Tourism Ireland today (23rd October 2007) launched a new marketing campaign in Second Life; this is the first ever marketing campaign launched by a destination or “real world” tourist board in the internet-based, virtual world of Second Life.
Since its establishment in 2003, Second Life has grown significantly and currently has more than nine million registered users or “residents”, 1.6 million of whom are considered regular users. Sixty per cent of Second Life’s users come from Ireland’s four biggest tourist markets: Great Britain, US, Germany and France. Half of those users are aged over 30 – a key demographic for tourism to the island of Ireland. These “residents” can explore, socialise, participate in activities, trade items and services using Second Life’s currency, the Linden Dollar.
As part of this marketing campaign, Tourism Ireland will sponsor a range of events and activities from now until St Patrick’s Day 2008 in Second Life’s replica city of Dublin. The events kick-off this weekend (26th–28th October) in virtual Dublin with the “Discover Ireland Festival”. Five bands and seven DJs will play on a stage located on Grafton Street. A fashion show will take place on a bridge on the River Liffey, there will be photographic exhibitions of Irish landscapes on Grafton Street, and big screens will showcase promotional videos of Ireland.
Some experts predict that the web will be three-dimensional in a decade’s time and virtual worlds such as Second Life give us some idea of what the web may look like in the future. Second Life is one of the biggest virtual worlds in existence and many major brands, including Coca-Cola, Vodafone, IBM, Toyota, Sony and Adidas already have a presence there. Within the tourism industry, Starwood Hotels have used Second Life to pilot the design of a new series of hotels and Thomas Cook offers customers virtual package tours. While some tourist boards have built copies of their destinations within Second Life, none has engaged in pro-active marketing to residents of Second Life as Tourism Ireland is now doing.
“Tourism Ireland is committed to using eMarketing to the best possible effect in promoting the island of Ireland as a holiday destination and our involvement in Second Life is about finding new ways to connect to today’s web-savvy consumer”, says Mark Henry, Tourism Ireland’s Director of Central Marketing. “The organisation has already doubled its digital marketing spend over the past three years, to 14% of all marketing activity – an investment of €6.5 million last year. Tourism Ireland plans to spend close to a quarter of its entire marketing budget online in 2008.”
Dublin in Second Life was created by John Mahon of PickSL and is a well established destination for live music and DJs – occasionally making the top ten list of the most popular places to visit there. Tourism Ireland has chosen to partner with PickSL to leverage the success of virtual Dublin as a Second Life destination, to promote the message of holidaying in the real-world destination.
Anyone can join in the “Discover Ireland Festival” by getting a free Second Life account through www.secondlife.com or at the virtual Dublin website: www.dublinsl.com