Ads for Upcoming SL Event "Cinema" Are Fun and Clever... But Could Use a Bit More Information!

Iris Ophelia's ongoing review of gaming and virtual world style

I'm head-over-heels for these clever ads for an upcoming movie-themed fashion fair in Second Life, called Cinema, which will be running from October 15th to the 31st. To get people excited for and interested in the event, coordinator RubyStarlight Writer collaborated with SL photographer extraordinaire Strawberry Singh, Photoshop maven Anya Ohmai, and event sponsors to create a series of mock movie posters advertising sponsoring brands. You can click through each image to go to the original Flickr page for a better look, and I highly recommend that you do. Each poster is aesthetically perfect, right down to the font choice.

But... I do have to admit that there is just one little problem with these posters:

Not a single one of them mentions the dates of the event, or a site for it. These details are mentioned in the Flickr descriptions for each pic, but if you think that's enough, consider how they're being spread, namely over Plurk.

When you share a Flickr link on Plurk it embeds the image next to the Plurk discussion. You can click through or copy the link to see the original Flickr page, but unless someone wants to add a picture to their favorites the average user probably isn't clicking through. It doesn't take long for pics this gorgeous to spread beyond the core group that's already in the know about the event, and a lot of them may just assume these are purely ads for the sponsors' stores independant of an actual event. They are ads for those sponsors, but the connection to the event is deliberate and it wouldn't damage the aesthetic to include it a little more prominently -- especially the date! Movie posters have release dates all the time, and the addition of one would be a much more direct nod to Cinema itself. It would help people know it was something worth watching out for, and not just an incredibly well-done set of pictures from the active SL Flickr community.

Whether you agree with me or think the pictures are just fine as they are, be sure to check out Ruby's Flickr stream to see more, and don't forget to visit Cinema on October 15th! Click here for all the details!

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Iris Ophelia (Janine Hawkins IRL) has been featured in the New York Times and has spoken about SL-based design at the Fashion Institute of Technology in Manhattan and with pop culture/fashion maven Johanna Blakley.

Comments

[Adeon Writer]

Very nice artwork though!

[melponeme_k]

The first mock ad is creepy.

[Douglas Story]

My RL job is doing advertising and promotion for television shows and (sometimes) movies, and I'll tell you that Iris' comments are spot-on. They left out what we call, "the marketing." That is the equivalent of the tune-in day and time.
Great work on the images, but bad on information.

[Hamlet Au]

Yeah, agreed. I always bring up a related point: About 30-60% of my blog traffic comes from Google searches and referred links (Twitter, FB, Reddit), etc., so it's crazy to assume these people are going to even know a post (or image) is from Second Life, let alone what they're supposed to do with it, if you don't CLEARLY TELL THEM.

[Harlow Heslop]

I think these ads are absolutely outstanding. The artistic work and the time spent on them has been pretty impressive, and they've been some of the best ads that, IMO have graced Second Life. As for the lack of information on the posters, I think I personally kind of like the mysterious aspect to them. I think it makes people ask questions and it gets people talking. Mad props to Ruby, Berry, and Anya for such spectacular work on them!

[RubyStarlight Writer]

Hi! Thank you so much for the coverage of these amazing posters for Cinema that I had commissioned. I'm really glad you like them, as I am extremely proud of the concept and production of them.

While plurk has been a useful tool in the marketing of my events, there are certainly many more people who see the posters directly from flickr. There are, of course, other marketing strategies in place as well.

I feel that the majority of plurk is aware of Cinema and will not lack in information at all. But I am counting on far more people than the small sampling of SL that is found on plurk to be attending this event. And if my previous event, Festival of Sin (which was my first major sim event and was packed full for a week) is any indication of the interest in my events, I have nothing to fear. :)

For more information on Cinema please visit our website, http://hottiecooterati.com or my flickr page linked above. You can also join our in world group, The Hottie Cooterati Experience, for free gifts as well as first notice of when event sims open.

Thank you again for the coverage and providing me this opportunity to comment on how I have handled the marketing for Cinema. I appreciate the feedback and perspective you've provided, it was very enlightening.

Cheers!

[Sonney]

If a no-name creates these adds there better be some info on it. If these names create the adds, the news will spread faster than one can read any info on the add ...
Not the content is important but the who-is-who, oldest and most effective marketing strategy at all.

[Anya Ohmai]

Thanks Iris for featuring these! They were truly some of most interesting assignments I've had commissioned for in SL, and I can't thank Strawberry Singh and RubyStarlight enough for giving me that opportunity. I definitely understand and agree with some points that you brought up, especially in terms of the dates of the movie -- it clearly should have stated that and it was my bad for deciding not to include it.

When I was creating the posters, my concept was to make it as authentic and realistic as possible, just so it would catch a persons eye making them wonder if its a real movie in SL or what its made for. So the intention was to make is further away from a default vendor as we possibly can. Which means no flickr links, no SURLs etc -- just pure text that you would find on a poster. And hoping through the way it was made, people would be interested to figure out what its about. Be it talking about it or clicking through for more info.

Not sure if what we did was effective, it was definitely an experiment to see if it causes enough buzz for the event :D But Ruby's a genius, and shes been coordinating and organizing this like a pro! So it's definitely worth keeping an eye out for, and we hope that what we did makes the sponsors feel special for wanting to contribute to this event!

[Tatum Lisle]

I have a feeling that most of the audience for this event are already crawling and stumbling over each other on the SL fashion feeds and in related social networking communities. And if that's the case, a teaser campaign, with very little in terms of specifics, is going to work just fine. Especially when many of them are in a sprint to get onto new stuff first. Marketing to a relatively closed and highly motivated target market is not the same as mass marketing and different rules apply. I think Anya as much as anybody has her fingers in the right pies to get this right. It's beautiful work, and intriguing for sure. I think Hamlet's comment about needing to make explicit even to non-SLers exactly what this is all about reveals a lack of understanding about the sorts of things that can truly kill good ad creative stone dead. Stay single-minded and talk to your core market I say