Watch: Second Life's First Big Budget Online Commercial - It Won an Award!

Linden Lab - Second Life "Children of Creation" from Levitate

Last year Linden Lab started production on the very first big budget online commercial for Second Life, but far as I know, it hasn't yet officially debuted -- though you can see glimpses of it in Second Life's new-ish homepage (to the confusion of many).

However, it is already online, hosted by the video's creator, Levitate Media -- watch above! In fact, the ad won a Telly "People's" Award in that competition's Online Commercial category. 

Overall, it's quite a bit better than I originally feared from the homepage imagery: 

I love the "Children of Creation” theme and the emphasis on different and diverse avatars/users, and its aspirational energy.

On the other side of the ledger, with its use of real world models, heavy post-production effects, and only a smattering of actual SL-based 3D content, it feels like something of a bait-and-switch: Anyone who excitedly creates an SL account after watching this is bound to be disappointed! Even more off, it doesn't actually show any of the actual creative building tools of Second Life, leaving the random viewer to wonder if the creation referred to is only about customizing avatars.

In any case, as I said, Linden Lab hasn't yet properly debuted this video, so perhaps it's going to be used for a future update campaign that bridges the aspiration with actual tools and features?

Comments

[MsToya]

I find the commercial stunning but just like you said. The website and the commercial are NOT SL. I hope they will change that or they know something we dont know. Lets hope for the best and for some realistic views of what SL trully looks like.

[LM]

I agree that anyone who sees this and then logs into SL is going to feel misled and disappointed. The ad is cool, it's just dishonest and isn't an appropriate ad for the real SL. What SL needs is not better marketing, it needs a better product first. They could have showed lots of very cool-looking in-world stuff. Even that would have generally misrepresented how ugly and deserted the vast majority of SL is, but at least it would have represented something you could actually see in SL.

[Mia]

Its a lovely commercial about anything other than SL because the only thing that looks like SL in that is the logo at the end

[Luther Weymann]

Hey Liden Research! After you spend the fortune and write the code for the New Second Life and then give us the teleport portal between Old Second Life and New Second Life, you can then run this ad for the New Second Life. But until then, you should put a disclaimer at the end of the video ad “Viewers are subject to landing on griefed old mainland in the middle of a breedable circus at 0.5 FPS.”

[Lucyokumuraa]

SL Needs a script that changes weather automatically like it happens in SIMS it will be amazing for the Second life community!!! ❤️❤️❤️❤️

[Riannah Avora]

For those that say this ad is misleading... have you seen the art in SL lately? I do not mean what's at SL18B. They have restrictions there that prevent very elaborate builds. I can't say they are exactly what has been done in SL... but most, if not all, can be done. Take a visit to the art locations in SL... you'll see some amazing builds.

[Saffia Widdershins]

This ad was shown on LabGab on Monday 21st June, which was shown (and discussed) at SL18B. It's already won awards at the Tellys.

Gold Telly winner – Online Commercials Craft-Visual Effects.
Gold Telly winner – People’s Telly General-Online Commercials.
Silver Telly winner – Online Commercials Craft-Music/Jingle.
Silver telly winner – Online Commercials Craft-Directing.

Inara Pey covers this in an article here: https://modemworld.me/2021/06/22/looking-at-the-award-winning-second-life-video-ad/

I think the really significant part is that the ad as seen is one of a number of versions, some featuring significantly more Second life content. There are plans to test the different versions before the final ad campaign is released.

I'll be talking to Brett Linden (VP Marketing) at SL18B on Thursday at 1pm as part of the Meet the Lindens series. Why not come along and ask questions directly?

[serge sonnino]

been here since 2007 there is nothing on that vid that cant be done in sl...texture and movements .... SL art is away byond that movies ...take a visit
at cheri manga..delain canuci...and few more ...MY gallery ...
http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Akimori/112/132/1362

[jackson redstar]

they ad implies you join second life you will get a Ferrari, but when you get in you realize that Ferrari is actually a old Toyota Corolla instead. IMO it needs to be 100% content - you can make it look super good with ultra graphics and a little post work - but even then think of car commercials they always have the disclaimer 'shown with optional features' and in this case it would be "shown in ultra graphics on a high end PC in a lag free sim"

[WingsBell]

Is there even such a thing as a "lag free sim" LOL

[Aula Bunny]

if you log into the Second Life website, you will see the video. Second Life merges these realistic images, with the images of the avatars, it's not a fake advertisement, but a video that says "Here you can be anything you want, here you can be how you really see yourself".It's not a new game, it's not an update, it's just a well-crafted commercial.

[Pulsar]

SL is long forgotten.
Well, not by us, but by many. And many others never heard of it.
Look, amid the pandemic, there were several articles about virtual worlds and socializing online. Wouldn't you think they were about Second Life? Nope, they were about Animal Crossing, Fortnite and other games; usually SL wasn't even mentioned. It was rare to see an article telling something about SL.
With the increased user concurrency during the pandemic there was some newcomer, but it looked like the numbers were mostly returnees.

Then look at SL presence on social media: it tends to be negligible. Not just on Facebook or Twitter, but you can see that on Youtube too: Novata's videos rarely have more than 10k view and she is among the best SL youtubers today. Usually SL youtubers can be happy if they reach few hundred views. Only "outsiders" that cover other games, but sometimes also SL, as Carmen King, get more views. On Reddit too: the r/secondlife sub is much less active than r/VRchat, let alone Roblox. But even r/KerbalSpaceProgram, a creative single player simulation game from 2011 is way, way, more active than SL today.

So, yes, a marketing campaign is certainly a good idea.
Among other things in the video, I like how they keep changing look/avatar.
The ad may draw some attention.

However I agree that the difference between the ad and the actual product may feel like those clickbait thumbnails on Youtube.
While it is common to see ads that depict games as better than they actually are, it may be a little too much here.
Honestly SL is not as it's shown in the video. I have seen art in SL, I have seen SL18B, pretty sky... for SL standards at least: it seems nice within SL, but when you log off and you look at the screenshot again... you can see it's not Unreal Engine, no matter how much you push it to its limits, making people "lag" and crash, or with a poor framerate anyway, even with modern hardware. And still you don't even have working mirrors in SL.

The experiences, too, isn't like that: not as "realistic", not as dynamic...forget wind on you gummy hair (or on the ancient "flexy" ones that enter inside your body), forget flapping mesh clothes (Sinespace has those), forget the movie-like dynamic cyberpunk scenery or the cool avatar-changing transitions.

There have been ads/videso showing SL as it is (more or less) before, but I don't think it was very successful. A good marketing campaign begins with something that captures your attention, then there may be follow ups.

However, why it didn't work in first place? Look at newcomers in r/secondlife too, there are often the same questions: "wherever I go, there is nobody or bots, in the popular places I only see avatars just standing and doing nothing, how do you make friends?" or "I have seen tutorial on Youtube, but I still don't know how to setup an avatar". Let alone the load of bugs and issues and the poor user-friendliness, that SLers are used to, but that doesn't help with newcomers.
While I still like SL, I'm aware that the engine is outdated, the UI isn't polished (look, the marketplace is a web browser slammed inside the client, compare it with Roblox or anything modern), the user-experience has serious issues, and so on.

Therefore a marketing campaign may help, but don't expect astounding results without improving also the product and if the new-user experience and retention remains the same. Marketing works if you have at least a good-enough product or an underdog that is actually a valid product that only needs more attention.

If with (possibly before) the campaign also comes an engine and client ("viewer") rewrite and maybe a mobile client, then it would be something. But that would be a lot of work, time and money (already wasted you know where).
So I suspect the the "improvement" is already here: the AWS servers, the Environmental Enhancement Project and the new continent with new linden homes. If that's the case, I'm not overly optimistic, I expect a few newcomers, most of them giving up out of frustration as usual.

But whatever LL does, I hope it works and the SL economy stays afloat.

[Pulsar]

However it goes, to not ruin the expectations entirely, I hope the Lab will offer at least new default avatars for newcomers, somewhat reminiscent of those in the advertisement. LOL.

[Kumi Kiyori]

I loved the ad, it's beautiful and well deserving of the award it won!