RL advertising in MMORPGs

We all know the current policy in Second Life ("real life advertising will not be tolerated if the residents complain about it". It's interesting to see how other MMORPGs are dealing with it:

Real Life Advertising in the "Matrix Online"

We also know how "Matrix Online" hasn't been the success their creators wished it to be, and from an outsider (I would never touch the thing with a 10-feet pole, lol), it looks like a "desperate measure" of Sony to make some money out of it.

LL does not currently need the "extra cash" from RL advertising, thus, there is no need to endorse it. However, this opens up interesting questions. Some SL businesses are really incorporated companies in RL (GOM comes to mind, but it isn't the only one). When they do advertising in SL — although we fully well know they're "SL companies", albeit incorporated in RL — are they doing RL advertising or SL advertising?

For me, the frontier is blurring every day. What do you feel about it?

Do you have a link or something for LL's policy? I haven't seen any statement by them and I've wondered about this.

As for Matrix Online, I played it from beta onwards. The advertising they do in-game is all connected, or was, to Warner Brothers. I believe Sony has continued the in-house brand co-advertising policy. And yes, MXO is a sad and sorry excuse for a mmorpg.

Anarchy Online also has some in-game advertising, although it is not very invasive, highly targeted to their market (Alienware for example) and you can turn it off (it's on billboards).

My thoughts are I don't want RL advertising here at all, but then I don't want to be to be advertised to pretty much anywhere... a losing battle on both fronts I'm sure.

Resident attitudes will have a lot to do with RL advertising coming to SL. If the majority refuse to put up with it and respond negatively then it is likely to not happen. At the very least I would want ways to opt out.. turn things off... Especially opt out of any IM spamming type of advertising.

I've really got no problem with advertising, as long as it's not banners popped up on your screen, in front of your view, almost like banner ads. But I don't see that happening as the environment lends itself better to advertising as part of the overal visuals that you see. In which case, to a certain extent, the land owners themselves can dictate whether they want advertising or not in their area.

The boundaries between what's pigeon-holded as "real world" advertising or not will also become much more blurred. For instance, say one of the clothing makers starts creating a real life range of clothes based on their clothes in SL, or adds to their SL range with versions of their RL clothes. And advertises both their SL and RL goods in SL. Where do you class that?

I've not seen an official statement on this as well and would be interested in the link. What is the process for complaining? Does an individual contact a linden or AR it? How does LL define "the residents"; is one complaint enough to take it down?

"Our position about advertising has been that if a RL company wants to buy land, set up a store, and offer products to SL Residents they can do that. We would not cut a deal with them upfront, and their success would depend on how interested SL residents are in what they have to offer." - Jeska Linden (offering cut-n-paste response)

Robin Linden claims that "...no one has approached or paid LL to advertise RL products in SL and then link to RL websites similar to the Nike option in There.com, as an example."

But, according to this story, Linden marketing VP David Fleck "...said he is currently in discussions with other brands about advertising in Second Life and is hopeful that additional deals could be reached by year's end. He mentioned he would even be open to the idea of using avatars as advertisements." My commentary here.

Thanks, Zero, these were the statements I recalled having read and I thought I had missed some announcement indicating a change in that position.

I have a personal preference against seeing RL advertising in SL because it pulls me out of my meta-experience and shoves one of the least-pleasant aspects of real life in front of my face at a time when I don't wish to be smothered in it. I like the Stagecoach Island model because it gives me a choice as to whether, and when, I choose to see this kind of thing. I also think that builds like Stagecoach Island are more effective for promotion than spraying Pepsi ads across the grid.

That being said, there is a principle here that says that a land owner should be free to do as they please with their land. I support this principle fully. Therefore, if Pepsi buys a plot of land next to a telehub, they should be free to advertise there. I think it would be ugly. I think it would be highly ineffective. But they would be fully within their right to do so.

I would be very disappointed with LL if they actively pursued this kind of thing. However, I don't see why they would since there would be no real money in it (unless of course they were going to charge Pepsi some kind of premium for this service that they would not charge me - which gives rise to all kinds of complicated issues).

From a marketing perspective, with so few users, SL is not really a viable vehicle yet ... unless you are small, and perhaps selling a product that connects with SL in some way (Poser, PSP, streaming audio services, etc.). Advertising in SL would make for a fun press-release or two, but that is about it.

My guess is that if LL is looking for ways to offer SL as a RL marketing tool, they are working more toward the Stagecoach Island hosted content model than mass billboarding. At least I hope so.

for printing sevral problems arose

i looked at the advertising services listed on slexchange one of them is very easy to use
albeit could be easily considered highly annoying as well the blimp the problem i have is how often do you see anything flying in sl? i havent

billboards - people might consider highly annoying and they dont always rez

television- is anyone watching?

slexchange- pretty exspensive especially if you have more then one product and nowhere to list rl products do i list it under business everyone will be looking for there sl business

radio- while the person theyre does make excellent spots, i dont know how to get airtime at the popular clubs

newspaper- we have two excellent publications here at affordable rates, i was kind of scared off of the messenger because no one ever got back to me when i asked them to compose an ad, and i dont like starting an ad campaign not knowing what theyre new rates will be the other paper i am not sure of readership numbers on

in conclusion i havent found sl to be rl advertising friendly yet maybe someday this will happen i have heard there are sevral advertising firms in sl yet i havent heard about any of them and the only one i saw remotely close was orange and they wanted 20 dollars to compose a 20 word ad which was insane considering my rl graphic artist would do it for less also when you hire people to do custom work how is that so diffrent from asking for a real world product to be made? is anything in sl considered sl thereby wouldnt my custom business cards be just as sl as anything else?

My personal reaction to Massive, Inc. and their advertising methods has been quite negative. I've watched from the sidelines as they added their marketing schemes to games I had once played (Planetside especially), thinking quietly to myself "No matter how they spin it, Duece Bigalow ads will not work here."


That said, a balance can be struck. If they own their own land for marketing, do not obstruct my land with nefarious avatar traps, and go about business ethically, I would have no problems seeing legitimate Coca Cola ads in-world.



But my gut feeling on it is that such a positive conclusion is highly unlikely. Before we let them loose, I think someone should have a stern talk with the marketeers and remind them that they do not own the world.

And strangle a few, if needed.

I've gotten quite a bit of guidance on advertising in SL. The most recent from this post:



This answer was tied to a series of earlier questions I'd asked.

Right now, as I understand things, if I were to act as an agent on behalf of a RL company (and had permission to use their brand inside SL), I could then:

- purchase land and set up a virtual business on their behalf
- create "product" that included their trademark
- sell that "product" in all the ways people now sell products in SL

Realistically speaking, there's little difference between this activity and the efforts of many SL businesses that use RL intellectual property without RL owner knowledge or consent.

One word:

Blight.

-Ghoti

.

How is RL advertising so different than advertising for SL products?

Because it's the big, bad corporate bogey-man who'll steal your first prim-born and force all your clothes to carry their logo.

Apparently.

Because they're big budget marketing squads with very little regard for the worlds in which they market. As opposed to residents, that have to exist in the same world and can be held accountable for the changes.

If a big-budget corp. comes in and blasts a sim, residents and LL both would be (rightfully) scared to kick them into submission.

Do you think they'd pay to sponsor events?

Not unless they could get more than 40 frothy-mouthed consumer-zombies into a sim at once

But actually, yes they might very well. There might also be a possibility of them paying a content creator to have their logo on something they make.

What I find so amusing about this, is that Second Life is full of the corporate logos anyway, because people are ripping them off and using them in their creations left, right and center.

In the end the consumer in SL will decide, en-mass, if it's something they support or not. Would they go to sponsored events? Would they buy a product if it included a corporate logo? Would they cause a fuss if a billboard sprang up in their backyard? Who knows, but it would be an interesting experiment to see. I'm sure in some ways, when it starts, it will be quite turbulent whilst both sides work out their boundaries.

I don't think the line is all that blurred here.

Advertising in SL should be limited to products or services that relate to SL. Period. If an RL clothing company produces SL clothes, they can advertise their SL clothes, and they would probably have a link to their real web site. I wouldn't even mind seeing offical Nike, Polo, Izod, etc, SL products.

Likewise, if someone offers L$ exchange services, they can advertise those services in SL. Even IGE, which doesn't have much of an in-world presence (not like Ginko and GOM) can advertise because their services are helpful to and directly related to the SL community.

Personally, I think that RL political campaigns should be banned in SL as well. SL is meant to be a world unto itself, and an escape. Many residents are paying well over $100/month for their SL land, which is too much to have to put up with non-relevant ads, and 40x40 meter signs smearing a certain president.

"with very little regard"?

I'm not sure I agree with this assessment in the context you use it. If they aren't interested enough to give it sufficient regard, they won't bother in the first place (I've found that out myself). If they are interested, then there are repercussions to the brand from showing the kind of disrespect you suggest. It's actually concern for their brand that appears to keep the companies I've contacted hesitant about the technology.

A big-budget marketing squad's job is to enhance the brand, not hurt it. Let's not confuse lack of regard for plain old ignorance.

The difference is a resident can only go so far trying to bring their product or service to market. By comparison, a big budget company looking at Second Life as a major income stream could bring advertising the likes of which we've never seen to our little world, effectively blasting it the way most major websites have been.

Furthermore, companies like Massive, Inc. scare me because they've shown a blatant disregard for the worlds in which they market. I'll admit this is an armchair statement, given I have not subjected myself directly to their advertising, but my sympathies are there.



On the web, I browse using a modified hosts file that redirects the majority of these HTML targets to 127.0.0.1, effectively blanking out the ads. This hosts file is found here and has been quite effective since I started using it.

The reason for it is simple. Many marketing companies have proven parasitic, often aggressive in their want to foist their content on end users. Spyware and adware have been running rampant for some time, fueled by the same nozzle of profits. Don't take my word for it, though. Read about it blow by blow.



Now, do I think this will come to Second Life and, ultimately, whatever Second Life wishes to be? Absolutely. And when it does, I want to be ensured recourse against it as a land-owning customer.

Clear as mud?

On the part of marketing companies? Absolutely.

However, let me clarify the above statement. The "lack of regard" stems from their want, primarily, to market their product to a target audience. I honestly doubt the marketeers care about the good of the system itself, so long as it provides them a sufficient enough income stream.


This, at core, is the problem. With the adware example I drew above, the practice of placing advertising content on end-user PCs has proven effective in generating income. Is this a bad thing? Statistics have shown most end-users believe it is, yes. Marketing companies, counterpoint, believe it's in their best interest.



So, "very little regard" for the worlds? It depends on the context, really.

I think they have little, or no, regard for what makes the internet and a world like Second Life great. As long as it's an effective market for their goods, why should they care, really?


Editted to add:

In my research of the marketing assumption, above, first party market squads typically do have regard for the worlds in which they work. The problem is companies like Massive, Inc., and adware vendors are primarily third parties, relying instead on the income streams of their host entities.

As a result, there is a particular disconnect between the advertising and the content itself. Furthermore, their end goal is the purchase of real-world products, not the sales of Second Life.



Should they care that they ruin portions of Second Life if it means higher profit margins in the real world?

Yes, they could. And LL could quite easily legislate them away if they're (a) not advertising SL products or (b) falsely advertising SL products.

Ah yes. But would they be willing to over the potential income?

That's a serious question that I find more or less troubling.

Zero, thanks for the correct quote. vBulletin definitely needs better search tools!

The discussion on the Clickable Culture board was pretty much intense but quite geared towards the point I wished to make: MMORPGs are getting RL advertising in some way.


I agree that SL is way too small for "regular" RL advertising. However, there are niche markets that you mention that make sense to advertise in-world. I'm quite sure that the community around Renderosity or DAZ or others (which have less members than SL) are quite keen of Second Life and its opportunities for selling digital, 3D content. It would make a lot of sense to advertise those types of products in SL.

On the other hand, Fizik Baskerville also says that there is no point for "mass advertising" in SL unless we have at least one million users...