Automakers are seeking a Second Life in virtual digital worlds to get closer to tomorrow’s car buyers.
Italian automaker Lancia is the latest to establish a presence in Second Life, a virtual universe where users are represented by digital people that can fly around in a pixelated world. The Lancia Village consists of five digital buildings and four cars. The new Delta will be unveiled there on March 3, 24 hours before it is shown in the metal at the Geneva auto show.
“Lancia had always been searching for new languages and new technologies to talk to people,” said Lancia Automobiles CEO Olivier Francois. “The Lancia Village on Second Life is a meeting place for our customers, but also for those who do not know our brand and our products.”
Lancia is relatively late to join enter Second Life. Toyota arrived in the virtual world in late 2006.
“Although Second Life has been around since 2003, it was not until about 2007 that brands went in,” said Nic Mitham of Kzero, a virtual worlds consultancy based in Cambridge, England. “Car brands led the charge.”
Nissan, Pontiac, Peugeot, BMW and Mercedes-Benz were among those who followed Toyota into Second Life, riding a wave of media attention about the virtual world that has since died down.
“There was a degree of ‘me too’ in the decision-making process but also a realization that in terms of the potentials and the target audience, virtual worlds are a sweet spot for carmakers,” said Mitham, whose agency works with companies seeking to set up shops in virtual worlds as well as with virtual platforms themselves.
The virtual environment lends itself to marketing cars since it allows developers to create digital images of vehicles that users can zoom in on or “walk” around on their screens. And it is relatively cheap, too. Setting up a Second Life presence costs about £50,000 (about €66,950).
Link to young buyers
The decisive factor for carmakers is the access they gain to a captive audience of users and potential future car buyers in their late 20s to early 30s.
This can help them gather information about this age group, such as their preferences in terms of car styling and color, as well as giving their brand a boost in the eyes of the young.
Carmakers are swift to counter charges levelled by some bloggers and Second Life users that they are climbing on the virtual reality bandwagon, creating islands as a marketing stunt and then abandoning them as soon as the spotlight moves on.
“It was not just the hype that made us say ‘let’s jump.’ We had been looking at virtual reality platforms for a while,” said Jörg Reimann, head of marketing innovations at BMW. “It is great to observe, but its better to start really experimenting directly. That was the moment when we moved in more than a year ago.”
To help understand the virtual world, one BMW employee interacted full-time with users on the site. This enabled BMW to collect impressions of how “native” Second Lifers interacted with the site before new users flooded in following media coverage.
“What we learned is that users were interested in direct interaction,” Reimann said. “It is not worth much if you have just a nice island with cool design. It is more about being there, being present and being authentic.”
One of many channels
After gathering valuable experience about virtual worlds, BMW sees Second Life as just one of the many marketing channels it uses to communicate information about new product launches. The new 1 series coupe launch, for instance, relied on many new media formats including YouTube, podcasts and blogs.
“We believe that virtual worlds will play a role in the future marketing mix,” Reimann said. “Whether this be Second Life or whether it is another format, we don’t know.”
Toyota could be pointing the way forward. Analyst Mitham praised the Japanese automaker and Scion, its entry brand for the US, as the most adventurous virtual world marketers. Toyota is targeting a younger audience with its presence in virtual gaming and educational worlds Gaia, There and Whyville.
“They have realized there are millions of kids in other virtual worlds and they are trying to tap into them as early as possible,” said Mitham. “These kids are already using virtual worlds and will carry on as they get older.”
Luca Ciferri contributed
