Starwood Hotels Enters Second Life

Startwood releases their new hotel design online ahead of the launch in 2008. Yet another entry into the much discussed and rather up and down in and out world of Second Life. Taking input from users for the design they were truly able to reach out to the consumer.

But was this truly their consumer? Did they do sme research showing that the users of Second Life most closely represent the public or their target audience? I really have to wonder what affect this really had on their branding or the impact of actual sales. I would have to think that beyond virtual it would negligible.

Don't get me wrong. The idea of Second Life is a great idea and has some awesome possibilities. I'm waiting for someone to utilize this technology to merge it with my first life a bit more. Wouldn't you like to go to the mall and instead of looking at the map of the stores on the flat map you walk up to a screen and say what you are looking for and it takes you through a guided tour of the mall? Or perhaps you want to see what the floorplan of an apartment or house looks like and instead of the typical 360 rotating photo. Imagine walking through it without logging into the game. Perhaps in an office.

BookVideos.tv

Simon & Schuster has launched BookVideos.tv to show the story behind the story. This is somewhat of an interesting idea for a medium of entertainment and communication that is losing out to the web and perhaps being replaced for it except for that perieod during take off and landing in which you have to turn off all electrical equipment. What do you do for those 15 mintues? Yes its time to pick up a book or other print that takes care of our ADDesque behavior and pace. So perhaps while you are supposed to be doing work or at home playing sick on a rainy day you will take a look at this site and discover what you will be doing during the time that you are technology deprived.

I would hope that they would take this effort a bit further into "web 2.0." Try to interact with your visitors get them coming back for more than just seeing the latest video post. This site has so much potential.

Tolerate Mornings by Folgers

With more and more marketing budgets weighing more heavily toward interactive media we will certainly see more campaigns like the Tolerate Mornings viral site by Proctor & Gamble's Folgers brand. We first smelled the aroma of this Folgers campaign via The New York Times article, "You're Supposed to Add Water to Your Folgers?"

There is some entertainment value. I certainly spent some time in the area that lets you send wake up calls. A few people will be woken mighty early tomorrow morning. That was fun and I'd have to say that if there wasn't other things on my plate today that I'd be spending some more time on the site.

What can you do to take this a bit further and perhaps reach your consumer a little more personally?