting in the way. Yes, apparently Google’s data shows that people don’t mind ads on YouTube, but if that’s the best the Big G can do then I’m not impressed. For years now the TV boys have been using this method of putting ads on the bottom of their shows to plug the next one or some upcoming special, and it ain’t that pretty.

Far more interesting is the idea that you, as a online video viewer, can click things in the video itself to find out more. The technology is available now and it would be fun not knowing by clicking onto something what comes up. Do you remember when VH1 was good they had those bubbles that would pop up on music videos giving spurious info about the person dancing in the background or whatever? Why can’t YouTube do the same, but with the viewer doing the searching? Some clicks could lead to inance and noncommercial funny factoids and others to retailers websites.

Let the viewer do some of the work - they’ll love you for it. If Punk Marketing is about anything it’s about consumers being active participants the conversation not just passive recipients of the information.

This is just a bizarre story.

A resident of virtual world Second Life is suing another resident for trademark and copyright infringement. The avatar Stroker Serpentine has taken exception to another avatar, Volkov Catteneo, for copying his software that allows one avatar to have sex with another. Sex beds
are, according to Second Life newspaper The Second Life Herald, a staple of the SC economy and the lawsuit claims that Catteneo has copied Serpentine’s version, which retails for the equivalent of about $45 in the virtual world, and is selling it for a third of the price, thus depriving the former of profits. Part of the problem for Serpentine is finding the identity of the person behind the Catteno’s avatar so he can sue his virtual ass.

This all leads to a the question of why would anyone pay money for their avatar to have sex?

Or am I just being naive?

Perhaps the lawsuit is a ploy by creators of Second Life, Linden Labs, to keep the publicity machine for it going for the virtual world and keep revenue coming in?

Or am I just being cynical?

A study released by The Keller Fay Group, a New Brunswick, NJ, consultancy that features in Brandweek reveals that teens talk about brands twice as much as older folk do: 145 times a week on average according to the study. Like, er, wow!

The brands they mention are, not surprisingly, the ones they consume like iPod and Wii. Mostly, we imagine, when it comes to the iPod, conversations about how goddam irritating it is that whenever you log onto iTunes to update your iPod, you get innundated for days afterwards with spam about the latest new toons.

In fact, to support the assertion that a lot of what these young ‘uns are taking about is not all rosy, the study revealed that only 58% of the conversations about brands are positive, compared to 64% with adults. Hmm. So we guess not all brand chatter is good chatter.