Second Life: A Marketer's and Philosopher's Delight?

Attention of potential two million active users (and rapidly counting) is surely something each marketing manager would like to get a pie of. More about this another day. For now here is an interesting page to track (complete with linden $ charts, conversion rates, volume on SL, etc!):http://secondlife.reuters.com/

And here I am sitting alone, with $L 0 in my pocket:


It is always refreshing to think about the Zen philosopher's story: "Am I dreaming about the butterfly, or is it the butterfly dreaming about me?"

There is an interesting story in Mind's I, by Stanislaw Lem, touching briefly on the dichotimy between virtual and real existence:
http://www.usfca.edu/philosophy/pdf%20files/princess%20ineffabelle.pdf

Mind's I, by Douglas Hofstadter and Daniel Dennett, is a real good read exploring in some depth real and virtual worlds.

What ever the reality, I shudder to think that some day Ray Bradbury's "The Pedestrian" will be a reality, thanks to Second Life and the like.

Contextual Mobile Ads

Each day I get a few SMS from my credit card, or my mobile service provider to spend some money and get get some cash back, or pay some cash upfront and get a few SMS free. The credit card ones get deleted the moment I see them, and the SMS ones I probably delete them half way.

Let me not even talk about voice marketing cold calls that I get on my cell.

So what could be a bit more innovative and relevant? Could contextual ads work in the mobile domain?

Idea 1: Say I am having a conversation with a friend, and we talk about a book the other person has read, and I evince interest in getting hold of the book. And the moment I get off the phone I get a message that says, to order such and such book SMS xxx to 2345, or something similar. Looks too severe? Would this be considered breach of privacy? What if the mobile company assures that no one is really listening to the conversations - it is only the intelligence of the algorithm that throws up the ad? How different would it be from traditional contextual advertising on the web?

Idea 2: Advertisers pay you to advertise. Of course. Now what if they pay you to have their marketing message as your ring tone? You use Nescafe's message as your ring tone, and you get, say, Re 1 for each full cycle of the message, to a unique listener, each day. The payment could come in the form of a credit in the monthly bill from your service provider, or some other mechanism. Part listing could entail a part payment. And of course you would carry the ringtone of the advertiser who pays the max - the highest bidder wins!