October marketing news

Too Fast, Too Curious. Cars in Second Life part 1. Automobile marketers love Second Life. All those ripe early adopters, 3D models and test-drives. And savvy marketers are building communities as well.

HUDS up, its a Belgian Bank. Following on from companies like BNP Paribas, Europ Assistance and Wirecard, the latest entrant is Belgian Bank Keytrade.

Collaborative Credit Agricole. Banking group Credit Agricole joins BNP Paribas as French financial services representatives in Second Life.

Advertising a virtual expo, advertising a real world expo. Advertising expo organisation Advertising Week is using Second Life to augment their 2007 conference.

Dont step in the meadow muffins. The benefits of virtual world activity for food and drink companies are not obvious. After all, avatars do need need to eat or drink.

Second Life Marketing Safaris goes Italian. The original ?¢‚ǨÀúhelping hand?¢‚ǨÀú tour guide for marketers wishing to learn about Second Life is branching out.

New K Zero brand and website. K Zero has recently launched a new website and brand identity.

Kaneva hits the dance floor. For the uninitiated it looks a little strange, but for a lot of people, dancing in virtual worlds is an extremely popular past-time and way of socialising in a virtual space.

Virtual world investment reaches $1bn. Virtual Worlds Management, organisers of the Virtual Worlds conference and expo and good friends of K Zero has recently published their findings on funding and financing in virtual worlds.

Yves SLaint Laurent. French fashion house Yves Saint Laurent has followed the lead set by Calvin Klein a few months ago by promoting a fragrance in Second Life.

InsideOut by Vodafone. Vodafone in conjunction with Rivers Run Red has opened up the beta version of a cross-world communication device allowing avatars to send and receive texts and voice calls in and out of Second Life. Pause for breath.

Brand metrics coming from Whyville. MediaPost has just issued a story about virtual world Whyville and some metrics relating to brand activity. Heres a link to the original story.

The 5 Rules for Virtual Brand Management. K Zero has a brand new strategic report available – the 5 Rules for Virtual Brand Management.

K Zero presentation from Virtual Worlds Expo, San Jose Oct 10 2007. The presentation linked here (Slideshare) was given at the Demographics and Numbers session yesterday at Virtual Worlds Expo in San Jose.

Entropia Universe makes stellar graphics upgrade. Sci-Fi virtual world Entropia has just improved the graphics quality of avatar appearance.

Metaverse growth forecasts. My ?¢‚ǨÀúDemographics and Numbers presentation at Virtual Worlds Expo last week has attracted a great deal of attention, so Ive decided to present these numbers visually.

5 Rules featured in Drum Magazine. The October edition of The Drum, the UK advertising industry magazine is carrying a double-page feature on the 5 Rules of Virtual Brand Management.

Bankinter heads over to Whyville. The fifth largest bank in Spain, Bankinter has opened a virtual branch in Whyville. The initiative is designed to teach children about the basics of finance.

September metrics part 1: Accounts and gender. Its that time of the month again to examine the latest Linden Lab stats for Second Life activity. This post is dealing with registered/unique accounts and the gender split.

September metrics part 2: A global view on SL usage. North America (primarily the USA) had been the driving force behind the geographical population of Second Life up to about May 2006, largely explained by the ?¢‚ǨÀúlocalite nature of Innovators.

What Interoperability means for Marketers. Part 1. Buckle up. The road to Interoperability is going to be bumpy. But ultimately, totally necessary for the widespread adoption and second phase of virtual worlds. This series of posts is going to fully explore the marketing implications of Interoperability.

September metrics part 3: Western Europe. Western European countries account for the largest share of the population in Second Life – although North America is showing signs of catching up (and being the lead region again).

What Interoperability means for Marketers. Part 2. The avatar. Avatar appearance and the experience of moving from one world to another.

CSI: New York in Second Life. A main part of the opening keynote speech at Virtual Worlds Expo in San Jose was dedicated to the upcoming CSI: New York project in Second Life.

Metamoney – Financial services in virtual worlds. Companies in the Financial Services are paying attention to the audiences in virtual worlds.

Brand map of Second Life updated. The virtually world famous map of brands in Second Life has been updated.

Fujitsu goes large, like Dell. Semiconductor and computer manufacturing company Fujitsu joins the ranks amongst the tech companies in Second Life.

Metrics from Second House of Sweden. Back in May, the Sweden House of Sweden project was launched into SL. More info about this project here.

Kinset show us whats in Store. Announced yesterday, Boston-based company Kinset is setting its sights on providing virtual shopping experiences for real world brands.

Kinset intro video. Heres a useful video giving an overview of Kinset Plaza and the two stores already in existence.

Exploring LectroTown at Kinset Plaza. LectroTown is one of the first two virtual stores launched by Kinset. Heres a look around the store.

The island of Ireland. Using the virtual Dublin sim as a platform, the Tourism Ireland organisation is planning a series events leading up to St Patricks Day 2008.

Orange Friday. Following the likes of Comcast, Vodafone, Telus and Telecom Italia, the mobile network carrier Orange calls into Second Life this Friday with a community building project.

Bershka. We have a retail and fashion theme running on the K Zero blog this week. Yesterday we were covering Kinset (with more information coming soon) and today, Bershka.

Nesquik. Right time, Wrong place?. A few days ago Nesquik launched into Second Life onto the Activ8 island. For anyone who didnt know, Nesquik is a milk flavouring product owned by Nestle and promoted primarily using the Nesquik bunny.

First look at Orange. Orange opens to the public today, so it must be Orange Friday. The island and focus of the project is on collaboration with SL residents. Ill be speaking with Peter Newell about the project shortly.

Electrolux Innovation Grant Program. Assignment:Second Life residents will be encouraged to submit ideas for useful devices designed to solve a specific challenge. They can present ideas already in development or projects that are still in the concept phase. They can work either as a team or as an individual.

First non-profit goes There. Lots going at There at the moment. The latest entrant is The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) – the first non-profit entering There. Heres the press release.

20 trends defining virtual worlds – Techdigest part 1. Techdigest did a good job in live-blogging the recent Virtual Worlds Forum event in London and (like most tech-based media outlets) appear to be devoting more column inches to the metaverse space.

Exclusive first look at latest Football Superstars screen-shots. Andy Law at Cybersports has kindly given me the latest screen-shots of Football Superstars. These are pre-alpha and published officially for the first time.