Branding Experts at Zephyr Salvo Turn Attention to “Second Life”

 

HOUSTON, TX – January 10th, 2007:  Zephyr Salvo, a turnkey media development firm, is creating new branding channels for its clients in Second Life -- a virtual landscape and online communication system where real money is exchanged for virtual goods and services.

“What is really exciting about a medium like the virtual world is that it allows customers to engage in a brand experience, rather than just reading about it,” said John Phillippe, founder and CEO of Zephyr Salvo.  “Customers can live inside the advertising and branding structures we build – constantly engaged with products, services, and ideas in meaningful exciting ways.”

Gone are the days of video conferencing as companies with a global presence or multiple offices can now host meetings in the Second Life community. Phillippe creates the companies virtual conference presentations, places and designs billboards as well as all branding tools necessary to simulate a presence in the new universe.       

Second Life, an online community run by a company called Linden Labs, is an electronic universe where people's virtual representations, called avatars, can fly, teleport, chat, shop, and purchase products and services.

As an open-ended environment with minimal creative boundaries, most of the content of Second Life is generated by subscribers, and not by Linden Labs.  This has opened up limitless possibilities to companies seeking to increase their online presence.  Experts see savvy companies already positioning for the next wave of market development: as Phillippe refers to it as, one of the many new features of Web 3.0, the virtual storefront.

“Instead of, say, going to Amazon.com’s web page, soon your Avatar will walk into the Amazon.com store and interact with personnel to find what you are looking for, just like you would at the mall,” said Phillippe.  “Soon it will be vital that your organization have a virtual online environment that your clients and customers can experience in order to do business with your company.”

Global organizations have already seen the value of an online virtual presence and have allocated marketing budgets to develop them.  Toyota has built an entire city in Second Life where it recently launched its new Scion product line.  IBM and Dell have product launches as well as conferences and meetings in Second Life, and even rock groups like Duran Duran are planning live concerts in the new Second Life concert hall. News distributor Reuters has not only built new offices in Second Life, but has assigned a full time staff reporter to document the daily business news just for Second Life. 

One resident of Second Life, Anshe Chung, recently made news by earning over one million dollars developing and renting real estate. 

“Since 1994, Zephyr Salvo has been working with clients to extend their branding presence across multiple mediums,” said Phillippe.  “Second Life is the future, and business needs to be ready.”

Zephyr Salvo specializes in branding from logos to website development, interactive applications, print media, podcasts, blogs and virtual branding.