I was not going to write about this, as I figured everyone would be blogging about this today. Still, it is what is on the brain, and I cannot help it!
I am not sure that I would have been a big fan of episode sans the Second Life, but it was really funny hearing terms like Cosplay, Teleport and Avatar on mainstream broadcast television.
Did This Get A New Audience For Second Life? Does That Even Matter?
Obviously this was great press for Second Life, but I am sure that is not what CBS and The Electric Sheep Company had in mind when they produced this show.
CBS taught the advertising world a lesson in cross platform brand integration (CBS brand and Cisco Brands), while The Sheep took a page from Jenkin's Convergence Culture and put it on a pedestal and made it shine.
For those of you that have not been following the experience, have a look at the quote from an interview with one of The Sheep, Damon Taylor,
I think it's fair to say that the Second Life experience is feeding off the television show. It's unclear at this point whether or not what happens in the virtual world will feed back or influence what happens on the show in the February 2008 sequel, but that will be determined by the producers at CBS. We wanted to connect with a storyline from tonight's show for our Second Life experience, and we have three main game experiences for CSI:NY in Second Life. We have a mystery game, and we will release a new one about every three weeks, which involves a crime scene, a crime lab, and suspects. It will be a 20-30 minute experience, and users can go to the crime scene, pick up evidence, process it, follow leads, and then choose the suspect they they committed the murder.
Was This A Success?
YES!
I don't care what the numbers say, nor do I care whether or not CBS or any of the involved parties thought it was a success. I have said this before and I will say it again, Experimentation Is The Mother Of Innovation and it is this type of large scale experiment that pushed the whole industry forward.
My job as a marketing/media strategist has been enhanced due to this experiment, and for that I tip my hat to all involved parties.
My Favorite Message Board Comment
I recommend heading over to the CBS CSI NY message boards and have a look what the community is saying. One of my favorite comments is,
Hey-- I'm a baby boomer too, and I loved it!!! I'm going to try to figure out how to play it.
What a great small victory :)
Tags: second life, CSINY, CSI, virtual worlds, CBS, Cisco, brand integration, convergence, transmedia storytelling, The electric sheep company