Marketing in the Metaverse

Recently, Mark Zuckerberg announced his plans to shift Facebook into a "metaverse" company, bringing alive a vision of an online world populated by avatars and accessible by Facebook's Oculus VR technology. The idea of a "metaverse" was coined by Neal Stephenson in his novel Snow Crash and various proto-metaverses have emerged over the years: arguably Second Life, Minecraft and even immersive games like Skyrim, GTA V or shared MMPORG environments reach towards an idea of a persistent online world that we not only visit, but live in.

Zuckerberg's vision is a little different because it aims to be a place we work, play and meet with avatars representing our real selves, and given that we now find ourselves working remotely more and more, there is a something seductive about the idea that we might be able to gather together virtually in an online environment that is sufficiently immersive that we can be as productive in such a space as we might have been in person.

At it's heart though, Facebook is an advertising company, so although Zuckerberg leads with a work/live/play utopia not subject to the limitations of geography, there's no question that this utopia is about marketing and advertising. The Social Dilemma illustrates how we companies like Facebook have developed algorithms to capture attention, to sow that attention with the messages and solicitations of advertisers, and to absolutely maximize the amount of marketing messages that can effectively be delivered to its users without turning them off completely. 

The metaverse is an extension of that idea - maximizing the amount of time that a user spends on Facebook's properties in order to market to that user. Imagine a platform, in which you live and play for most of your day, where every surface, every item you interact with, was rendered by Facebook technology and therefore able to support marketing messages ad infinitum. A Facebook owned-metaverse a la The Matrix would give Facebook the opportunity to own digital marketing channels far in advance of anything its competitors could offer - giving Christof-like powers to the curated Truman Show experience of its users.

More:

• What is the metaverse and why does it matter?
• The Metaverse is a clean slate for the ad-industry post cookies

Second Life now Utilized to Disseminate Health Care Information

As a health care provider, I was fascinated to discover that many governments, health care agencies, and private groups are increasingly using Second Life as a medium to communicate health-related information.

A study that analyzed the depth and breadth of this information (using the second life search engine), categorized all health care related activities into five groups: education & awareness, support, training, marketing, and research. The education sites offered information on many health topics and links to other websites. The support sites provided direct access to doctors, other health care professionals, and peer-support groups. The training sites were directed primarily to people in the health care industry and consisted of classrooms, lectures, simulations, etc. Some even offered real academic credit. The marketing sites mainly promoted health care services, fundraising, and health care initiatives. The research sites were used as recruiting tools for health care research.

I would expect the support and marketing sites to me the most useful. The peer support communities offered in second life can offer the anonymity and supportive functions of a real-life group in addition the convenience of the internet. Health problems are extremely sensitive issues and many people may feel more comfortable interacting with people through Second Life than any other medium. In this sense Second Life truly adds to the health care community. The marketing sites also seem important, because it allows for special groups to be targeted. This, however, is less unique given the use of social networks such as facebook.

The other sites do not seem as unique given the vast amount of health care services dispersed throughout the rest of the internet. For example, as search engines became more sophisticated, the availability of health information increased dramatically. Second life adds to this availability, but it does not appear to provide more accurate or appropriate information.

Will there be an IKEA too?

SecondLife continues down the path of world-domination as now governments are sitting up and taking notice of the site. Sweden plans to establish the first embassy in the virtual world, based on the country's embassy building in Washington D.C.

http://www.si.se/templates/CommonPage____3052.aspx

I'm assuming this initiative is being motivated by the cultural tourism branch of the Swedish Embassy. Will it really stimulate interest in Swedish culture or cause an increase in international visitors? I've never been to SL (I say that like its really a place), can anyone tell me if there are other cultural institutions setting up shop there? For example, does the Met have a museum branch, or the Tate?
It will be interesting to see if other culturals and non-profits begin appearing in SL and what effect that has on audience participation, revenue, and changing visitor demographics.

First Feature Film Shown in Second Life

This week we were invited to attend the premiere of Strange Culture, an independent film by Lynn Hershman. The film was shown at the Sundance Film Festival last week and has the distinction of being the first-ever feature film shown in Second Life.

... Watching a movie in Second Life was totally weird. When you get to the movie theater, you hit the play movie control on your SL window. We're all watching the same film, but a different times! That seems like the most significant difference from a traditional cinema.

Those are the words of Nework_Performance about his experience of watching the first-ever feature film shown in Second Life.

Get a First Life

With all the talk of Second Life and the hype that has ensued in the media, as well as our class discussions, one might begin to take this virtual world too seriously. I mean, real money being made? A Bigger economy than some countries?

And then, someone creates this:
http://www.getafirstlife.com/

My favorite quote:

"Go outside - membership is free!"