I recently asked : Can Linden Lab Follow The Draxtor Despres Lead? In that post I pointed to The Drax Files as being a very good example of how to promote Second Life. I also pointed out that Linden Lab may have difficulty in pulling something like this off due to the potential complaints from other residents, although that challenge is not insurmountable.
Now during the last few days a moonwalking Shetland Pony is doing wonders for the promotion of the Three Mobile Network here in the UK:
Now something like that is going to cost an arm and a leg for an advertising agency to produce, but it does point out awfully well how promotion on a platform such as YouTube can make great strides for your product.
Now Second Life does have a YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/secondlife and it’s not all quicktips either, there are some decent promos there, so Linden Lab do grasp how useful a concept YouTube is.
I have also mentioned how one of the best resources Linden Lab have in promotion of Second Life, are their residents. There’s a machinima forum over on the official forums, this was probably designed for discussions about machinima, but is now often used for residents to post their own machnima. How about if Linden Lab setup a new machinima forum, similar to their flickr page, in which users who post machinima give Linden Lab permission to use said machinima for promotional purposes and allow Linden Lab to feature said machinima on their YouTube channel?
Can you do that sort of thing with YouTube? Whereas it wouldn’t be as busy as their flickr page, it might help Linden Lab to post some funky new videos related to Second Life. I know that when Linden Lab created their new flickr page to ensure they were getting permission to use submitted photos, not everyone followed them. However if you set these terms and conditions up at the start, it makes it easier for everyone to understand what’s being asked of them and for everyone to comply.
Machinima of course has extra challenges when compared to snapshots, there are issues with additional material such as soundtracks in the background for a start, but I think there’s some potential here for Linden Lab to be able to tap into some of the resources residents are creating.
Thank you for posting this and raising the relevant questions! IMO Machinima has tremendous power but the key {i learned over a looong time}: when it comes to bringing home the point that the cartoon people on the screen are extensions of REAL people one must present it a certain way – even a few seconds of RL footage of someone interacting with an avatar – I have seen eyes light up when that happens. The other HUGE issue is compared to snaps and blogs Machinima is very very labor intensive – as much as I would love to knock out one every week I can;t due to day job. But anyhow – your points previously made that the accusation of editorial bias is irrelevant when I do it and not LL is a hugely important factor. So folks out there: please copy my format and flood the YouTubes 🙂 NOW!!!
Yp I can only imagine how long it takes to put together but you’re very correct with the RL/SL images, that’s a connection that people outside Second Life can make, seeing the real person and this isn’t something that’s lost on Linden Lab, I can recall an ad campaign where they showed images of people and their avatars.
Good stuff and I’ll happily investigate others who are making videos like yours!
I am so tempted to do one per week [which I could] but day-job is unpredictable 🙁 I give you heads up for the next one!!!
Cheers! Looking forward to it.
There is a lot LL can do here – and Mark Viale (Viale Linden) tried to initiate through trying to encourage LL to feature resident-made machinima on the WhatIs SL web page. It was his intention to curate the feed, rotate videos on a regular basis and provide a means for more resident involvement in SL promotion through that page. Sadly, he hadn’t got much beyond the first pass with the WhatIs revamp before he got the Order of the Boot.
So…
Why can’t the Lab simply run a UWA-style competition through LEA (or directly)? The brief: select from one of 3 time-lengths of video (say, 1:30, 2:30 and 4 mins), and produce a video which best promotes Second Life to people who have not used it. Said video can be shot entirely in SL, be mixed reality, be in the form of a avertisment-style promo, short documentary or of mixrd approach. Winners will be judged by an announced panel of LL personnel, users, and recognised machimima makers, again, a-la UWA’s MachinimUWA Challenge.
The issue of editorial bias can be overcome, competition-wise, by LL agreeing that a) they have the final say in which winning videos are actually used, and b) when used, they are used without further editing on LL’s part.
Offer a L$ prize in each category, cover the relevant needs for rights and copyright of material and state the focus of the contest will be for LL to use winning entries to promote SL through their YT channel, on the SL WhatIs page and through a proactive web-based campaign.
I didn’t realise Marc Viale was trying to get movement via that direction, there again I didn’t realise he’d left for quite a while, I quite liked him, he was to the point and open to discussion.
I know if LL blogged along the lines they did for guest bloggers, where Strawberry Singh was one who did blog, that there would be some kickback, but if people are happy to contribute, then the kickback is worth it.
I also agree with you about running a competition, machinima makers and buisiness owners would see it as a way to get themselves noticed, there’s merit in that and a prize would be a bonus.