Second Life for Axa

Peter

Nice to see a financial services brand investigating the world of Second Life with Axa quoted as being close to launching a presence.

Second Life is an interesting place for brands at the moment. The membership numbers constantly grow but the feeling is that the actual number of regular users is quite low and given the global reach the actual number per country quite thin. Add in terrorist groups out to police the virtual world, the rise of concern over virtual crime (sexual crime is of major concern in some European countries for example)and it's fair to say no one can really predict how important Second Life and whatever follows it will be.

My feeling is that it’s a good place to experiment but there needs to be a very clear value exchange between a brand and the inhabitants of Second Life for a brand to be well received. However, just like the real world, some people will love the brand and some will not - there is a risk in everything we do in marketing that it will create a backlash but that alone is not a reason for not trying.

So congratulations to Axa for a brave move forward into the unknown.