UK Ferry Tickets Tourism campaign

Tourism campaign – in Second Life

Regular readers will remember me questioning the sanity of people who spend a long time in the so-called Second Life.

For the uninitiated, this is a virtual life, where you can create your own persona and interact with people in another world.

Essentially, that means spending hours on the computer living a fantasy world. Surely life is too short for that?

But many disagree with me. Major brands, including Vodafone, Coca-Cola, Adidas and Sony have a presence in Second Life. Presumably, they feel that if they can influence people in a virtual world, it will affect their shopping habits in the real world.

Now, we have the first ever tourism marketing campaign in Second Life, the first of its kind on the Internet.

Between now and St Patrick’s Day in 2008, Tourism Ireland will be spending hard cash to sponsor events and activities in Second Life’s replica city of Dublin. There will be DJs, bands and fashion shows in the virtual world.

Tourism Ireland’s Mark Henry says he’s finding new ways to connect to today’s web-savvy consumer.

Has the world gone mad? Or maybe it’s me?

Guest Article by Jeremy Skidmore