Survey: 70% of of Users Disappointed With Marketing Efforts in Second Life

Authored by Jay Baage on March 27, 2007 - 2:07pm.

More than 70% of Second Life users say they are disappointed with the marketing that goes on in SL, according to a new survey by Komjuniti, a Hamburg, Germany, research firm. Second Lifers see a lot of the companies as simply opportunistic and not really interested in developing a long-term presence in Second Life that benefits its inhabitants. Komjuniti further gives a blow to SL by stating that marketing in World of Warcraft is more effective.

“The brand sites on Second Life currently look like they’re being treated in pretty much the same way as [traditional] advertising campaigns,” said Dr. Nils Andres, managing director of Komjuniti to Brandweek. They have been “placed with the hope of getting high visitor frequency and good PR scores.”

Second Lifers have become more and more skeptical of traditional marketing on the site and the wave of companies looking to get free publicity by riding on the buzz surrounding Second Life.

“They expect more creativity, more inspiration, and not vertical influence the old and traditional way of the 60-second spot,” said Andres.

In addition to not liking the marketing they saw, 42% of all respondents doubted companies’ would actually put much follow-up effort into the site.

Catherine Smith, Linden Labs’ Director of Marketing, says that Linden Lab have been telling the companies that want to do marketing in Second Life this all along:

“If you are not authentic and do not offer anything to the community, you are likely to be ignored”, she said.

One of the reasons that marketers may not stick around the site is because the actual number of regular users is far lower than what they had expected.

Linden Labs and the media have made much of the site’s three million users. However the number of people who use the site regularly are probably a tenth of that total, according to analysts.

“Marketers are just following the hype without thinking about the proportion of investments and alternatives in the market,” said Nils Andres.

He claims Second Life’s numbers pale when compared to those of something like the online game World of Warcraft.

“If you compare WoW and Second Life, the ratio and effectiveness of marketing communication is way better in WoW than in SL.”

Joakim Baage

Note. Some of the world's top companies as well as innovative marketers in this space will be at Digital Media Wire's upcoming The Millennials Conference at UCLA on April 18, 2007.

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Related Links:
Are Marketers Dying on Second Life (Brandweek)
http://www.komjuniti.com/
Second Life
World Of Warcraft

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Comments

Study "Komjunity"

Submitted by 79th (not verified) on April 30, 2007 - 9:33am.

Hi! Interesting study - but cant find it anywhere... No announcement on the web site, no answer to any mail to Komunjuti... Normally dont trust a study u dont know the methodic... Or does anyone know more? 79th