Recently, the VP of Marketing at HP blogged about why they are not in Second Life, and I think the title of his post says a lot about our differences in approaching this medium – “Top 10 Reasons as to why I still need to be convinced about marketing on Second Life“.
If someone is just there to market to me—throw up some billboards and leave—then as a resident of Second Life myself, I’m not that interested in them being there either.
However, if you’re approaching the world as an involved resident, then it’s about more than marketing and it has more meaning. Dell entered Second Life to explore new ways we can extend our direct relationship with customers, and to learn new ways to interact with virtual communities so we will be prepared for the 3D Internet.
Because we wanted to add to this fast-growing community, not just market to it, I’m excited today to announce the expansion of Dell’s Plant a Tree for Me program in Second Life. This blog post from Tod Arbogast explains the program in more detail. On our main island in Second Life, we have now ripped out some old industrial-style architecture and replaced it with green park space. There Second Life residents can relax and not only enjoy the scenery, but also take a little bit of it back home with them. Free virtual saplings of the Red Oaks growing there are available for all Second Life residents.
Now, while trees themselves are nothing new to SL, I think we’ve added some pretty neat features to this one:
- Instead of just one texture for the tree, the tree will change appearance as it grows larger – from sprout to sapling to young tree, to full tree
- You can select the maximum height of the tree to grow, and you can choose one of a few time-frames for the tree to grow: 10 seconds, 10 minutes, 10 hours, 10 days, or 10 weeks
- If you reposition the tree while it’s growing, it won’t mess up the growth process
- You can re-grow the tree after it’s completely grown or even in the middle of the growth process
- Each tree carries with it a link back to our Plant a Tree for Me page on Dell.com, where we hope residents will take the opportunity to participate and offset a bit of their carbon emissions in the real world.
To celebrate this new space, we are throwing a party on Earth Day, April 22, at Dell Island. Residents are invited to come hear SL musicians Edward Lowell and Dimi Van Ludwig perform from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. SLT (Second Life Time, which is the same as U.S. Pacific Time). Come listen, dance, visit and get your own tree sapling to plant in Second Life! Oh, and you can get there via this direct link, or by selecting Second Life in the country selector of Dell.com, or going straight to dell.com/secondlife, or through our new dell.com/conversations page.
Update: Here’s a StudioDell video that explains how the Plant a Tree For Me program works.