Remember how, back in April, I wrote about Coke's launch event, and we've also reported on how Coke is leaving according to Business Week? We must have reported on this Wired article too, but I can't find it.

Tateru wrote a short piece about Mike Donnelly's talk at SLCC as blogged by ESC's Joel Greenburg (remember ESC didn't do the work on this one, Crayon did) in which Donnelly states, as far as we can tell from the quotes given he regards the campaign as:

1. Not over
2. Already a success

But, the naysayers are out already... Tony Walsh on his blog is unimpressed by Coke's claim of a success, and has some numbers he regards as less impressive to back his ideas up.
Who do you trust here? Greenburg doesn't have a direct interest - he's not getting more business out of Coke, because he's not getting any at the moment and you'd have thought Coke would probably stay with Crayon if they really like what's going on. Donnelly doesn't need to say the campaign is a success if it's not - although no-one's mentioned an exact amount less than US$0.5M (as quoted from the talk) on an experimental campaign that fails isn't going to get him fired and Coke could just pull out. A little comment from reading both articles back-to-back had me thinking. Walsh criticises the campaign on the metrics he chooses "because activity around these Virtual Thirst web destinations has barely increased since I last checked back in early June" but Donnelly says "We rented space on Crayon Island for the duration of the campaign. There's no reason to build an island without a long term plan" and the analysis is about an event based campaign: "Like the real world, there are a variety of events marketers can sponsor in Second Life; they do not need to build a sim. It all depends on the marketing problem you need to solve and the strategies for solving it."

So, shortly after an event there's a rush of signing up to the various aspects of it, which then tails off - but I'm sure Coke will hope with their launch of the competition winner event there will be another rush of new material and interest. With this being their strategy, why is seeing this pattern of engagement indicative of failure? Or is there an axe to grind on one part?

Here's a bit of machinima from the premiere of Coke's new CGI commercial 'The Happiness Factory'. The actual commercial is embedded within the machinima, which concerns itself with the red carpet premiere of the commercial in SL. Now, interestingly, the video claims that this event was attended by Avril Lavigne, but since this is a professionally-produced machinima by Rivers Run Red, it's doubtful that this represents reality. Is there any footage of the real event?

Regardless, it's a slick piece, and the actual commercial is fun. But, wait ... didn't Coke decide to pull out of SL?

(Thanks, Fizik!)

This news post on Business Week is all about the companies that have been present in SL and are now leaving it, some to focus on developing their own spaces, others simply to go back to doing what they were before. Starwood is mentioned, as are Wells Fargo and Coke, each with their own reasons for not making SL their flagship virtual presence.

I've come to think of advertising in SL as somewhat equivalent to advertising for the Macintosh platform. Both are regarded as niche markets, both have a rabid fan base, both have leaders of vision and uncompromising values. One could say that both platforms feature a userbase that's a mere fraction of the worldwide population, therefore it's a waste of effort to engage their respective audiences. However, one thing that both communities have in common that more advertisers should pay attention to is that they're vocal. They vote with their time and money, and they tell the world what they think. The best advertising is word of mouth, and many technologies that began as tiny concerns grew to gargantuan proportions by the simple application of positive word of mouth by its fans.

I believe that SL is such a technology, and that companies who bear with it in its halting, stumbling baby steps toward its bright future will reap the benefits of having been there early and growing along with it. We'll make this thing a success simply because we want it to be.