As another in a long string of articles blaming Second Life inhabitants for the failure of brands in-world, this most recent article from the LA Times got under my skin. What is annoying about all this negative press is that marketers and the media seem surprised when no one visits islands that don’t offer something meaningful to do or experience in SL. When companies do this in real life, they go out of business. Why should Second Life be any different? More often than not, companies are not asking themselves “how can I adapt my brand or brand experience to fit SL?” They’re simply trying to fit their real world experience to SL.

Shouldn’t companies be thinking of this as a target planning opportunity? What would my product/product experience look like in a world there people can fly, walk through walls, don’t need to eat and can change their appearance instantly? The sky’s the limit, really. There’s a reason why in-world locations like The Big Pond or The Shelter always have avatars there (and they’re NOT porn places). They have lots to explore on the ground and in the air, multiple areas with things to do, they’re nice to look at etc. In the real world companies invent cool stuff all the time. (Remember Nike’s real world virtual game of tag for instance — imagine that in-world?) Check out Joel Greenberg’s blog for more on this debate.

Over the weekend, I decided to see if I could make some free Lindens in-world. I went to about 5 locations that were all packed with avatars camping or taking surveys to get money. Now there’s an in-world service someone can use (oh and if there’s no shopping in-world (according to the LA Times), why the need for Lindens?). And, I didn’t see anyone have sex at any of the places. I think the sex thing is an easy excuse to blame SL residents for not going to companies’ islands. Sure there’s lots of porn in SL (just like the internet) and I guess if you don’t have anything better to do, why not that? But, check out this U2 concert that took place recently in SL. Here’s something not related to porn that many avatars attended. Clearly, people are looking for stuff to do in-world. If companies think of some really cool stuff for residents to do with other avatars on their islands, I bet they’ll stop having so much sex. Well maybe not..but at least they’ll spend more time doing other stuff in-world.