I was all set to add post number 5 on the Trends and Truisms list when I saw a comment on post number 4 from my new friend Kirk Skodis over at Real Pie Media. I meet Kirk through Joseph Jaffe's Month Of Experimentation. Following that Kirk and I decided to make a joint donation to One Laptop Per Child . Now, after looking through Kirk's work I am a huge fan and have gotten completely sidetracked by his Facebook App for Bucket List. (Kirk, we need to hop on a call soon, I may need you to create me an App :) )
I got so side tracked that I created my own Bucket List:
In reference to post number four Kirk had this to say
"You’ll often hear me asking new clients if they have the in-house resources to carry on the conversation with frequency and transparency post launch. I think advertisers are still stuck in the old, 1.0 agency mindset that post-launch activity is limited to measurement and evaluation of the campaign. The social media or conversational campaign must be nurtured and maintained on a daily basis"
Followed by this;
"Didn’t we learn anything from the ghost-towns in Second Life?"
I could not agree more with Kirk, and I don't take his comment about Second Life as a negative comment on the platform itself. I take it as a call to marketers to be more thorough with your initiatives and not to go for the quick hit.
Anyhow, this was a major digression from what today's post was supposed to be and I love it, thanks Kirk!
And Now For The Original Post! #5
2007 was a tremendous year for the Virtual World space. While virtual worlds such as Gaia Online, Habbo Hotel, Wee World, Webkinz and many others saw great successes, many marketers equate virtual worlds with Second Life, and even more of these marketers think Second Life was a failure.
Well, for all you marketers that think Second Life was a failure, and subsequently think virtual worlds were a failure, you have another thing coming. Sure, there were a great number of failed campaigns in Second Life, but I blame the marketers for these campaigns, not the platform.
Expect to hear the words, “virtual worlds” a lot more in 2008 and don’t forget, it is not synonymous with 3D environments. Don’t let the jargon confuse you, we have been living in virtual worlds for a long time!
Tags: virtual worlds, 3d web, second life, habbo hotel, Gaia Online, Wee World, Webkinz, kirk skodis, real pie media, bucket list, facebook apps, jospeh jaffe, jaffe juice, one laptop per child