Throughout my semester, I dwelled in the depths of Second Life and encountered numerous ways in which media and brands enter people lives. Honestly, I do not remember the last time I saw an advertisement in a magazine . Nor, do I remember the last time I heard a radio commercial. As a 22-year-old rising senior in Integrated Marketing Communications , I should be paying more attention to traditional mediums of advertising. But, I don’t. Because I find myself wraped up in other means of advertising . I am not your typical Generation Yer ; you can reach me but it’s much harder to get me...

Recently, brand agency, Komjuniti , conducted the first customer survey on SL residents or people who have spent a quality amount of time toying and living in SL. People and owners of brands are beginning to wonder if they really should place their brand in an online virtual world. Many others, even their competitors, have already done it. My own personal advice is not to place your brand right next to a bondage toy store. I mean, its like real life. Remember: Location, Location, Location. I wouldn’t imagine seeing a John Edwards headquarters in the “live entertainment” strip...

“Right from the very beginning, the goal with the company has been to build up a surf community with regular events that can either be social or competitive, it’s really all about building community,” she said. Namiko Surf Co. partnered up with Weather Island (The Weather Channel) to create EPIC surf competition in Second Life. The next competition will take place tomorrow, April 14 1:00pm SLT on Moana’lina Beach, Weather Island. Virtual surfers were registered for the competitions as of Thursday. The surfers will compete to will lindens and other various prizes. Sponsoring this...

Voice in Second Life: Beta Test Opens! A private beta program on a test-grid for 1,000 users will be launched early in March before a Grid-wide beta trial. This will give current Second Life Residents the opportunity to explore the benefits of voice-enabled communication. A formal launch is scheduled for Q2, 2007. During the beta program Residents will be able to test the use of voice under three scenarios: Scenario 1 – Residents can teleport to voice-enabled land and automatically start speaking. The volume of speech is then modified according to their spatial relationship with others. Up...

There now exsits a new way for people who want to make money in Second Life to keep track of visitors. It will help residents in SL to easily navagate and rate places they visit. A new tool develped by Slicr Holdings (Second Life Community Ratings Service), founded in December by Vitis Obviate and Hiro Market, recently released the beta version of the Slicr HUD for testing to the general public for a nominal fee of L$1. The HUD allows many different functions to play with: a search and rating system for locations (ie, businesses that are hard to find or entertainment islands). It also includes...

H&R Block is another business that has decided to drive into the depths and trends of user-generated content in SL. Company Purpose: Brand awareness, build brand loyalty, helps people with their taxes online but in real time virtual context. The HR Block island looks great. Nice layout and well branded. I had easy time getting around with the location teleport maps. Walking gave my avatar lower back pains, though. Honestly, I wish I had some questions for these guys. Tax consultants are available in-world to talk to in the meeting rooms on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 6-7p.m. PST time. READ...

Two of my professors from recently attended the Virtual Worlds 2007 : The future of marketing and media conference in New York City to discover how businesses are measuring out. Or not measuring… They came back with full notebooks; each one loaded with statistics, cramed with businesses recent experiment and summariers off all the speakers and businesses concerning the long awaited ROI measurements. Still how do they measure? How do businesses measure and figure out there leads through SL dividing the amoiunt of time by the amount of $$$. Many said its not there yet. In one of the latest...

An article I read in Adweek stuck my attention concerning the lackluster of Second Life. Constantine von Hoffman of Brandweek talks about the dissappointment of makreting that is going down in the virtual world. Businesses entering SL still have no clue what they should be doing. If I had a business, I wouldn’t have the attitude of “if we build it, they will come.” This notion is in no way possible for such a new media channel like SL. While making yummy lunch today, I noticed the Web site address on the new garden hot sauce I purchased. Good for them. Now I can learn more...

The “Got Milk” advertising campaign made advertising look pretty sweet for a while. The infamous Aaron Burr commercial I believe will never be forgotten. I mean, this guy REALLY desperately needed a nice cold soothing glass of milk. This “got milk?” was also one of the concepts with the most novelist expression. It even stresses out the emotional type viewers. I felt for the guy even. One thing I truly do NOT fancy about good advertising is when some smarty pants consumes the idea and they puke it back out onto $19.99 T-Shirts and matching bumper stickers. I witnessed...

I miss my manual cam… Imsprout : Flickr