Consumer-oriented firms get a Second Life

Amul, non-government organisations reach out to buyers through the virtual world, which is free.

Linden Lab’s creation, Second Life (SL), which till date has been primarily an online haven for IT companies and major global brands, is now attracting Indian consumer-oriented companies like Tata Teleservices Ltd (TTSL), Amul and non-government organisations like Child Rights and You (CRY) too. Linden Lab was founded in 1999 by Philip Rosedale. SL is a virtual world in which users can create their virtual identities.

Brands such as Coca-Cola, IBM, Microsoft, GE, Nokia, Toyota and Intel have already marked their presence on SL. Now TTSL has taken its Suno Dil Ki Awaaz campaign to SL through an interactive virtual talent hunt competition, with the help of Indusgeeks Solutions. Users can visit its island, participate in the talent hunt, get an understanding of the company’s products and offerings and enjoy games and songs.

Gujarat-based milk cooperative major Amul owns parlours on SL which showcase topical ads of Amul starting from the late 1990s, Amul TV commercials and product displays. It also has a simulation of its production and distribution facility. It started a pilot on this with the help of Trimensions — a firm that specialises in the conceptualisation, design, and manufacture of educational and promotional materials and products — in January 2008 and officially launched its virtual parlours this March.

CRY is also slated to launch a CRY island to create awareness about CRY and fund raising. Campaigns such as these can cost anywhere between

Rs 4 lakh and Rs 20 lakh depending on the scale.

Being a communications technology company, TTSL’s initiative will allow it to engage with the growing digital audience in a manner that is relevant to the company. Siddharth Banerjee, CEO and founder of Indusgeeks Solutions says, “The campaign helped associate the Tata Indicom Brand with cutting-edge technologies and improved brand perception amongst the youth. It also helps Tata position interactivity and high-end content as a part of their upcoming 3G offerings.” The campaign generated over 100,000 visits to the website.

But what does Amul find on SL? Being a Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) company, it has a completely different set of audience, which includes housewives and children (who do not have a major presence on SL) besides working youth.

Rahul Dutta, chairman and managing director, Trimensions comments, “Currently it’s only a branding excercise. Also, it is being used for experiential marketing purpose, to make the consmuers experience the product in the near-real sense. But the company can use it for other purposes to serve different user base. Like it can hold conferences there. It can use it for education, milk management etc.”

RS Sodhi, chief general manager, Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation says, “It’s more about the image. It is to make the brand look young and trendy. And since Internet is a growing medium, we are experimenting with it.” According to Dutt, in 2008, Amul had 40-50 visitors a week. Today, it gets 100 visitors a week.

Not every story on SL, however, is a success. Amul is the second Indian FMCG to have tried SL. In 2007, ITC marked its presence on SL but later exited. It had bought showrooms for Essenza Di Wills (personal care products). Over a period of 4 months, it was visited by only 20 people. Before officially launching it, the company made an exit. ITC too was handled by Trimensions.

Dutta reasons ITC’s exit, “Such marketing requires very high level of participation from the company. Many companies don’t put in much efforts.”

Moreover, SL has a very small population. It has around 15 million users worldwide, including 125,000 Indians. For India, SL is a very difficult medium. It has heavy software and broadband requirements. One needs to download some graphic softwares like 3D explorer. Most people dump registration there itself. On top of that, it doesn’t work in case of dial-up connections. This accounts for a very small number of Indian presence on SL.

To overcome this, Trimensions collaborated with a French company Altadyn Systems to develop a platform 3dxplorer, which allows even mainstream Internet users access to the virtual world.

It will be worth a wait to see if these brands are able to pull off a success story with SL, specially non-tech brands like Amul.