Gigii's Second Life

Ecoutee Headquaters, Blorkus Adios

2007-12-16T22:50:00.000-08:00

It was short lived and unnecessary. The land once occupied by ecoutee headquarters has been purchased for $24,000 Lindens and is now the home of strippers. The idea of having a headquarters for ecoutee was a good idea in the beginning but never ended up serving its purpose in the final project (other than providing teammates a place to build).
It is now home to a better place, sort of. Either way, ecoutee has a load of rent money to use at Etopia Island, which is a much better fit.

Farewell Blorkus lot, you are free to serve others.

Finale

2007-12-11T23:53:00.000-08:00

I wanted to shoot a video showcasing the Ecoutee store. However, Second Life has been experiencing major issues and Fraps is crap if you ask me. Unfortunately, all I can provide are the facts and some photos.

On opening night, Ecoutee took in over a $1,000 Lindens. That works out to roughly 28-30 tees sold in one night. The Ecoutee team was ecstatic over the turn-out. Naimya provide the champagne as Wii bounced around as a cute furry creature. All of the designs were well recieved as were the company. It was a great night.

Since its grand opening on November30th, Ecoutee has had over 65 visitors and has sold $10,000 L worth of product (over 300 shirts). However, we have had very little response to the contest. We only have photos submitted from opening night and two added afterwards. I think much of this has to do with promotion. If we placed more advertising for the contest else where on Etopia and in SL, I think the turn out would be better. It also seems as if no one knows there is a contest. This could be attributed to the very small contest graphic. Unfortunately, this has not been a good way to gauge impressions. I plan on posting another event before the contest ends in hopes to get more response. We will see how that goes.

The good news is we are selling shirts. And selling shirts is just what we wanted to do. The Ecoutee website is still currently under construction with launch plans of Feb.2. We are also gearing up to sponsor a fundraiser for Aids Project New Haven. Ecoutee has decided to get involved in helping spread the word about safe sex and HIV/AIDS awareness. It is our goal to give back in anyway we can. This cause is one that is constantly overlooked and forgotten about once individuals leave high school. Adults need sexucation too! The goal is to have the website up and running by the event date. It will be at this point that Ecoutee will exert more effort to advertising and brand building in Second Life. It doesn't make sense to push one when the other doesn't fully exist yet. Basically, we are trying to get everything aligned for the big big launch. Please watch for that.

In other news, Ecoutee is extremely excited to use Second Life for market testing. We only want to sell enough shirts to keep our heads above water rent wise. I don't foresee that being a problem. It is really incredible how many people you can reach in SL. We can't wait to host a design your own tee contest along with other promotional plans we have in mind. It is going to be a very interactive endeavour. Thanks Quinnipiac!

STAY TUNED....

Flickr Contest Photos

2007-12-06T23:50:00.000-08:00

We are using Flickr to host the photos being used for our real tee contest. Check out the turn out!

GiGii Boucher announced Etopia Island Designer

2007-12-06T22:39:00.000-08:00

Thats right kids your very own Gigii Boucher was recently asked by the Etopia Island Manager to be the official graphic designer for Etopia Island. Gigii is more than ecstatic about the opprotunity. She is currently making arrangements to trade her talents off for free rent at her ecoutee store. More to come...

Ecoutee Grand Opening!!!

2007-12-05T16:44:00.000-08:00

Click image for larger view.

Considering the bumps in the road, the Ecoutee Grand Opening was a big success. Thanks to Wii and Naimiya for their promoting efforts, we had a nice turn out. The shirts were a big hit bringing in a little over $1000L that night. Everyone raved about the designs and were impatiently enquiring about the RL launch. I think using Second Life for market testing is going to contribute tremendously to our RL success. All in all, I was pleased with the way things turned out.

WHAT THE HELL DID YOU DO!?

Aside from group leader, I was in charge of designing our products and setting up the store. This was the most fun. There is nothing I love more than creating. When our store sign was mentioned by the Etopia Island Manager, I was more than ecstatic. The unlimited creativity in SL makes it appealing.

You win some... you lose some...

We set the bar a little too high perhaps. Its too bad we couldn't get the double ee tshirt to move like a vehicle. But we sure as hell tried. Wii worked extremely hard on the scripting and came up short handed. He did however make some cool progress through out. I really enjoyed his upside down driving shell and the attempts made to get this thing working. Bravo Wii!!

If I could have done it differently...

I would have focused more on building alliances. My plan was to establish connections with others and encourage business relations. Without the distractions of RL, I believe Ecoutee would have had a bigger impact. There would have been more time to promote, market, and focus on driving sales. I'm still boggled by the amount of time people spend in SL. I just can't devote that much of my time to something I can't touch. With that said, it would have been nice to collaborate more with my team mates as a group. Unfortunately, getting together on a regular basis was our down fall. Considering what we accomplished, there was great effort put forth by all parties.

Not all great minds think a like...

Sometimes working in groups can become frustrating. Actually let me rephrase, working in groups is frustrating. Naturally, we all had a different approach to the project. If each of us stayed focused on what we were to achieve for our part of the project, we wouldn't have felt so stressed at the home stretch. But groups are funny that way. You never know what will happen until it happens. However, in the end we all pulled together when it counted. I couldn't be happier with our efforts as individuals and as a team. Thank you both!

Happier than a pig in... well you know...

This project was a lot of fun for me. It gave me a chance to test out my designs on potential RL customers without the hassle of spending an obscene amount of money. Thank you Second Life! Building is a blast and I had a great time learning how everything works. I do believe the platform has a long way to go especially if there is to be a relationship between RL business and SL. One thing you don't want are crashes or server errors when you are trying to complete a task on time. It wouldn't fly in RL and it shouldn't fly in SL. I have faith these kinks will eventually iron themselves out. My fingers are crossed.

What's next?...

I plan on generating enough in virtual sales to support the rent of my store in Etopia. Our intentions are to use Second Life as a test market. It is a great way to gauge what will sell in RL. As for now, investing time in promotion is my next step. I want to experiment with different strategies to see what works and what doesn't. This information will be vital in establishing future business.

Last words??

Is Santa here yet? I am sooooooooooooooooooooo ready to be done. Chapter closed. Next.

Ecoutee Grand Opening Event

2007-11-29T23:44:00.000-08:00

Naimya posted the Ecoutee Grand Opening event on the Etopia Island listings. Thanks Naim!!

Ecoutee Sign Mention

2007-11-26T23:42:00.000-08:00

Recently, the Ecoutee store sign was mentioned by the Etopia Island Manager. Check out the group noticed she sent out hitting over 20 vendors! Nice job Gigii!

Ecoutee Proposal

2007-10-25T07:25:00.000-07:00

Just because you’re not a tree-hugging hippie doesn’t mean you can’t care about the earth, and just because you care about the earth, doesn’t mean you have to be a tree-hugging hippie.
Ecoutee, a leader in organic fashion is making it easy for you to care about our planet by creating vintage/urban designs pressed on 100% organic cotton, and printed with eco-friendly inks.
No potentially harmful chemicals or pesticides are used in the production of our t-shirts, and no phthalates are added to our inks, and that helps reduce your exposure to toxic chemicals and pesticides, as well as the earths.

In preparation for our RL launch we have decided to establish a presence in SL to promote our endeavors.

Residing on the island of Blorkus, the Ecoutee headquarters is the homestead for visitors to inquire about “going green.” Our main objective is to educate our visitors about eco-friendly clothing while providing some cool Second Life replicas.
In addition, Ecoutee has purchased a store front on the Etopia Island in Eco-Village. At this location, customers are welcomed to browse the latest Ecoutee fashions and grab a ticket to attend our grand opening event at our Blorkus headquarters. The event will focus on the theme of friendship and uniting together for a good cause.

To push this idea, we have adopted Naimya Price’s (Allan Hoving) Siamese t-shirt idea with a little twist. When visitors arrive, they will be greeted by the friendly Ecoutee staff and given a free promotional t-shirt. Once we have drawn a crowd, we will unveil our double “ee” t-shirt fit for two. The avatars will be welcomed to have their picture taken with a friend inside the double ee shirt. Both avatars will be able to move within the shirt vehicle together. At random, a lucky pair of avatars will receive a free t-shirt printed with their SL avatar wearing the double ee shirt. These shirts will also be available for purchase at $35 US for anyone who requests them. Upon purchase, both avatars will receive free virtual shirts of the same print while waiting for their RL tees to arrive. We are gearing up for these to be the hottest thing in SL.

In order to get the word out, we have agreed to do the following:

Upload postcards to Flickr, YouTube SL galleries
Promote "Grand Opening" event in SL and RL
Include links to www.ecoutee.com

Build relationships with the locals and support their endeavors
Optimize viral marketing; i.e. flying an Ecoutee kite outside the store, placing posters in coffee shops & restaurants, free t-shirt portals on freebie islands and through-out Etopia, word of mouth, etc.

Promos: Bring a friend, get a shirt

Think globally, act locally; support local residents
Distribute Ecoutee's (free or low-cost) in SL
Offer "double ee" postcard shots for viral effect

These are just some of the ideas we have brewing. We expect to conjure up some fresh concepts as we continue to research the market. It has already come to our attention that Etopia is quickly growing and becoming a hot spot in SL. The island consists of like-minded environmentally concerned residents and business owners. Team Ecoutee is expecting through the help of these individuals that it will develop a strong client base.

Our weekly goals are as follows:

10/19-10/25
Build Headquarters & find a good store front location
Viral Marketing ideas & concepts
Proposal
10/26 – 11/1
Work on getting double “ee” vehicle to function
Set-up store front (furniture, signage, advertisements, posters, etc)
Further research market in Etopia, trends currently working; not working
11/2 – 11/8
Designs, designs, designs
Work on ticket booth / work on double “ee”
Marketing / Promotion – putting up signage in Etopia
11/9 – 11/15
Test market (round 1) – send out invites to ppl we know and get opinions
Work on ticket booth / work on double “ee”
Advertise in world – freebie island etc.
11/16 – 11/22
Test market (round 2) – send out invites to ppl we know and get opinions
More advertising etc.
11/23 – 11/29
Test market (round 3) – send out invites to ppl we know and get opinions
Use all test data and determine tweaks and changes needed
11/30 – 12/6
“Grand opening” ready
Last minute marketing/ advertising
Ready to sell
12/6
Final Presentation to Class

Currently, Team Ecoutee has accomplished the tasks for week one minus a few alterations. The
store front recently purchased comes equipt with a counter so we can keep track of visitors
and purchases. We intend to use this tool to gauge how much traffic we are drawing in from our
marketing efforts. For now, we are treading on!

Ecoutee Headquaters, Blorkus

2007-10-21T22:59:00.000-07:00

Its offical Ecoutee has purchased some land to host its headquaters in SL. Gigii has been hard at working building. The headquaters at Blorkus will serve as building ground for team ecoutee as well as providing a stomping ground for big parties and events.

Check out photos of the building!! It is coming along nicely!

Ecoutee Store, Etopia Island (146,62,22)

2007-10-18T23:10:00.000-07:00

Click for larger photo.

Wooo hooo!! Ecoutee purchased its store front on Etopia Island (location 146, 62 ,22). Etopia is home to several businesses concerned with eco-friendly products. These businesses also have real life conterparts, making Etopia a very special place. The goal of the island owner is to bring in businesses that have a real life presence and want to establish a Second Life virtual representation. There efforts have been amazing and the island is beautiful.

Team Ecoutee took a tour on the Etopia Island train before purchasing a store front. Thanks to Naimya Price for finding us a home. Your efforts are greatly appreciated!

SL Economics

2007-09-25T23:28:00.000-07:00

I recently read about a delicatessen worker who quit his real life job to work full time in Second Life selling anything from furniture to clothing. He went from making a little under $20,000 a year to over $80,000. The possibilities can stretch as far as your imagination. There are several users making real world dollars in this virtual world. Second Life is equipped with its own currency, land tiers (much like rent) and business ethics. It mirrors real-life and claims fame to unbound territory.

It seems silly but the abundance of success here seems to be attributed to what the market wants. It is a different animal. The rules are based loosely on RL values but with a twist. The users of SL have different agendas and needs for things we may consider ridiculous in RL. Either way you slice it, there is money to be made here and I want my cut.

Not too shabby for a newbie...

2007-09-18T18:00:00.000-07:00

This weeks assignment was to experiment with building prims in Second Life. Prims are basic shapes, like circles, squares, triangles, etc. When more than one prim is used together you can create more complex shapes, just like drawing. I played around with the prims for a while before actually building something to show in class. Since Second Life has limitations on prim count , I wanted to build something that appeared complex but was actually only one prim. I started with a basic shape, square, and twisted, cut and shaped it into a modern looking podium. If I had a horn I'd toot it.

Mind Your Business...

2007-09-11T19:30:00.000-07:00

Let me first say that this assignment has been one hell of a hassle. According to SecondLife.com, in order to properly run SL you need to have an ATI Radeon video card (8500, 9250 or better) or an Nvidia (GeForce 2, GeForce 4mx, or better). Based on the specs required on the listed video cards, my Volari XGI is more than compatible or so I thought. When I first ventured into Second Life last fall, everything ran smoothly. However, Second Life has changed a bit since last year. In fact it has changed enough to know that my more than capable video card is not one of the listed brands supported by Linden Labs. Luckily enough, I have a 5 year old Compaq that I modified a year ago with a Radeon 9200 video card installed. It was around the 14th crash when this epiphany struck me. After re-imaging my old machine and running some driver updates, I was finally in business. Since business is the theme, I figured I would clue everyone in on what I had to endure to get up and running.

Once in world I decided to locate those Adidas "a3 microrides" I blogged about early. I wanted to buy a pair and start bouncing around. After all, whats $0.20 US? It was at this point that I ran into road block numero dos. Okay so there I was doing the search thing (if you haven't searched in SL prepare to get pissed off.) I know for a fact Adidas has a landmark. It says so on SecondLifeGrid.net where I first read about them. In the article, I was able to find a SLURL (Second Life URL) which is suppose to redirect you to the landmark. That didn't work either. When I searched on the map, Adidas and its coordinates showed up fine. However, when I attempted to teleport there, I was kicked back to my previous location. If I am doing something wrong I can't figure it out. Until then, my opinion of searching in SL is "it blows". There is no way to tell it to disregard people so you end up with a shit load of unwanted results.

Nike

In frustration, I headed over to check out some of Adidas's competition at the Nike & Reebok stores. The Nike store has an open floor plan complete with full height clear glass windows and resides on the beach in Kimokeo Cove. The graphics were inviting and nicely done. Right outside the front steps is a promo chair. Basically, if your name begins with a given letter and you sit in the chair for the alloted time, you receive a free gift. Behind the chair is a Nike Shox ad, which I thought it was a clever marketing gesture. Unfortunately, "G" was not the letter of the moment.

Reebok

First impression: "Reebok rocks." I liked the flow of the design. It is very industrial yet modern. In regards to layout, this functioned most like a real store. Instead of just images on a wall, Reebok utilizes the look of displays with shirts and shoes stacked on shelves. This made the experience more realistic. The big thing here is the "rbk"customizable sneakers. Reebok allows you to design your own sneaker for SL just as they do on their website. Concepts like this make the most impact. Much like my anticipation for the a3 microrides, Reebok offered something usable. At this juncture, Reebok has my vote for best images and relative marketing. If my assumptions about Adidas are correct, they get bumped to second.

Wide Open Spaces...

2007-09-04T23:45:00.000-07:00

Second Life is a world unbound by traditional limitations. If its options you're after, you have arrived at the right place. Whether you're into buying/selling virtual real estate (or shall we say SL estate) or marketing a new business, you are sure to find a home in Second Life. The amount of opportunity contained within this virtual community is amazing.
According to the Google Tech Talk, a graduate student in Seattle developed a gun sold in world for $5 Linden dollars. This student used the revenue from his gun sales to pay for college and is now being scouted by Linden Labs for a potential job. This is incredible! What this could mean for the future of business and marketing is anything but ordinary.

"The number of opportunities available is really only limited by your imagination(Tiffany, Laura, Entrepreneur.com, pg.2)."

For someone new to Second Life, trying to wrap your head around marketing products used in real life can be confusing. Some great campaigns for real life products in world include industry pioneers like Mazda who released a virtual test drive of their concept car the "Mazda Hakaze." Interested users could teleport to Nagare Island on the SL grid and test drive the virtual car. Upon mastering the virtual handling, the user is allowed to keep the car. Kudos to Mazda for brilliant marketing. Mazda gains effortless exposure by giving the cars to worthy users and in return the user get a sweet ride.
It doesn't stop there. Another noteworthy campaign by Adidas provides users the ability to enjoy a virtual representation of a real life product. The Adidas store in SL offers a new sneaker called the "a3 Microride." The real life store boasts the sneaker has "the ultimate blend of bounce and flexibility." When purchasing a pair in SL, the sneakers add bounce and flexibility to your avatar. This is definitely a great way to keep the buzz brewing in and out of world.
Personally, smart marketing is sexy and considering the possibilities, Second Life may just out weigh your first.

"If you build it, they will come."

Gigii's First Time...

2007-09-04T18:04:00.000-07:00

Upon my arrival in Second Life, I felt it was important to doll myself up. I spent the majority of my visit adjusting my hair, makeup, and facial features. I stumbled upon the clothing and accessories folders. While fumbling around with the drag and drop options, I was able to find a suitable outfit. I did take all my clothes off at one point which encouraged a gentleman to quickly make my acquaintance. It would have been a blissful encounter if he had spoke English. *sigh* Maybe in another life Vladimir.
Once I had my outfit I was ready for flight. The rest of my stay was spent flying around "Orientation Island." I crashed, literally, into a fashion show and chatted with some newbies. Since I have been in world once or twice before I decided to explore a bit further. I traveled to a clothing store called "American Apparel." While there I poked around at the items for sale and exchanged witty banter with a few employees. It is funny some of the things people will tell you in SL as opposed to RL.
Considering the range of users, navigating for newbies can become confusing. It would be cool to be greeted by a virtual tour guide on your first visit. Someone who can walk you through the GUI and help you navigate the islands. Providing such a service could help demystify the beginning stages of SL. Overall, SL is fairly easy to figure out if you have some gaming experience.
As a graphic artist, the potential for better graphics and simulation would be amazing. I would probably spend more time in world if the eye candy was more graphically intense.