Here is a link to the Second Life Marketing Conference taking place in New York on September 24th-26th.

Note Bene: This is not our conference but we may be slated to speak there. Please contact us for a discount.

Combinedstory is pleased to announce publication of “The Virtual Brand Footprint: The Marketing Opportunity in Second Life” co-authored by combinedstory, DMD New York, and Market Truths.

http://www.combinedstory.com/combinedstory_whitepaper.pdf

The white paper is designed to be both a quick read and extensive resource. The comprehensive appendix will help you navigate the compelling world of Second Life and really get a feel for virtual worlds.

-Dimitri

Business week published an article today titled ‘The End Of Work As You Know It‘ where it was argued the concept of the workplace and the employer/laborer relationship are changing as a result of increased connectivity (virtual worlds, social networks et cetera). The article discusses the evolution of the workplace using a variety of anecdotes representing the forthcoming change.

The reason why I bring up this article, besides its obvious relevance, is because it brings forth an interesting and divisive point at the end of the article–questioning what “technology’s ultimate impact on workers” will be.

In discussing virtual worlds, while asserting my belief in it becoming an essential tool of the future, I often get bombarded with the generic concern that the entrance of virtual worlds marks the end of true social interaction and the ultimatum of superficiality.

In tandem, Business Week raises two pertinent questions:

1) Will this be a new world of empowered individuals encased in a bubble of time-saving technologies?

2) Or will it be a brave new world of virtual sweatshops, where all but a tech-savvy few are relegated to an always-on world in which keystrokes, contacts, and purchases are tracked and fed into the faceless corporate maw?

And their response:

“It’s safe to say we’ll see some of both. But perhaps we can comfort ourselves by realizing that, while technology will change the nature of work, it can’t change human nature. “All of these technologies,” says Charles Grantham, executive producer of the research group Work Design Collaborative, “aren’t going to be a substitute for face-to-face interaction.”"

Business week tackled this point well. Human nature is human nature. The rise of virtual environments and other collaborative and social metaverses are not meant to replace human interaction, but simply augment it (at least for now). This is the underlying supposition of progress.

Click here to read Business Week’s article

Executed by This Second Marketing LLC., a series of avatars were recruited and paid real world wages to act as virtual “Buzz Agents” for the new IMAX Harry Potter film, “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.”

The Hollywood Reporter presented a story earlier this week on the success of this campaign, and noted that it was a marketers dream come true.

Greg Foster, chairman and president of Imax Filmed Entertainment, said, “Reaching 15,000 people in exactly the demographic you’re shooting over seven days is sort of hitting the marketing bonanza.”

As the Hollywood Reporter noted, “the campaign logged 25,189 individual Imax brand interactions when including all conversations with Second Life avatars, many of which occurred on more than one occasion.”

Click here to read Hollywood Reporter’s article.