Monday, May 5, 2008

Second Life's Promotional Reach

Last semester for my computer-mediated communications class I was required to join the virtual reality world called Second Life. I was less than enthusiastic to begin my "second" life and my experience with the program confirmed my disinterest. I found nothing there to keep me engaged or entertained and found it to be rather boring.

However, according to an article in BusinessWeek, advertisers are still flocking towards this second life virtual world. The article states that more than a dozen large companies are still in the works to create an online presence in Second Life. What is drawing in all these advertisers despite an ever increasing decline in Second Life sign-ups?

According to advertisers, it is the notion of a community that creates this ideal advertising model. The community is supported by users that usually with have the same interests. Because of this, businesses that work well advertising on Second Life are those that attract the same audience in real life.

Maybe it is this lack of my interest in the whole idea of "Second Life" that causes my high level of suspicion when it comes to advertising on second life. I am yet to see a reason for there to be an online presence for any advertising on Second Life and personally think that this whole idea is dead and will disappear in the near future.

Video Game Advertising

Ok, I got to admit I am not into video games at all and rarely play them. I however, did used to be into video games a long time ago and always wondering one thing, why are the ads in the game for fake companies? Aren’t real advertisers missing out on a valuable resource?

Well to my surprise, the video game industry is now infiltrated with ads and is set to increase substantially in the next few years. I was browsing the internet and came across this news article form the BBC highlighting the impact and reach of video game ads.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/3727044.stm

According to the article, 30% of the in-game advertisements are recalled by users short-term and 15% are recalled long-term. That is a great percentage and I can only expect the number of in-game advertisers to expand. If a company can get recall rates close to those stated, why not take advantage of a great and booming industry worldwide?

The National Hockey League on Youtube

Ok, I am a big hockey fan and all things NHL. After our class discussion about youtube and the video possibilities online, I decided to check out what youtube had in terms of NHL hockey action.

Well It turns out the NHL has it very own youtube channel where they upload highlights from games across the league each night. In addition, they have a highlight package of the top 10 goals, hits, saves and games of the week for every week of the regular season and playoffs! Let’s just say I am a fan!

The ability to stream video online has increased dramatically the reach and audience that a niche sport like the NHL can now obtain. Viewers in Europe, Asia and Australia can now log on and see exactly what is happening with the NHL and see videos from every team in the league. This is a great promotional tool for a league that struggles to get air time here in America and overseas. I have heard reports that the NHL leads the sports community in online presence and with a great youtube channel I can see why that is.

So if you are interested in hockey at all or to see how a video account can bring together a world wide audience, check out the NHL channel at youtube.com
http://youtube.com/user/NHLVideo