A GREAT IDEA!!!! (Feedback please, people!!)

OK Everyone, I have been thinking about this for a while, and I haven't heard anyone else mention an idea like this yet (as far as I kjnow of), so here goes:

Background:

We all know that knowledge of SL has primarily been spread through word-of-mouth, or via a few ZDNet articles or gaming websites here or there, but I keep asking myself,

WHY ON EARTH HAS LINDEN LABS NOT MADE A REAL TELEVISION COMMERCIAL?????

IMAGINE how many more users they would have after just ONE primetime commercial on a major network!!!! Talk about astronomical growth!!!! Perhaps they are afraid that they won't be able to keep up with such an influx of new users??

I don't really know the answer, but here's my idea:

HAVE A CONTEST!!!!

Have the Lindens invite the COMMUNITY to create their own 30 second promotional commercial spots for Second Life. There are already so many talented people that have made awesome videos for this thing purely for entertainment value, but nobody to my knowledge has really taken the reins and made an honest-to-goodness promotional commercial for Second Life.

Linden Labs could make the prize for the winning entry a FREE SIM FOR LIFE! I think that there would be tremendous user response for such a thing! Maybe some runner-up prizes like free memberships for life, or lesser land grants, I dunno. I'm not quite sure how something like that should be run, as I'm not a contest-organizing type of guy, but that's part of the reason I am posting here, to get all of your feedback! I suppose the obvious issues that would need to be addressed would be the following:

Submission guidelines
Deadlines / timeframe for the contest
Rules on how the contest is to be conducted
(ie. does the community vote for the best ad, or does LL decide which is best? etc.)
Marketing and Promotions for the contest itself - spreading the word

Obviously LL would have to take this idea and run with it, but I would think that, for the cost of a private sim and some administrative time spent on the project (and the obvious parts of having to secure actual air-time on the television, etc.), something like this contest idea would really pay off for them with a SUBSTANTIALLY increased user base! Maybe they could partner up with G4-TechTV or something to kind of offset some of the costs??? Who knows, that's why I am putting this suggestion out there!!! Fire away amigos! Let's run this thing up the pole and see who salutes!!

OK LINDEN LABS, I REALLY REALLY HOPE YOU SEE THIS POST!!!!!

Let's give this world the real kick in the ass and show them the real potential of what SL can do!!!

Peace and Happy Building,

Artillo

I think organic growth is probably best.

Marketing is something you usually engage in if you're in a competitive market.

Word of mouth should be fine. If SL is compelling people will hear about it, this is the beauty of the internet. Word of mouth spreads like wildfire.

Good idear, one thing you're forgetting though is that making a tv-commercial isn't done in a few seconds. It has to meet a lot of requirements!! Further more I'm afraid that it all be way to expensive to bring it on tv..

oeh oeh !

We can pick that flash movie 'bloody mary' it show everything in SL.

Dancemoves , nudity , violence , wacko avatars , busty women, ect....

Something else to point out: I think that there is a certain desire from within LL at the least to make SL more diverse... reaching out to more international users. Using a tv commercial as advertisement (assuming it will only get aired in the US) would only serve to make SL more dominated by the 'mericans. Personally, I think word of mouth and tech mag advertisements are best. There are too many fine print catches to getting into SL that a good chunk of the average couch potatoes won't be able to get past (good broadband connection, non-onboard graphics card, etc).

-Meiyo

Marketing is something that EVERY company should do, and if done effectively, can affect profitability and growth in a VERY positive way. I think that SL is something that a LOT of people would be interested in, IF they only knew about it! More users = more profit = more content for us all = more FUN!!!! How many copies of The Sims and its various incarnations have been sold ??? How many of those copies were sold because someone told someone about it, versus seeing advertisements for it??? LL has an opportunity to really make a big splash, if they are willing to take the plunge!

Activeworlds and There relied on word of mouth, and they are almost dead. They had poor leadership who never thought far enough ahead to really make a market for themselves. I think that LL is a very different and much more visionary company, and I think that they really can DEFINE the market!

Cheers,

Arti

I'm not "forgetting" that's why I am asking for ya'lls feedback and also why I said that we need to address things like deadlines and schedule etc. Of course a commercial isn't made in a few seconds! LOL

As for the total expense, well, if the majority of the "production cost" would be pretty much absorbed by the dedicated users intent on winning the contest, all that remains is to put on the finishing touches and get the damn thing out to the world! (and YES I realize at least that it's a bit more complicated than that, but I am just trying to get the idea rolling!) Plus, I'm sure that some portion of that 8mil would come in handy for just that!

Peace,
Arti

Well from what I've heard statistically on TV advertising it takes about a year with continuing advertisment to get results..there was for like Auto Dealers..im not sure if that would be the case for this game..then there would be the possible problem of promoting an adult content type game on prime time..so they would probably have to advertise after primetime in the later evening hours..then their is the over 100 channels of different cable networks to advertise on at one given time depending on the market you are trying to reach such as MTV for example...ask yourself a question..where do gamers to to find out about games? The internet..in my opinion advertising on Game Review Websites such as PC Gamer would be the best method and or Massive Multiplayer Fan sites...I learned about this game from a Massive Multiplayer Fan site and Search Engine for Adult Games. Im not sure about how much Linden makes with this game or the company..but you can't spend more than you are taking in..and TV advertsizing is very expensive over time..One commercial isn't going to get much response.

Yea no doubt all good things to bring up!!! Maybe the commercial could be dubbed over in Spanish, German, and Japanese??? I dunno

I haven't really seen much advertising out there at all for SL, aside from a few scattered interviews here or there... can anyone provide examples of their existing marketing strategies? (I guess that would be kinda off topic but what the hell)

Besides, who out there WOULDN'T want to own their own sim forever??!!!

Arti

i'ma guess if they needed the exposure they would get it for themselves. if they aren't marketing harder they're probably happy with how it's growing. is there anyone directly competing with sl with an equivalent product? i guess There kinda is (haven't played it). anyone else? you don't have to stand out as much when you're the only one standing.

I couldn't possibly get into the minds of SL and comment in regards to their existing marketing strategy, but that's why I hope they run across this thread and give us some feedback for the Contest idea! I think it's a wonderful idea for the COMMUNITY ITSELF to try and help SL grow, and what better way than to activly incourage them to help promote the thing?

There is not much of a competitor anymore I don't think. Not much else out there at all that is not SPECIFICALLY a 3D virtual world (i.e. programs that are not just a GAME) like SL is.

I don't think that in regards to marketing SL, it's so much about the LACK of competition out there as it would be in establishing the GOLD STANDARD of 3D VR worlds! Companies often compare/try to emulate/etc. themselves to Microsoft because they were the FIRST really successful software/OS out there. Does anyone think that it was simply because Bill Gates spread word of MS-DOS by word of mouth? No, he was out there pushing hard to get it in everywhere he could get it!!!

SL really has a chance to become THE Metaverse we all dream about. We can't be afraid to grow it, so instead of just letting it grow "organically", I am suggesting with this contest idea that we throw some fertilizer on it and see what pops up!

Arti

Television commercials are not cheap. Running a nationwide campaign for a week can run several million dollars; if you want to go international, it costs even more.

An undifferentiated TV audience isn't going to have a lot of people with the gear to run the SL client well. And even hitting G4-TechTV is going to have a high cost for a first attempt, with an unknown return. Maybe a helpful first step would be to get something put together - QuickTime or WMV - that could be used as an advert on gaming and fan web sites. Hey, if the streaming version is really effective we can always go back to the source and re-encode it for different media.

So how about we shoot for a QT/WMV movie that could be streamed from ads on gaming sites and gfx hardware reviews? Heck, nVIDIA and ATI might even have some money for cooperative marketing the next time they release high-end cards to be reviewed by Tom's Hardware and the like. You'd be hitting an audience much more likely to go for SL, and they'd already be interested in the gfx/pc tech they'd need to run it optimally.

But then, the top prize might not be a free sim for life. That seems like a very, very compelling prize for Artillo...

(Just a friendly nudge -- I'd like one too, mate!)

Yea I am for both ideas actually (TV & web)... surely I do realize that the cost of a commercial can be expensive, and in the end Linden Labs would have to decide for themselves if it was worth the effort and expense! It would also be pretty likely that any contest submissions would already be in some web broadcast format anyway... ohh and another thread poster (who's name escapes me at the moment) mentioned burning a mess o CD's and distributing them all around with the promo videos on it... that would definitely be a hell of a lot cheaper than a TV commercial, and possibly more effective in the end too!

Here's a thought.... Perhaps a TV commercial could be SO compelling that it would prompt people to upgrade their hardware in the first place??? What can I say, I'm an optimist (yea I know it's wishful thinking!) and I want the entire world to know about SL, so however that might be possible, I want to explore all of those avenues!

OK here's some other ideas for prizes (besides a free sim for life):

free t-shirts or hats to all contest entrants
free premium account for life (minus tiering fees of course)
free tier upgrades
free land (not entire sim)
free uploads for life
first dibs on new land?

OK Some questions for yas:

What do y'all think of the idea of having a contest like I proposed (ignoring the specific details for the moment), in a general sense??

Do you think it will be worth it to Linden Labs and the community as a whole?

Do you think it will foster more community involvement?

Do you think it would really increase the user base significantly?

Cheers!

Artillo

Just to put the costs in perspective, a one-week nationwide television campaign costs about as much as the entire Linden Lab operating budget for a year. It sounds like what you want is a miracle, not a television ad.

I think one thing to consider is that SL is still, in comparison to other 'games' on the market, relatively unstable. Most of the upgrades and such as of late seemed to be aimed at making it more scaleable.

Let's say LL were to splurge and do a single ad during the superbowl. . . .it would be great getting 10s of thousands of new users all at once - for about 3 seconds. . .

All those new peeps though would bring SL as it currently is to its knees, which would give all those new folks a really bad impression of what SL is, losing them as future customers when SL does become stable enough to support them.

I think so far, LL has been brilliant in its marketing strategy. Huge increases right now all at once to the player base would mean less long term customers in the end.

I asked a guy the other day how he heard of SL. He told me that Penny Arcade was running a banner ad. He saw there was a free trial and decided to try it out. I imagine ads on good websites would be a way to go that would be cost effective.

Do you mean the MARKET is instable, or the software? I think that SL is remarkably stable compared to a lot of the other stuff I've been on.... especially compared to There and Planetside, where there was a bug every 20 minutes preventing me from enjoying fragging or chatting! LOL



I agree, that's why they gotta plan well ahead for something like that.... the 7 P's of business... Proper Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance!



I dunno bout that, I'm sure that they would have to look at their user attrition rate and do a Cost-Benefit analysis to determine if it (an actual TV commercial) would be a truly profitable venture.

I think I really like the whole CD promo distribution idea a little better now than the TV commercial idea for cost purposes only, but hell, I'm still waiting on the Lindens to make a comment on this thread!!!! YOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!

Arti

What I want is for the rest of the civilized world to discover the awesomeness that is SL! Simple as that!

Peace!

Arti

um one statment on this...yeah sure they can do TV ads...but remember this who is going to pay for the ad in the end ....We are...and a continued ad campaign without stable funding would dwindle SL instead of skyrocket it.

Case in point Imagine this. SL decided to go into TV adds which far outstrip their current advertising budget. Well two things would happen....#1 they would pass the cost to us as tier and monthly use fees. and #2 it would continue to increase as the player base said fuck this Im not paying that high and go to a 1 time life time acount thus effectively halting any incomming source of income to offset the advertising costs.

Tis not a good ploy right now as LL is too small and we do not have a large enough player base to absorb that kind of advertising venture.

So stick with word of mouth/CNET/ and multiple newpaper placements and online Blogs which in the end are more effective anyway.

Shadow.

Why haven't they sold me a Second Life-branded hat? WHERE'S MY HAT??

I dunno, selling Second Life logo'd clothes might be keen.

I'd buy SL merch!

OK I agree that an actual TV commercial would probably be excessively expensive in relation to its return on investment, but what about modifying the Contest idea to have them make up promo CD's as was previously suggested?

I think what Artillo is saying makes sense and is a great idea! a contest for users to promote what they love...SL! I have been in several similiar programs and I have seen them fall apart and die, why? because they didn't get off their butts and stay on top..the way to stay on top is to get people to join and to keep the quality of the product (fixing bugs, expanding, improving, etc) How bout it Phil!

Controlled growth is extremely important, and was touched on by Oneironaut.

The intent of the advertisement, of course, is to generate a large influx of new users of the product. SL is *not* technically able to handle a huge influx of users right now, and I suspect the people at LL would agree. They've recently acknowledged that there are reliability and scalability issues with SL with its current population and growth rate. Technical focus at LL right now is to address those issues, even to the exclusivity of all other work. To increase the number of users in a huge jump would be catastrophic. A large number of those users, as well as a good percentage of the already existing customer base, would likely have a bad experience and leave in droves.

SL needs a lot more reliability and scalability before it's anywhere near ready for the sweaty masses.

Chris

I think LL should burn SL to CDs, then super-spam snail mail it to everyone in America! Then we can attract the same type of users as the ones who ask me to check their "earthnet connection", or refer to their case/tower as "the Hard Drive", or get mad when I tell them it's a bad idea to install screensavers from a pop-up window.