Colgate - The Results
If you've been following the Colgate Saga on this blog, you will recall that Joni West, president of This Second Marketing, was going to get back to me with the results of the Colgate Smile promotion at the end of the holidays. And sure enough, right on cue, here is her update:
In spite of the first few blogs ripping into Colgate for entering Second Life with the Colgate Smile Center and not mentioning the focus of the ACTUAL promotion, we have gotten AMAZING results!!! Since you said you would be so kind as to re-address this once the real promotion was done, I hoping you will blog on this…it is pretty impressive!I removed the various avatar names above, and clipped some of the text purely for the sake of brevity. Joni also sent through the following photos:
We more than DOUBLED out previous one-on-one brand outreach record*! We hand delivered the Colgate Smile package which includes the virtual Colgate Smile, a list of 10 places in SL that will make you smile, and other freebies, to more than 30,000 UNIQUE Second Life residents! Now THAT is good virtual marketing! We also helped countless newbies to learn how to “wear” things (like the Colgate Smile) and how to teleport to places (on the smile list). I believe Colgate has added value by promoting in-world in this way. It is NOT about the “build,” it is about the interaction and the free useful items! People who didn’t get the Colgate Smile package can go the Colgate Smile Center and get it from a vending machine…that is what the Smile Center is there for... Below [...] I have pasted an edited snippet that was captured by one of our buzz agents. The responses from residents when offered the Colgate Smile package was OVERWHELMINGLY positive! People really got a kick out of having a nice Colgate Smile for their avatars since most of them only had the default facial expression.
[9:38] Hi, Jess, have a Colgate smile and welcome to Second Life....
[9:38]accepted your inventory offer.
[9:49]accepted your inventory offer.
[9:50] You: Hi Everybody! If you would like a Colgate smile just IM me. Also, there is a list of 10 Second Life sites to make you smile....Enjoy!
[9:50]accepted your inventory offer.
[9:50] You: Enjoy, Phobe
[9:51]: ty
[9:51]accepted your inventory offer.
[9:51] Paccepted your inventory offer.
[9:53] You: Here Ringo, enjoy a Colgate smile
[9:53]l: lol
[9:54]accepted your inventory offer.
[9:54]accepted your inventory offer.
[9:55] You: Baby, the folder i gave you has some clothes, along with the Colgate smile....
[9:57]: hey Post. New to this... what is the colgate smile inworld?
[9:58]: OK. So do I 'wear' the smile?
[9:59]: How do I use it?
[9:59] You: do you see the folder?
[9:59] You: in your inentory?
[9:59] You: "Colgate Smile"
[10:00]: so do I use the colgate smile?
[10:00] just clik 'wear' and it should fit nicely
[10:01]: ok, done...I think.
[10:01]accepted your inventory offer.
...
[10:06]accepted your inventory offer.
[10:06]accepted your inventory offer.
[10:07]accepted your inventory offer.
...
[10:08]accepted your inventory offer.
[10:08]accepted your inventory offer.
[10:09]accepted your inventory offer
*Previous one-on-one brand-related outreach was done by This Second Marketing LLC for IMAX to promote Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix this past summer.
By my reckoning, 500 inworld hours reaching 30,000 avatars makes for an average of 60 "conversations" an hour or one a minute. As I can see from the above chronology, it is certainly possible to exceed this, if you hit the right places. I couldn't do it, mind you.
3 comments:
I was waiting for an update on that :)
30,000 avatars is quite impressive, but it depends on their advertising goal. As they targeted newbies, if we factor in the 10% retention rate, they only approached 3000 "long-term" avatars.
Still, helping newbies is a valuable community service, so they did well in that regard. Better than spamming and 16m2 ad parcels, for sure.
OK, if I'm reading this right, it's kind of refreshingly un-innovative: they're basically treating SL as any other town, and doing an old-school promo handout campaign.
It'd be interesting to see a cost comparison of this campaign against, say, handing out 30,000 free samples at a sports stadium or busy downtown: I suspect their labor costs would be lower but materials costs higher, and the SL campaign more cost-effective.
Interesting....
I'd be willing to bet this was dirt cheap for Colgate. It was probably one of the least costly campaigns they've ever run.
This basic marketing is, without a doubt neophyte use of virtual world technology. Nevertheless, every single one of the 30,000 people marketed to "experienced" the Colgate marketing, vs. seeing it on a 2D Web site at 10-30 times the cost to Colgate; or even worse in a full-spread ad in USA Today.
By the law of averages, they were not all nubies, therefore it is reasonable to assume they reached 7,000 or more long-term users. However, if the only experience a person ever has in a virtual world is visiting my sim, and then goes about his life that's good for me, not bad. That's just more mindshare for me as the person associates a unique experience with my product.
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