Quiver & Quill

I came across a noteworthy campaign from the Army today. It’s a rich media banner ad featuring different characters rotating on the banner. Each is an avatar and representing a young man. Scrolling the mouse over each character causes a description to appear of him: student, athlete, solders. The text invited me to “pick a character,” as if I were playing a video game. Once I picked a character, the advertisement linked me to an army recruiting landing page. When I arrive, I see the same characters on the site, as if now the video game is ready to begin.

The army is leveraging the hip factor of video games in their recruiting. Do prospective recruits enter into the recruitment process with video game expectations in mind? Will using video games and avatars result in attracting better solders? Will they enter combat with unrealistic expectations?

Why don’t you chat live with a recruiter and find out.

Citation info: Army’s landing page are available here.

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Photo credits: Picture from Flickr, CC Some Rights Reserved, blue_j account.

I am very interested in Second Life. I’ve created a character and am actively reading everything I can about it. For those of you who don’t know, Second Life is another world online. I don’t think calling it virtual reality does it justice. It’s reality. There is a thriving economy, land ownership and trading, and avatars that represent real people. Major brands have started to move to Second Life. They are buying property and paying for ad space. And there is convergence between the Second Life world and the “real world.” For instance, events at Harvard’s Berkman Center are actually simulated in Second Life.

In a recent panel discussion on Second Life, savvy marketers offered excellent comments about the challenges of marketing in this world:

• · Marketers need to be playful, need to embrace the fantasy aspect, need to embrace the ability to suddenly morph into a squirrel with a jetpack or just like I did, jump on the table and start playing air guitar
• · If I might make so bold the key to reaching today’s end users in this marketing space can be summed up in the words: don’t sell me, play with me.

In the next several months, I’m going to explore Second Life.

I invite you to join me by signing up for a free account here.

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She’s hovered over the computer screen, enthralled by an instant messenger conversation with an online stranger. Her eyes brilliant and sparkling, body aligned with the keyboard. Any attempt to speak with her is futile. She’s intoxicated, transfixed.

Whether it’s with instant messenger, e-mail, text messaging or in online communities, people are falling in love online. That magical moment when love begins happens online too.

Sometimes online love it’s triggered by an inside joke, or discussing a shared interest. Other times, love forms when we project our feelings on the person with whom we are speaking: We mistake being heard for being understood. Then there are those moments when the online chemistry is perfect: laughter, e-flirting, a small nuance with language, a meaningful understanding which ignites deep attraction.

People describe this spark as something that happens only in person. Well it happens online too. It’s just much harder to achieve. I came across an excellent article to enrich our discussion by John Suler, Ph.D.

“1.4. Some people may experience text communication as a type of “merging” with the mind of the online other.

1.5. People experience the other’s text message as a “voice” inside their head.

1.6. Text communication restructures the way people think about their relationships and themselves.

1.7. People may experience text from their online relationships as being “pieces” of those relationships.

1.8. Some people experience their message as a piece of themselves.

1.9. Even though we may not be fully aware of it, we always develop a mental image of the other person in a text relationship.”**

Have you been sparked online? Do share.

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I was standing outside the Viacom building in New York this week when I noticed an advertisement for MTVs new show: Meet or Delete. It’s an excellent application of the Life Online principle. Here’s how it works. One attractive teen sifts the hard drives of three potential dates. Judging from the web sites they visit, the files on their computer and presence on sites like Myspace and Facebook.com, the teen selects the person s/he will date. Social networking sites are extremely popular places for people to discover and connect with one another romantically. ““Meet or Delete”,” provides a full perspective not only on how this happens, but also on the way people process online clues. Check it out!

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