ASCII EMERIE

I stumbled upon this neeto site: Lets you upload an image and turn it into acsii art. They should add an archive to it so people can share their creations.

Click here to check it out at http://www.typorganism.com/asciiomatic.

ManiaTV Live Concert: RL and SL

Online broadcast channel Mania TV broke some ground yesterday by simultaneously broadcasting a live concert on the web and in Second Life. The concert featured local bands in Denver. CO.

The ManiaTV site allowed 40,000 viewers to watch the live show and switch to see the virtual version (also live).

The Second life concert attracted 1200 viewers. Some may think that number isn't very impressive, but I think this breaks some serious ground because Second Life's sim limits restrict large numbers of simultaneous experiences. Mania TV accomplished this number by setting up 25 simultaneous shows in SL.

Check it out on ManiaTV.com.

Read the article on CNN.

What's the big deal about a virtual concert? ok... here's a little eye candy for you naysayers... this is the virtual U2 (sort of like a cover band) who perform U2 concerts in SL.

AdAge: How to Succeed in Second Life

Good article in AdAge about Second Life marketing. Nice Do's and Don'ts at the end:

DON'T BUILD A PRESENCE JUST TO BE THERE.
"When you do it for the buzz, when you force that viral marketing, that's when you go off course. Great content and great ideas will naturally be viral."
-- Joseph Jaffe, president-chief interrupter, Crayon

DO TRY TO OFFER SOME VALUE TO THE COMMUNITY OTHER THAN JUST A PRODUCT.
"This is not the kind of place where you have a salesperson avatar trying to collect leads. ... That's not correct for the culture. You have to stand back and let them explore you."
-- Mark-Hans Richer, marketing director, Pontiac

DO KEEP IT FRESH.
"You have to keep it fresh, not unlike a blog. Make it interesting. Or do something that has a limited timeframe."
-- Giff Constable, VP, Electric Sheep

DON'T EXPECT A DIRECT LINK TO SALES IN THE REAL WORLD.
"So much of our metrics aren't about sale, but they're about brand love. Brand value and brand love are our key metrics."
-- Michael Donnelly, director-global interactive marketing, Coca-Cola Co.

Read the full article here.

We created a Second Life brand manifesto that you can get from our brand wizard at our Agency in Second Life. You can also find them on page 10 of our company newsletter here.

Who knew?

When I asked Sharon and Mey to let me shoot this video, I jokingly said 'I'll make you famous'. Little did I know. 24 Hours and 1,045,592 hits later, they have the number one video on YouTube. Way to go PixlChix!


Check out our website for the Upstage Phone here.

Go to see the rest of the YouTube Contest here.

Brands to aquire Virtual Worlds

Two of the most popular virtual worlds: Club Penguin and Webkinz might be snatched up by Sony and Disney respectively. These virtual worlds are hugely popular among teens - and are web based rather than independant software like Second Life.

Read the article on MarketingVox here.

Check out Club Penguin here.

Visit Webkinz here.

BMW Series 1: Collective Voice "ONEWORD" Installations

An interesting use of mixed media and consumer generated content - BMW hosted a series of events in europe (each hosted by a celeb) to roll out the new BWM Series 1. It's called "Oneword". The message trees would start with one word - and users would add their own words using SMS. Those trees were projected on walls, and shown on the web. Not really sure how this sells the car (in fact, i didnt see a single visual of the actual car). But take a look:

Sample video (click here).

Website (click here).

Flickr (click here).

The phenomenal growth of Second Life continues

comScore issued a press release with some info on yet another Second Life growth spurt. As of today, Second Life has 6,183,178 registered users with 1,624,434 active over the past 60 days. There's been an increase of 46 percent in the number of active residents from January 2007. There's also a large shift demographically, as the majority of users are now European.

An excerpt from the comScore release:
“The phenomenal growth of Second Life continues, and its presence is being felt around the world,” said Bob Ivins, Managing Director of comScore Europe. “With nearly 800,000 active residents in Europe, Second Life is proving to be popular on an international scale. It’s especially fascinating to note that the number of active German residents exceeds the number of active residents in the entire U.S. It is little wonder that bricks and mortar businesses are seeing Second Life as a virtual-world way of accessing a global, real-world customer base.”

Read the full press release here.

Today's Buzz Words

"LIFECASTING" - the process of sharing all aspects of your life with the public truman show-style. A process currently being used by justin.tv which is currently expanding to allow users to create their own live shows. More Info.

"STREAMIE" - online users who heavily consume streaming media. More Info.

"BLOOKER" - literary prize devoted to "blooks"- books based on blogs or other websites, including webcomics. More Info.

"COWORKING" - a shared office space with a cafe-like vibe for developers, writers and freelancers who don't traditionally work in an office. More Info.