Pontiac Aims Cars at Avatars

"The cool part of Pontiac Motorati Island is it's a place for Second Life car enthusiasts that was created by them," said Mark-Hans Richer, marketing director at Pontiac, in a written statement. "From races to hip nightclub events, and even a Jay-Z concert, Pontiac Motorati Island has already seen some exciting activity."

Pontiac's use of the Internet as a marketing tool extends beyond Second Life and Motoratilife.com to News Corp.'s (NWS Quote) MySpace.com. The automaker unveiled "Friends with Benefits" on Wednesday, an initiative that will reward members of the MySpace community for their Pontiac G5 purchases with cash benefits up to $1,000.

"We wanted to try something completely different for Pontiac and use a similar method to how we've approached our other marketing initiatives -- empower the users of MySpace to engage each other rather than push information at them," said Richer. "The 'Friends With Benefits' effort is a beta test, which allows MySpace users to comment on the types of products they want to buy and rewards them for their purchases."

Pontiac's advertising agency, Leo Burnett Detroit, has been leading each project, collaborating with the entertainment agency Campfire. Additional partners helping execute the campaign are Second Life developers Millions of Us and Web developers Domani Studios.

"Our hope is to unleash the community's passion for cars," said Tor Myhren, executive vice president with Leo Burnett Detroit, in a statement. "If an idea relates to any aspect of car culture, we intend to give the community the means to make it happen."