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Monday, September 24, 2007

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Bluesapphire

I disagree about adidas, didn't they launch in October 2006?! Surely, its time for an update, rather than just offer glib conjecture. On the PR side, my area of speciaility, they've led on building brand equity. In fact, they are cited more than most brands in Second Life as 'having a presence'.

Perhaps we should be looking at the year, rather than just the end months. Doesn't this match most campaigns, a tail off towards the end.

I would say a remarkable achievement, especially considering the amount of time they've been inworld.

Peter David

These metrics are bogus, and don't reflect the real marketing. You're working in isolation, no access to the communication brief and using a observation model. Have you ever thought to reflect these figures to a real world perspective. Run these figures against amount of traffic in google, also take into consideration the timings of communication.

You need to reflect the basis of the presence:

1) Brand building, or link to a specific launch of activity that drives traffic
2) Specifically designed to attract a community (the pond etc.)
3) Designed to launch and distribute product into the wider community.

Peter David

http://www.kzero.co.uk/blog/?p=454

The above is also another indicator of how varied the measurements are in Second Life. If you note, adidas is still the most recgonized brand in Second Life. Does this reflect traffic, no of course not? Just like real life, brands are an idea not just place. Therefore, activity is based on recognition and not just visits.

I also spoke to the people at Rivers Run Red, they've sold over 37,000 pairs of the sports shoes. Doesn't this reflect success also?

I really feel this regular column is pure conjecture of the author, it also cheapens the work of the most excellent James Au Wagner.

Tateru Nino

I certainly think Adidas is past due for an update, and I'm glad to see that they're getting one.

And yes, this is based on observation - it has to be. After all, many of the marketers with SL sites that I've spoken to (though not all - see Coca Cola for an example!) say they're focused on visits. That is, engagement as evinced by growth of visits and return visits.

We observe and estimate visits and talk to visitors and to the marketers behind those sites at times, also.

This is based on that work, absolutely. I can't claim that it purports to be other than what it is.

If you have few or no visitors, and your brand-recognition is unaffected by the presence or absence of a site within SL - then it would seem your marketing dollar isn't being well-spent.

It appears to me that some of these sites don't appear to derive *any* additional brand recognition from their Second Life site. Some, I know, (like STA Travel) are managing to provide community engagement in ways that this metric doesn't reflect - but this metric isn't designed to do that.

I think it does what it does very well, and some of the sites with independent traffic analytics show results very close to the ones we produce - though I think the default assumptions of visit-length could stand some fine-tuning.

37,000 shoe sales. I've probably sold as much product in about the same amount of time and my brand is almost unknown. It's not even common knowledge that I have a brand or an outlet - actually even the purchasers themselves may experience little or no recognition of the brand.

So, while it *could* be a measure of success, but I wouldn't *necessarily* consider it to be one. Those sales levels don't constitute success for *me* anyway. They could well be for someone else.

Peter David

I think thats the issue here Tateru, its all about you and your perception. Not a real measurement, more IMHO and what you think it means. Sad really, as you're missing a great opportunity.

Shame you didn't comment on the link I sent ?

Tateru Nino

Oh, sorry. Missed seeing it. I'll take a look.

As for perception, I could leave the commentary off and just publish the chart - but that's not what I'm being paid for.

What do you recommend?

Hamlet Au

Peter, I helped Tateru develop this methodology, and stand by what she's doing. We're not claiming this is the *only* metric to judge engagement; but to my knowledge, it's the most reliable way to measure engagement in terms of total visits to company sites. Most other metrics aren't independently verifiable by a third party. And the fact remains that companies are paying Linden Lab a lot of money to maintain their sites on the grid, and are competing for attention from grassroots sites.

The Kzero post attributes Adidas' brand awareness to "a first step into SL and [that it's] frequently referenced in the media". That sounds right. So it's gained that awareness not specifically because of anything it's done in Second Life, but because the extensive media coverage it received for being the first RL shoe company in SL. Nothing wrong with that, but now with a 100+ companies, the days of generating such levels of awareness are long over. (What it actually means in ROI is another question altogether.) Ultimately, in any case, New World Notes' main focus will always be on the community, and how they interact on the experiential level in-world. So if a real world brand doesn't engage the community on that basis, it's really not something that warrants NWN's attention.

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