Wanted: Your Questions for the Marketing Team Town Hall Thursday

In an attempt to better organize the Linden Town Hall format, we're now taking a group of questions before hand here in the forums, for those who may not be able to attend the in-world events.

This Thursday at 3:30 pm PST the Linden Marketing Team will hold a Town Hall to discuss all things marketing: the Second Life web site, the Game Developers competition, Second Life advertising campaigns, Events, Conferences, etc. So put your marketing hats on and post the best questions you can here!


I'll be heavily moderating this thread, so please stay on topic and post only the marketing-related questions you are interesting in knowing more about!

Thanks!

(more info on the Town Hall here )

The target market of Second Life, until fairly recently, has seemingly been mostly gamers, graphic artists/designers, and more technically oriented folk. Will we begin to see a shift toward marketing in mainstream media venues to attract a broader scope of customer types?

(Heh, this could be construed as simply asking if LL is going to be advertising on TV or in major print media in the near future, but it's more than that; I'm curious about the basic marketing philosophy LL is pursuing currently and with an eye toward the future.)

I think Second Life appeals to people who don't necessarily enjoy other online games. Does LL's marketing/ad campaign address this group of people who may not frequent sites like slashdot or buy game mags?

JINX Beryl!

LOL... great minds obviously think alike, Ingrid.

What kind of marketing will you do in Europe - or Scandinavia? If we from that part of world want to help what kind of support will we get from Linden Lab?

...or are we in Europa not the market at all?

My name maybe can look like a yoke in SL but certainly I am No Yoke in Sl or IRL.

*ler* = thats smile in English.

Despite the successfull renovation of SL's site, the truth is, there is still too much emphasis on the "game" aspect of SL. I full understand that "gamers" are still SL's major population - they evolve naturally to other areas after a few weeks of getting a taste of SL, and understand what the platform is about. Could we have a different type of site, more targeted to professionals and non-gamers, where the focus would be on a platform for collaborative working, a "virtual reality" which has many uses besides just chatting and having fun? Would you be agreeable to having a group of volunteers helping you to design and furnish content for a "serious" site about SL? (Also notice that a wealth of information is available only after you log in)

What milestones (such as features, revenue, employees, standards, performance) do you have before marketing Second Life to the general public? (Knowing that Linden Lab has already stated that SL will take over the world.)

Here's a puzzler:

I understand that stressing Second Life as a target market for real money brings in consumers at a rapid pace. However, how should this objective reflect on Second Life itself? I've noticed a stark change from "what we can do" with Second Life into "how much we can make" with it.

What are the long-term implications of this?

Are virtual gold miners, as it were, the target demographic Second Life wishes to reach?



Furthermore:

- How does Linden Labs wish to expand on their userbase in the future?

- Do you predict any new economies of scale for Second Life to enter to enhance its userbase?

- Is Second Life better "sold" in your eyes as a market, a creative platform, a community, or a game? See my first question.

Seconding Jeffrey's question set.

A quick mention of the promotional CD - could there not be more information on these as well as the installer and the very brief info that is already on there? Perhaps something to really grab potential players, like profiles of people already playing, places to visit, show off some of the talent in SL? Ecards? Screensavers? Even info about the new greeter program and the greeters?

Just a thought...

Are you planning on targetting non-US customers by the use of non-English language web sites and allowing payment in other major currencies?

Are we allowed to make and wear T-shirts (in real life) with the SecondLife hand on them? Or do we have to wait for LL to make some?

I can answer this one. Flip said he tried and they need to be approved. You may want to speak to him about his experience.

Is Linden Labs planning on advertizing in magazines? ie; PCgamer, Computer Gaming World, CPU - Computer Power User, Maximum PC, and the tons of other computer mags out there? I haven't seen any myself, maybe I read the wrong mags?

This would help bring the exposure you need.

There have been problems in the welcome area with a group of residents acting extremely hostile and being generally unfriendly to new residents. As marketers, you must know full well you never get a second chance to make a first impression. How do you plan to curb this behavior to help restore the Welcome Area to its glory days of being filled with helpful people allowing newbies to enter SL with wide-eyed wonder, instead of being bullied and mocked?

-Flip

Is the marketing team planning on adding more land tiers along the lines 49,152sq m, 24,576sq m, 12,288sq m and 6,144sq m this may encourage people to up tier to levels where previously they were out of budget.

l subsidies for content development have changed, shrunk, or disappeared over time. this seems normal to me.

however, i was wondering if ll could provide more details about how they think the current subsidies (traffic, dwell awards, educational events, contests, bug hints, etc (is there an etc?)) are supposed to work.

and if there were any plans ll could share about the future of ll subsides: goals, timelines for phasing in/out, amounts, targets, etc.

Does Linden Labs plan to stress content-creation in marketing SL to a winder audience or the land auction and home-making social aspect of SL or both?

ditto