Soda - Keeping Curious

Since I joined Second Life (see my other article) I have come across some excellent ideas and have begun forming friendships with builders and designers within the virtual world. One idea I am following particularly closely at the moment is W Hotel’s “Aloft” project. The chic hotel brand has employed builders from The Electric Sheep Company to build a virtual hotel in Second Life, that will mirror the new “Aloft” style of hotel that they are developing in the real world.

The construction began in July, and I must say, from what my avatar is allowed to view and what I have read on their blog, the progress seems astonishing. Within the Second Life world they have set up a viewing platform where you can observe the exterior of the hotel (as you can see my avatar doing).

The exterior appears complete, it now seems they are building and designing the layout and furniture inside of the hotel. After this, I presume they will concentrate on the landscape and buildings around the hotel, as they have an entire island to play with! I am hoping to wangle a chat with the builders at some point, but until then, their blog is fascinating.

The potential of Second Life for marketing and promotions is something I am really interested in. I feel that the more I use it and talk to the residents, the more I learn about what could be possible. In fact, the virtual hotel idea is one we were considering ourselves recently, but it looks like we were beaten to it! In the meantime, I will continue to observe the progress and perhaps we can learn some lessons from W Hotel’s venture…

EDIT: I have just been reading a guy called Steve Rubel’s blog where in one of his most recent entries he examines the hype versus the reality of Second Life. It really is a very interesting read, examining figures and coming to the conclusion that, although Second Life is incredibly exciting, it certainly isn’t growing as fast or has as large a member base as people think.

However, I am undeterred. As many people have commented, at the moment the real appeal is the novelty and the “cool” factor. A well thought out event in Second Life will not only have “avatars beating a path to your door”, but is a higly PR-able event in terms of Real Life marketing.