Verdino On Second Life

Greg Verdino of Digitas has been very out spoken lately about  brand presence in Second Life. His most recent statements have been in Mediapost and while I think a lot of what he says is dead on, we are not on the same page in all areas (which I love, it keeps me thinking. Thanks Greg :) ).


Verdino say the following;



A common error is to establish a beachhead and then never show up at it



100% agree!


This is one of the biggest problems that I have with current brand initiatives in Second Life. Many brands are not leveraging the inherent value of this immersive environment. The marketers and media planners that are treating SL as just another media buy are way off the mark.


There are a few issues that Verdino brings up that are very relevant, however I do not feel they should necessarily be deterrents for brands.



  • Verdino talks about the ever present sexual culture in SL. While this is true, this is true in all facets of life and was never more true than in the early days of the Internet. While I think this should be a concern it certainly should not be a deal breaker. If close attention is paid by marketers and programmers, risks can be mitigated to a large degree.


  • Next Verdino says,

    •    Pretty much anything goes, anywhere. "Do I as a brand want to take the risk of a bunch of nude people walking around my SIM while I'm trying to engage consumers?"



  • My response to that is, of course not but, there are certain permissions and policing that can occur. It is not easy to do but again, this should not be a deal breaker (Verdino does not explicitly say these things are deal breakers by the way). In terms of anything goes, well, this is not entirely true.


  • Verdino says;

    •     "It's great for the geek elite, but your mom is not likely to be in Second Life anytime soon."



  • It took my mom a very long time to adopt the 2d web. It was not a matter of her adoption curve, rather it was a function of the tools becoming more user friendly. With the open sourcing of the SL client, I predict we will see a lot of changes. When the entire platforms becomes open source I feel that SL will become much more user friendly.

  • Finally the article mentions that Verdino predicts that other platforms will overtake Second Life. This is a very safe prediction as there are so many emerging virtual worlds. I for one am rooting for Second Life as, the premise on which it is built and the company that founded it are very true and I feel they have a very sincere passion for what they are doing.



Bottom line, Verdino is doing a great job of advising brands on the pro's and con's of Second Life (from what I have seen). Greg, if you read this, I cannot wait for more from you as it keeps me sharp.



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