Playboy Hops into Second Life
Posted June 13th, 2007 by Scott
I’ve been to quite a few Second Life (SL) events in the past, but haven’t been as impressed as I was with the launch of the Offical Playboy Island last night. I think this event was a great representation of Playboy as a brand rather than the stereotypical affirmations people usually make. What really caught my attention were the greeters who made it a point to greet almost every person that teleported to the event. Xena and Zoey, members of the Playboy team, were dressed as bunnies and welcomed everyone to the event throughout the night, even ushering tours around the facility.
The first level was a mix of mingling and casual shop browsing with the opportunity to buy Playboy branded clothing for both yourself (male & female) as well as your avatar. Surrounding the island, were several tiki bars and even a replica of the infamous “Grotto” (which I didn’t have a chance to go into but heard some stories haha). I did venture to the second level for a while which was definitely where the party was. I was told that the Sim was maxed out at 85 avatars throughout the night. Now you may be saying “85? That’s nothing!” However, when you look at it over the course of several hours, that’s a high number of people continuously engaging with your brand. Not to mention all the people (like myself) who told friends and family about the event.
I want to give props to MSGiro, the developer and manager of Playboy in SL, along with his team at Sentient Services for putting on such a successful event and representing the Playboy brand so well. It’s amazing how far SL has come since my first encounter with it and I feel other large enterprises will soon begin to realize its value. To those of you who still aren’t sure or have tried it and say it doesn’t work, all I have to say is “Rome wasn’t built in a day.” Just give SL time and patience and Linden Labs will do the rest.
