The band Seether "goes virtual" with a unique campaign that bridges the virtual world of Second Life with real life. Seether fans can now create digital avatars that they can control and use to interact with other people in the virtual world of Second Life. As part of the campaign, members of the Second Life community can visit the Seether venue where they can submit virtual t-shirt designs. The band will select the winning design, print real versions of the t-shirt and make them available in their official band merchandise store for fans in the real world to enjoy.
All members of Second Life who travel to the virtual Seether venue will get a special coupon code for the band's merchandise store, and all contest entrants will also receive a virtual Seether poster and tattoo in Second Life. The contest can be accessed via tinyurl.com/rqnxw or by visiting seether.com. The deadline for submitting entries is October 15, 2006.
Wind-up Records VP, Digital Platforms Group Ed Kiang commented, "The Second Life platform enables Seether to interact with fans in a truly immersive experience within one of the fastest growing online communities. This promotion taps into the digital creativity of the fan base and allows them to actually wear their Seether inspired art both virtually and in the real world."
Seether are no strangers to supporting initiatives for their online fans with appearances on Xbox Live's Game With Fame as well as a recent promotion made available to PSP users. Performances from the One Cold Night release and some of the band's music videos were made available to PSP users via a unique network of gaming enthusiast websites created for gaming and music fans alike.
"This campaign is indicative of a larger trend in marketing to blur the line between the real and virtual worlds," said Rueben Steiger, CEO of Millions of Us, the company that created the Seether campaign. "Efforts like Seether's represent the next phase in this trend, where companies begin to use virtual worlds to involve their customers and fans in the actual process of product design."
Second Life And Linden Lab
Second Life is a 3D online world with a rapidly growing population of over 667,000 residents from 100 countries around the globe. The residents themselves create and build the world, including homes, vehicles, nightclubs, stores, landscapes, clothing and games.
Second Life is created by Linden Lab, a San Francisco-based company founded in 1999 by Philip Rosedale to create a "revolutionary new form of shared 3D experience." The former CTO of RealNetworks, Rosedale pioneered the development of many of today's streaming media technologies, including Real Video. In April 2003, noted software pioneer Mitch Kapor, founder of Lotus Development Corporation, was names Chairman. In 2006, Philip Rosedale and Linden Lab received WIRED's Rave Award for Innovation in Business.
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