For those of you who do not like Duran Duran, or have never experienced such a wild and crazy night on the town as I have just described, Second Life is a virtual online game in which you, or better said, your avatar, travels around a computer generated universe attending concerts, shopping, lounging, partying, or just plain meeting one of the million-plus residences. Think of it as a gigantic chat room, but with a few more pieces of flare.

This new media frontier is getting a lot of press lately and is boldly going where every great idea has gone before — the pocketbooks of consumers. Sporting over one million residences and approaching US$500,000 spent daily, Second Life is becoming one of the most talked about phenomena in the blogosphere. The buzz has even made its way to Harvard University, where Paul Hemp, of the Harvard Business Review, stated:

Advertising has always targeted a powerful consumer alter ego: that hip, attractive, incredibly popular person just waiting to emerge (with the help of the advertised product) from an all-too-normal self… avatars offer a window into people's hidden preferences and a means for achieving sustained consumer engagement with a brand.

Adidas store

Marketing firms are taking these words seriously. Some of Second Life’s newest faces include Adidas, American Apparel, Toyota, W Hotels and Sony/BMG, who just held a Ben Folds concert on its “Media Island” (which was harder get into than a Detroit Tiger’s World Series game). Reuters has even set up shop, creating their own island and very own avatar reporter.

I stopped and asked myself, “Why are these top players getting in on the action?” The answer: They see an opportunity.

Second Life is on to something. Social networking sites like Myspace and Facebook have found success because people like meeting new people, especially when all inhibitions and anxieties are taken away though the power of the Internet. Second Life takes this one step further. They bring you social networking without even having to be yourself. You can be anyone you want, say anything you want, go anywhere you want. You can visit Dublin on a Friday or catch Duran Duran; meet avatars that have the some interests as you without having to worry about how your hair looks, if you are too fat or too skinny, or what color your skin is.

Some argue that communities like Second Life are making the world impersonal. I think it is making it more intimate. For the corporations, it is way in which they can become more intimate with their customers. They can find out if they have a creative imagination, if they are conventional, how they like to dress, what kind of music they like, what they drink, eat, what kind of cars they like to drive.

Second Life is a goldmine for marketing and for advertising as well. While hanging out at the Blarney Stone, I received a free t-shirt that I now proudly wear promoting one of the coolest places I found in the game. Everyone asks each other where they got their clothes, shoes and jewelry. Maybe next time they will say the name of the company you represent when asked about their new clothes, or maybe they will say that the best concerts are held at your client’s concert hall, or that your client’s new automobile is the coolest thing they have ever seen. And then they will go and tell all of their friends in Second Life…and best of all, they will tell all of their friends in “real” life. Which is why Second Life can bring you the best of both worlds.

So the next time you are pitching a client, let them know about Second Life and the possibilities this new media offers. Until then, I’ll catch you at the Blarney Stone.