Last Sunday, I took some time to explore the Coldwell Banker site in Second Life (SL). Thinking that the recreation of a showcase home was an almost obvious brilliant use of virtual worlds (similar to taking VRML photographs), I wanted to see how they pulled it off. Well, I wasn't so impressed with the home (the recreation was good, just not my taste), but I was really impressed with the simulation.
This is one of the best business uses of SL and a virtual world, if not the best, that I’ve come across to date. This simulation is worth looking at in detail because of its multi-faceted nature in terms of use, attraction, and as a bridge to areas outside of the simulation. Let’s examine it in terms of my eight-point list from my report for what constitutes a good business plan for a sim-space.
The main headquarter building you first come to is nicely done but typically boring and offers prominent branding done in an obvious though not too over-the-top presentation throughout (#2). When one first enters the space, one is presented with a number of interesting offers. One is for free nice-quality animated furniture and other freebies. People in SL love freebies – especially those they can use to dress up themselves or their personal spaces (#5). Word gets around; people come and expose themselves to branding (#2), if only to get the freebie. Can they be lured to see more? The answer is yes, judging by the fact that this was one business sim that obviously had traffic. I could see many people there, more arriving all the time. This space is clever enough to present interesting offers directly up front, but as well reward exploration by hinting at more rewards (#5) lying within, each discovery precipitating a desire to see what else there might be.
About those "interesting offers": one is an information and teleport terminal to a recreation of an actual showcase multi-million dollar home that is for sale IRL (#4). Interested parties can read the fact sheet, walk through the reproduction, including bathroom and kitchen fixtures; if they want to take it the next step, they can leave a message on the for-sale sign in front of the house that will generate an e-mail to the real estate agent for more information or possibly to tour the real home (which is in Seattle). This larger than it would be IRL for-sale sign in front of the house included agent photo and name, photo links, and more information. Its larger size both helped it contain more information but also to help it stand out as something special from the rental homes around it. The other offer is an invitation to simply "touch" the board to enter a contest to get $15,000 U.S. for a home makeover (#4). Either of these will generate real contacts that can be investigated IRL and as well, draw and keep interest in other offers. Offering a tour of a home replica is a brilliant, obvious I would say, use of SL. Just one sale generated from such a use could offset the development costs for the sim and such models for years to come (#1).
Off to the right, is a timeline display (#3), which offers information about news and about the world featuring top stories from decades past, encouraging visitors to not only learn, but possibly enticing them to see what else the sim has to offer (#5).
Within this simulation, Coldwell Banker offers a number of rentals. There is a large area with a variety of homes, broken up to three neighborhoods organized and named according to themes. Which homes are for rent are displayed on models of the three neighborhoods in the area just past the entrance in the interior of the first floor. These models aren't explained at first but they offer a fun chance to see what is available (#5). These homes are being offered to SL residents to rent as personal space for a fee that is very low compared to other offerings (a bit less than $1 U.S. per week), with a very generous prim allotment to allow for customization and with a selection of home styles enough to suit just about any taste. This is genius on many levels: it provides a service that people will bring people to the simulation to rent space (#5); the pricing and prim allotment are very generous (#3); that makes people happy with the good service and cheap cost (#2); the fact that people are homed in the simulation means that they will constantly pass through the area, bring visitors and friends to their home space, who might be exposed to branding (#2), as well new offers for real services, such as the showcase home (the first of many I’ve no doubt), parked right in the middle of the residential area (#4); being homed adds to the traffic of the sim and since sim popularity is assessed by traffic, this will keep Coldwell Banker higher in the sim traffic index, making its relative popularity more obvious, which again attracts more visitors (#2); finally, the rentals, though generous, are quite extensive. They not only add to the neighborhood theme, which is itself clever branding and ties in very well with Coldwell Banker’s business, but they generate real albeit modest revenue, enough to subsidize Coldwell Banker’s sim costs (#6) for their presence in SL.
And it doesn’t end there: there is even a further tie-in to this rental offering. Next to the model of the neighborhoods, showing which homes are available for rent, there is card with a large key on the floor below it. Find three such keys spread through the sim, and one will receive a free week’s rental in a home. Again, genius: fun activity (#5), encourages exploration of the sim (#2), more exposure to real services (#2 & #4), and possibly even encouraging a new tenant to settle down in the sim, lured by the free week’s rental, and all attendant advantages as described above (#2, #4-6). Who knows - maybe even the one contact that leads to a successful home sale from being exposed to one of the real showcase homes recreated in-sim (#1)!
Just inside, there is a contact point where either a real person is staffed to answer questions (#3) and if not, the chance to leave a message, which will generate an e-mail and response for your avatar later, whether it is online or not. Given the stored messaging capability of SL, knowing that there is an interested warm body waiting, Coldwell Bank staffers can make arrangements to meet the prospective avatar(s) at a convenient time, possibly even offering fun activities like a helicopter ride (see below).
On the floors above the main reception floor on the first level, There is plenty of conferencing space upstairs (#1). Obviously one can’t discuss sensitive information but this space also provides a great place to meet potential clients and answer general business information on a 1:1 basis (#3). As well, there are two functional helicopters on the roof. Though there was no information provided, my guess is that these are there for Coldwell Banker staff members to take visitors on tours of the sim (#2 & #5), including rentals (#6), real offers, possibly even to add members to an existing list of contacts for future offers or events (#4-6).
So Coldwell Banker has done a brilliant job and to say that they obviously have addressed points #7 & #8 is a gross understatement. Whoever thought up this model not only understood how to engage the population of the sim, use the strengths of virtual worlds over other contact points, but even to generate real revenue, either sim support revenue in the form of virtual rentals (which themselves fit so well into the theme of a business selling homes) to contacts for real world sales. All of this, will of course, once more people visit it, not only make Coldwell Banker’s island a success, but bring people to look at a business that might have never done so before because they intelligently and competently assessed, served, and engaged their market (#2).
This is one of the best business uses of SL and a virtual world, if not the best, that I’ve come across to date. This simulation is worth looking at in detail because of its multi-faceted nature in terms of use, attraction, and as a bridge to areas outside of the simulation. Let’s examine it in terms of my eight-point list from my report for what constitutes a good business plan for a sim-space.
The main headquarter building you first come to is nicely done but typically boring and offers prominent branding done in an obvious though not too over-the-top presentation throughout (#2). When one first enters the space, one is presented with a number of interesting offers. One is for free nice-quality animated furniture and other freebies. People in SL love freebies – especially those they can use to dress up themselves or their personal spaces (#5). Word gets around; people come and expose themselves to branding (#2), if only to get the freebie. Can they be lured to see more? The answer is yes, judging by the fact that this was one business sim that obviously had traffic. I could see many people there, more arriving all the time. This space is clever enough to present interesting offers directly up front, but as well reward exploration by hinting at more rewards (#5) lying within, each discovery precipitating a desire to see what else there might be.
About those "interesting offers": one is an information and teleport terminal to a recreation of an actual showcase multi-million dollar home that is for sale IRL (#4). Interested parties can read the fact sheet, walk through the reproduction, including bathroom and kitchen fixtures; if they want to take it the next step, they can leave a message on the for-sale sign in front of the house that will generate an e-mail to the real estate agent for more information or possibly to tour the real home (which is in Seattle). This larger than it would be IRL for-sale sign in front of the house included agent photo and name, photo links, and more information. Its larger size both helped it contain more information but also to help it stand out as something special from the rental homes around it. The other offer is an invitation to simply "touch" the board to enter a contest to get $15,000 U.S. for a home makeover (#4). Either of these will generate real contacts that can be investigated IRL and as well, draw and keep interest in other offers. Offering a tour of a home replica is a brilliant, obvious I would say, use of SL. Just one sale generated from such a use could offset the development costs for the sim and such models for years to come (#1).
Off to the right, is a timeline display (#3), which offers information about news and about the world featuring top stories from decades past, encouraging visitors to not only learn, but possibly enticing them to see what else the sim has to offer (#5).
Within this simulation, Coldwell Banker offers a number of rentals. There is a large area with a variety of homes, broken up to three neighborhoods organized and named according to themes. Which homes are for rent are displayed on models of the three neighborhoods in the area just past the entrance in the interior of the first floor. These models aren't explained at first but they offer a fun chance to see what is available (#5). These homes are being offered to SL residents to rent as personal space for a fee that is very low compared to other offerings (a bit less than $1 U.S. per week), with a very generous prim allotment to allow for customization and with a selection of home styles enough to suit just about any taste. This is genius on many levels: it provides a service that people will bring people to the simulation to rent space (#5); the pricing and prim allotment are very generous (#3); that makes people happy with the good service and cheap cost (#2); the fact that people are homed in the simulation means that they will constantly pass through the area, bring visitors and friends to their home space, who might be exposed to branding (#2), as well new offers for real services, such as the showcase home (the first of many I’ve no doubt), parked right in the middle of the residential area (#4); being homed adds to the traffic of the sim and since sim popularity is assessed by traffic, this will keep Coldwell Banker higher in the sim traffic index, making its relative popularity more obvious, which again attracts more visitors (#2); finally, the rentals, though generous, are quite extensive. They not only add to the neighborhood theme, which is itself clever branding and ties in very well with Coldwell Banker’s business, but they generate real albeit modest revenue, enough to subsidize Coldwell Banker’s sim costs (#6) for their presence in SL.
And it doesn’t end there: there is even a further tie-in to this rental offering. Next to the model of the neighborhoods, showing which homes are available for rent, there is card with a large key on the floor below it. Find three such keys spread through the sim, and one will receive a free week’s rental in a home. Again, genius: fun activity (#5), encourages exploration of the sim (#2), more exposure to real services (#2 & #4), and possibly even encouraging a new tenant to settle down in the sim, lured by the free week’s rental, and all attendant advantages as described above (#2, #4-6). Who knows - maybe even the one contact that leads to a successful home sale from being exposed to one of the real showcase homes recreated in-sim (#1)!
Just inside, there is a contact point where either a real person is staffed to answer questions (#3) and if not, the chance to leave a message, which will generate an e-mail and response for your avatar later, whether it is online or not. Given the stored messaging capability of SL, knowing that there is an interested warm body waiting, Coldwell Bank staffers can make arrangements to meet the prospective avatar(s) at a convenient time, possibly even offering fun activities like a helicopter ride (see below).
On the floors above the main reception floor on the first level, There is plenty of conferencing space upstairs (#1). Obviously one can’t discuss sensitive information but this space also provides a great place to meet potential clients and answer general business information on a 1:1 basis (#3). As well, there are two functional helicopters on the roof. Though there was no information provided, my guess is that these are there for Coldwell Banker staff members to take visitors on tours of the sim (#2 & #5), including rentals (#6), real offers, possibly even to add members to an existing list of contacts for future offers or events (#4-6).
So Coldwell Banker has done a brilliant job and to say that they obviously have addressed points #7 & #8 is a gross understatement. Whoever thought up this model not only understood how to engage the population of the sim, use the strengths of virtual worlds over other contact points, but even to generate real revenue, either sim support revenue in the form of virtual rentals (which themselves fit so well into the theme of a business selling homes) to contacts for real world sales. All of this, will of course, once more people visit it, not only make Coldwell Banker’s island a success, but bring people to look at a business that might have never done so before because they intelligently and competently assessed, served, and engaged their market (#2).
2 comments:
Thanks so much for writing your article. We put quite a bit of thought and work into the items you point out and you're about the first to really write about them. There's even more to see if you actually go through the rental or purchase process with an agent, and I'd be happy to show you. For the record, the concept, design, execution, and ongoing maintenance of the Coldwell Banker presence in Second Life was done by Code4Software LLC.
Thanks for the comment and info about what more there is, shriner. I'd be curious to hear about what more there is. I can always post an addendum (this post actually started off in my at-work internal-only blog) so a rehash there would be good as well. Is this something you can just describe here? If not, I will try to make it over back to Coldwell next time I have some time to spare for SL. (my SL AV btw is Solanio Laval)
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