Drawing Up a Virtual Marketing Plan

The chasm between consumers and marketing is widening, and this disconnect is creating the need for new marketing ideas to help businesses navigate Second Life.

Second Life, the massive multiplayer online world, allows anyone to log on through the Internet at any time and create 3-D computer-generated avatars. These identities are then free to explore the endless virtual world that San Francisco-based Linden Lab has synthetically created.

Many companies have made the virtual leap and created homesteads in Second Life, including Starwood Hotels (HOT Quote), Nissan (NSANY Quote), Sun Microsystems (SUNW Quote) and Reebok (RBK Quote). Many others are gearing up to invest more time and money in the unorthodox world. ...