OMMA Magazine’s April issue delves into the growing trend of real companies establishing presence in the virtual world, including Pontiac’s Motorati island.

OMMA Magazine
April 07

The Land of Make Believe

Big brands are increasingly trying to create marketing campaigns that consumers will not just accept, but actively embrace. But if merely showing users ads will no longer do the trick – and many experts say that’s a given – what will? As marketers struggle to answer that question, some are experimenting with branding initiatives that rely on user participation. Pontiac, Microsoft, and Jeep all recently launched efforts aimed at seducing consumers to enter virtual worlds or take up the challenge of puzzles or games designed to be habit-forming.

Motoring Into Second Life

In hopes of creating a cadre of brand advocates, Pontiac created its own Second Life island, Mororati, and then opened it to virtual residents for development.

To populate its island, Pontiac gave away acres of land to registered users who qualified, with one condition “They could build anything they wanted for free, as long as it fit into the category of ‘car culture,’” says Mike Monello, a partner at Campfire, the digital agency involved in the program.

Pontiac built a showroom and a music stage, but the avatars created everything else: a Fairgrounds Speedway, with twice weekly races and winners’ prizes; a monster truck course; and clothing stores selling sexy women’s racing clothes.

In a club, DJ Andy Asylum (in real life, a UK DJ named Andy Churchill) spins the turntables from a booth fashioned out of a Pontiac Solstice. Meanwhile, a virtual drive-in theater streams clips from actual movies.

While Pontiac only reaches a small number of consumers through Second Life, size isn’t the issue right now. “A lot of people have a misunderstanding of communities like this and think they’re only filled with 14-year-olds, but they’re actually 35- to 45-year olds – people in our sweet spot,” says Mark-Hans Richer, director of marketing at Pontiac. “They’re progressive and intelligent consumers, who are becoming harder to find.”

But even if these customers can be found in Second Life, will Motorati drive them to a real showroom? “That’s the goal,” Monello says, adding that today, it might be avatars who sit at a virtual bar, talking up Pontiac, but tomorrow it will be the real people behind those avatars.

Richer adds that as people grow accustomed to a virtual Pontiac, they’re grow more comfortable with Pontiac in the real world. “There’s no limitation to what’s available to us,” he says.

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