Over on Reddit's sub-community for Second Life (be sure to subscribe!) "Jeran" wonders why Linden Lab is doing such a poor job advertising Second Life, pointing to recent fails like the outdated, odd-looking vampire screenshot on the front page. "[W]e need LL to show off what our content creators can do, which is a LOT," writes Jeran. "But the uninitiated public can't see that unless they are shown these things in advertisements." So why is Linden Lab not doing that? I thought about putting that question to Linden Lab, but am fairly sure an official response wouldn't be very instructive.
Instead, Linden Lab folks reading this blog, I encourage you to go to Reddit -- which uses pseudonyms, so you needn't worry about outing yourself -- and share your perspective there.
Given that Philip has a valid point when he characterizes SL residents as “Smart people in rural areas, the handicapped, people looking for companionship, ….”; one has to wonder that LL does not target that audience more effectively. I have searched self help sites, rural living sites, etc. and have never found a SL ad. Maybe they are there and I did not find them, but it looks like the geeks at LL are intent on targeting gamers like themselves.
Posted by: Shug Maitland | Monday, January 23, 2012 at 12:16 PM
The Lab's photography really is second-rate—it certainly doesn't convey the potential of SL. And there are so many talented SL photographers—working in different genres from profile photos to landscapes to events and beyond—that the Lab would do well to take a closer look.
Everyone has their favorite sort of imagery, and there's a difference between photos for ads and photos as art, but as I glance through my "favs" on flickr (and everyone has their own taste, just saying') I'm so impressed with the talent out there:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/zikiquesti/favorites/
The Lab's machinima hasn't been the best either. ;)
Posted by: Ziki Questi | Monday, January 23, 2012 at 02:20 PM
Here's an idea for LL: ask it's users to devise an advertising campaign but with a decent prize - say half the rates an advertising company would charge. I am sure there would be plenty of really good ideas that came up (after all ideas are what SL's populace are not short of) - and LL could get rid of a couple more marketing staff as well!
Posted by: Hitomi Tiponi | Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 02:06 AM
Again, I don't think SL needs better advertising. Maybe the ads don't do SL many favors, but SL get plenty of daily signups - they just don't stay. They need to work on getting more people to stay, better adverts just gets more signups, and that's avoiding the real problem.
Posted by: Adeon Writer | Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 07:33 AM
It's not either/or... the ads need to be the best that they can be, AND the new user experience and retention efforts need to be beefed up.
Posted by: Arcadia Codesmith | Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 08:39 AM
1, decide what your product is and who it is for and stick with it (rather than joining the objective of the month club).
2, advertise to those people who would use such a product.
3, have the product ready and waiting for them to use it - demos and training in the first hour of play are crucial.
4, permit those customers to ENJOY the product rather than bury them under tomes of rules telling them what isn't allowed in the land of freedom.
5, ...
6, PROFIT!
Posted by: shockwave yareach | Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 09:21 AM
Do the Lab really needs who cant have a few seconds searching and reading how to before joining?
Still Bethesda starting tutorials on its games should be a lesson in how to teach wuhle having fun!
Posted by: foneco zuzu | Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 09:56 AM
This one comes from the blogs and the official forum. It only hit reddit weeks / days later.
Posted by: Pussycat Catnap | Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 01:04 PM
"Given that Philip has a valid point when he characterizes SL residents as “Smart people in rural areas, the handicapped, people looking for companionship, ….”; one has to wonder that LL does not target that audience more effectively"
I'm not sold that that really is the audience of SL. Those folks are there, but are a minority of what I at least have encountered.
The real issue though is that LLs doesn't know how to make its own tools look good, while fairly new residents do.
You can take most new folks and give them a short lesson on the screenshotting tool, how to rez and position lights, and how to use the light presets and graphics settings in the current viewer...
- and get art back.
With no need for anything outside of SL's tools, people can make amazingly good images. Screencaps from SL today can rival what you'd get out of Poser a few years ago - on millions more polygons...
(for some kinds of scenes... SL lacks all the proper kinds of lights.)
Rare is it to find a company willing to tolerate such amateur work coming out of their graphic design and marketing staff...
The idea of marketing vampires is the right one...
Look in SL, and its basically always been vampires, xxx/bdsm/goreans, and people into the music of 30-years ago... ;)
- the rest of us are in the fringe.
And there's really only one of those 3 that can easily be mass-marketed to today.
But do it right...
And use appealing imagery made with your own tools...
Posted by: Pussycat Catnap | Tuesday, January 24, 2012 at 01:12 PM
Probably the most hated avi in SL is the vampire who constantly harasses you to be bitten -- so that many many sims have signs -- no vampires allowed. So SL advertises -- "Be a Vampire" -- noobs sign up to be a vampire and then discover they are ostracized, banned, ejected, told to leave, sworn at -- and then quit SL for good. Not a good advertising plan I would say.
Posted by: Ajax Manatiso | Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 07:40 AM
As far as vampires is concerned, all the ones i know, never tried to role play outside their natural borders!
Lets face it, Sl is not mass appealing, but dreaming one!
Posted by: foneco zuzu | Wednesday, January 25, 2012 at 11:40 AM