»
The media hype surrounding Second Life doesn’t match reality, and metaverses such as Second Life are experiencing slowing growth and having limited impact because of the “tethered” nature of the virtual-world experience, according to the Yankee Group (via MarketingCharts and the Boston Globe).
The growth in the number of Second Life users has slowed since its peak in October 2006, and user engagement (measured by average time spent per user) has leveled off at just 12 minutes per month, according to a recently published Yankee Group Note, “Wither Second Life?”
That’s in stark contrast to other highly publicized sites, such as MySpace and Facebook, which are undergoing steady increases in both the number of users and the intensity of user engagement, Yankee Group said.
Facebook’s average time spent per user, for example, increased 24 percent over six months to 186 minutes per month - or 15-times more engagement per user than Second Life.
The Note concludes that Second Life’s PC-centric approach in an increasingly mobile world is to blame for its slowdown.
“For virtual worlds and metaverses to achieve greater potential in the marketplace and grow beyond early adopters, the experience must be untethered to meet the needs of the ‘Anywhere Consumer,’” said Christopher Collins, senior analyst in Yankee Group’s Consumer Research group and author of the Note.
“Companies that provide remote access - through mobile devices or other means - to their web experience will have a greater impact than PC-centric companies.”
Though off-air online and experiential advertising grew modestly as a part of the overall radio revenue pie, and election-related political ads increased in Q3, total radio ad revenues were down 9% to $4.97 billion for Q3 and down 10% for…
Glamour magazine is running its photo of Britney Spears not only on the cover of the U.S. edition, but on the covers in seven other countries, as well.
Britney will grace Russia, Sweden and Greece’s editions of Glamour, among others.…
Titan Worldwide has signed a five-year deal with the Delaware River Port Authority to manage out-of-home advertising for the Port Authority Transit corp.
The contract covers advertising on PATCO’s rail service and stations between Southern New Jersey and Philadelphia, writes …
Publicis has acquired full-service agency W&K Communications, continuing its Asia expansion that began several years ago.
W&K will be pulled under the umbrella of Publicis’s Burnett agency network, and will be renamed Leo Burnett Beijing Advertising, writes Adweek.
Other recent Publicis…
With only four weeks separating Thanksgiving and Christmas this year, Cyber Monday One (December 1) and Cyber Monday Two (December 
may command a greater share of online sales than they have in years past - thus increasing the importance…
Top American non-luxury auto brands received higher ratings and less negative comments from online consumers than competing Japanese brands, according to an analysis of consumer opinions collected from automotive review websites by Biz360, MarketingCharts reports.
The research, which aggregated a year’s…
