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!

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.

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:


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.

Colgate Smile Center - A Toothsome Reply

After posting about Colgate Smile Power earlier I received a mail from Joni West, President of This Second Marketing. I thought it only fair to publish this mail as a post, with Joni's agreement, as it sets out the company's reply/riposte:

I would like to address your review of the Colgate Smile Center. Colgate is doing a promotion, starting today, that is about sharing the Colgate Smile and is giving away the Colgate avatar smile through Buzz Agents who will be in-world for over 500 hours over the next 2 weeks. The Smile Center was only meant to serve as a place where people could pick up the freebies if they read about the Colgate Smile promotion but did not encounter a Colgate Buzz Agent on their own. This is not meant to be a place to hand out in. As you saw in the Coffee-mate café next door, we understand that there needs to be activity to attract and maintain visitors. While we do have several camping jobs, I can assure you that the VAST majority of our visitors are not campers. We track visitors to each venue on our sim and report that to our clients because we are confident in our numbers. We are not tracking the Colgate Smile Center because we are not trying to drive traffic there and we are giving away all the freebies out on the Grid. One of the things in the freebie folder is a list of 10 places in SL that will make you smile. We have run several successful Buzz Agent campaigns and realized that people were hungry for info on places to go that were fun. People thank us routinely for giving them fun freebies and being helpful in any way we can. Our Buzz Agents help people learn to teleport to a venue, for example.

The story for Colgate is about the Buzz Agents giving a virtual Colgate Smile to tens of thousands of avatars…not that they have a vending machine area where people can pick up the freebies. I hope this clears things up for you as to why Colgate did, and is doing this. It is not about the Smile Center, it is about The Colgate Smile and soon, a whole lot of avatars will be looking a whole lot friendlier.

As part of our subsequent email exchange (I wanted to get an OK on posting the above) Joni added:

No matter how much we say it is about a live promotion, people tend to focus on the build because to date, that has been what marketing efforts in SL have consisted of. When I saw all those beautiful yet empty sims, I knew I could do better and so far, This Second Marketing LLC has made ALL of our clients happy! When we want to drive traffic, we get it there. The Coffee-mate SwirL Café and AQUA Beach Party are #2 and #4 (by Linden Lab traffic stats) brand-related venues in SL. Colgate is doing a really awesome thing by handing out tens of thousands of Colgate Smiles to avatars who, let’s face it, don’t usually smile....

How about I get back to you at the end of the holidays and let you know how many Colgate Smiles were distributed during the campaign? We only consider a Buzz Agent conversation an “interaction” if the resident accepts the inventory offer. Sound like a plan?

Yep... that sounds like a plan to me! And thanks, Joni, for the replies.

Brush off for Colgate Smile Power

I have now done an extensive and thorough inspection of the Colgate Smile Power site in Second Life - it took about 30 seconds. It is difficult to know how to put this, but I shall start slowly and see how I get on. The first word that springs to mind is "underwhelmed" - but more of this anon. First, let me try and put this site in context.

I say "site" but it is closer in size to a garage or shed than to a parcel, let alone a full sim. It sits on the This Second sim, which belongs to This Second Marketing, "a marketing agency that specializes in helping brand marketers enter the vibrant, fast-growing world of Second Life. We are made up of marketing and digital media professionals who have been living 'Second Lives' since before the buzz-boom over Second Life in late 2006. We approach brand marketing in Second Life from a different, and dare we say smarter, perspective than most other companies in this specialized field." I may not be a marketing person, but I really don't see the "smarter" here... ummm... or the "different" for that matter.

The Colgate build, which appears to occupy just part of the ground floor of a larger, 3-storey building, is at best perfunctory. Aside from a couple of logos and photos the main features are a set of rotating cubes and 4 product dispensers. The purpose of the cubes? Simply to tell you to use the dispensers. Why? I can only assume that someone realised how lifeless (motionless) the build was and decided to whack in some movement. The result: 9 rotating cubes. Others have commented that these are not phantom (ie you cannot walk through them) but I at least did not have an issue with bumping into them. Perhaps they've been moved. The dispenser gives you a HUD that enables you to smile (or not), along with a decent list of nice places to visit in SL, and the obligatory free T-shirt. The HUD splatters itself across the centre of your screen (cute!) and offers you both a "smile" and a "dance" animation. On my ugly features, the smile looked more like a grimace.

I took a few snaps, which I have decided to load directly, rather than link to my Flickr page.


There are other commercial enterprises on the sim, perhaps the largest being SwirL. We are invited to "Come Join SwirL, the new hot spot cafe, sponsored by Coffee-mate. It's a fantastic place for residents to meet, socialize and relax with a good cup of coffee. Visit the swirl annex to see Top SL entertainment." Hmmmm....

One final point: the sim was quite busy when I arrived, but I quickly realised that everyone else on the sim (as far as I could tell) was a camper, paid to make it look busy. It was a very strange feeling, like being in a David Lynch movie.

So there you have it. I just have to ask: "Colgate! Why did you do it?" The cost may have looked overwhelmingly attractive on paper - but you've damaged your brand through a miserly and ill-considered first foray in virtual worlds. I would strongly suggest that you rethink why you want to be in Second Life, what it is you want to achieve and then how you propose to do it.