A Commitment

Starting a blog is making a commitment. It's a commitment or time, creativity, regularity. I'm going to be honest and confess that I started this blog as a means to help with my job hunt right out of college. I think it certainly helped, to an extent. Once my job was secured I realized that I loved blogging, but I didn't enjoying blogging regularly on a topic that consumes at least 8 hours of my waking moments. As a result, I let this blog fall wayside and focused my efforts on a more personal, interest driven blog.

I love Easy Tiger. It's a release from the work life and allows me to keep up with the hobbies that interest me most. I think that is important. Far too many people can't separate their work from their real life. While blogging daily can seem like a second job to me at times, I still do it because I love it and I'm enriching my mind on a variety of topics. I also know when to take a break if need be.

That being said, I still see value in Broken Clutter and I feel ashamed that I have kicked it to the curb over the last year. Holiday season is always a little hectic, so don't get angry with me if I get off to a rocky start, but I would like to make a commitment to contribute to this blog at least once a week.

I love my industry and I get exposure to some wonderfully exciting news. It would be shame for me not to share. So mark my words, you can expect to see a lot more of me around here in the future. Get excited!

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Life's Tough, Get a Second One

Perhaps it is a result of seeing James Cameron's Avatar trailer or maybe it was the friendly email exchange I had with my former Social Media Marketing professor, but my mind has wandered to Second Life. For those of you unfamiliar with Second Life, "Second Life is a free online virtual world imagined and created by its Residents. From the moment you enter Second Life, you'll discover a fast-growing digital world filled with people, entertainment, experiences and opportunity." Don't be confused -- This is not a video game, and essentially, there is no over-ruling "purpose" to Second Life. Sounds a little bizarre, right? That was my impression when I first learned about this mysterious Second Life and I brushed it off as some strange fad that would surely die off. My thoughts were seemingly confirmed a few months after initially learning of Second Life when I read a news article about a couple that got divorced over a 'virtual affair'. If you have a few minutes, I really encourage you to indulge yourself with this truly ridiculous news story: Second Life' Affair Leads to Real-Life Divorce

So there I was, utterly convinced that Second Life was inhabited by a few really strange people. Then, I stumbled across another news article about a Second Life user, Anshe Chung. Chung might possibly fall into this category of 'really strange people', but she was smart -- and very, very wealthy. Chung's avatar graced the cover of Business Week magazine as a result of becoming Second Life's first millionaire in just two and a half years after joining Second Life. Essentially, Chung saw an opportunity in selling real estate in this virtual world. She received payment in the form of linden dollars, Second Life's own virtual currency, and then was able to convert it to actual, spendable money. Maybe Second Life users weren't so strange after all...

My next astonishment about Second Life came about when a Second Life expert come in as a guest speaker for my Social Media Marketing class. James Moore is the Director of Online Learning for DePaul University's College of Commerce and sure knows his stuff when it comes to Second Life. Professor Moore informed us of the massive volume of Second Life users around the world. In the first quarter of 2009 alone, Second Life residents logged in 124 Million hours of use and the economy tops $120 Million. Surely, it's no surprise that businesses have tried to tap into this phenomenon at increasingly high rates since it's conception in 2003. As you can imagine, some were greeted with success, while others failed miserably.

Let's start with the failures --those always seem to be more fun to hear about, right?

There have been a slew of marketing failures in Second Life. American Apparel and Armani are two examples of companies that jumped head-first into Second Life. These brands spent a lot of time and money to build replica stores in Second Life only to be met with failure. Perhaps they didn't invest enough time into this process. This "if you build it, they will come" mentality did not translate to Second Life users and their stores remained empty. Tough love. Learn from your mistakes.

My favorite Second Life failure has to be John Edwards' attempt at virtual campaigning. Any failure that warrants a Second Life: John Edwards assaulted by poo-slinging communists news headline must be good. John Edwards' campaign advisers set up a virtual headquarters in Second Life as part of his 2008 presidential campaign. This area was intended to be used as a tool to reach out to potential voters and help them learn more about Edwards' potential as president. As it turns out, the non-Democrats of Second Life took a greater interest in this attempt. Not only did the Avatar version of the presidential candidate get food and trash thrown at him during an attempted Second Life town hall meeting, but the headquarters itself fell victim to extensive vandalism. The John Edwards' blog commented on this event:

"Shortly before midnight (CST) on Monday, February 26, a group of republican Second Life users, some sporting “Bush ‘08″ tags, vandalized the John Edwards Second Life HQ. They plastered the area with Marxist/Lenninist posters and slogans, a feces spewing obsenity, and a photoshopped picture of John in blackface, all the while harrassing visitors with right-wing nonsense and obsenity-laden abuse of Democrats in general and John in particular."

Nicely done, Edwards Camp.

While Second Life is certainly not for everyone, there have been some wonderful success stories in some unlikely places -- namely, educational institutions.

The articles Case Western Reserve University and Second Life Building a Private Virtual World for University and Case Western Announces Use of Private Second Life illustrate how Case Western Reserve University has successfully integrated Second Life into their own course curriculum. In 2007, CWRU built a near-replica of the Universities’ campus and buildings in Second Life. Since 2007, professors have used Second Life as a tool to engage students and give them virtual practice, without fear for failure. For example, psychology students can use Second Life to interview faux patients and diagnose their condition based on speech, facial expressions, and body language. Furthermore, Spanish students are often encouraged to visit Second Life to converse with native Spanish speakers in this virtual realm.

Recently, CWRU, with the help of Linden Labs, announced the use of a private Second Life. The CWRU virtual campus is now protected by firewalls to ensure that the information available to Case Western is totally protected. Matters of confidentiality are extremely significant for institutions specializing in the medical field.

While the Case Western articles talk mostly about using Second Life for the use of medical students, I could see Second Life as a useful tool for any university, even one's with a very small presence of medical majors. Second Life could be a great tool for engaging business students in mock business conferences, sales, or other events. Second Life could also be used by fine arts students as a platform to display artwork that can be openly critiqued by other students. The colleges of digital media could certainly make use of this virtual world as well by contributing to the virtual campus. Furthermore, students might have greater access to resources like the Career Center or Academic Advising, which almost require students to meet in person with these experts. Finally, any student that has ever been in a group project would surely enjoy the opportunity to not have to coordinate locations and availability for group meetings.

I think a tool like Second Life could be a worthwhile means towards success. It offers easy access and a more personalized experience than typical campus and course connection sites. Furthermore, Second Life is interactive. It encourages students to collaborate and offer feedback to one another, as opposed to just doing individual assignments. My hesitation about Second Life involves matters of security and ease of use. I see no reason why Second Life wouldn’t be a success if those obstacles are properly tackled.

Take Me Out to the Ballgame

Those of you who know me on a more personal level or follow me on Twitter @coconnell1 you might have noticed that I'm kind of in love with the St. Louis Cardinals -- alright, I'm pretty much obsessed. I grew up in baseball family and adored spending time with my Dad and older brother watching games. My love for the Birdinals has grown even more in the four years that I've lived in Chicago. I find that I am often surrounded by the enemy (aka Cubs fans) and need to know my stuff in order to properly talk smack to the bad guys.

I think every one's dream for their career is to have the opportunity to combine the things that you are good at with the things that you love. My dream project as a Communications major is to be assigned to the MLB account. Unfortunately, the Cardinals don't need much in terms of advertising. They have Pujols. That face and those stats are all that it takes to get fans to a game at Busch Stadium. St. Louis truly is a baseball town. Tickets will always sell, therefore the advertising efforts for the St. Louis Cardinals are fairly minimal.

I've realized the exact opposite is true for the Chicago Cubs and Chicago White Sox. This cross-town rivalry does not just exist on the field, but also in advertising.

The Chicago White Sox have developed an advertising campaign based around traditions for the 2009 season. For those of you who are not familiar with Chicago baseball, White Sox fans are generally blue-collar workers and South-siders for life. The 'White Sox Traditions' campaign successfully reaches their target audience. These advertisements emphasize the simple things that White Sox fans do to prove just how die-hard they really are.

As much as I hate to say anything good about the Chicago Cubs, I also feel as though they really nailed their 2009 advertising campaign. I came across a great Cubs advertisement back in early February when I was enjoying the lovely negative ten-degree wind chill that Chicago masters so well.

Baseball has always been that light at the end of the tunnel for me. With baseball season comes warm weather, barbecues, trips to the beach and street festivals. I saw the advertisement above and my mood was immediately elevated. I never knew that the Cubs were capable of cheering me up -- other than when they lose, of course. So, for one time only, I'm going to say kudos to the Cubs' advertising team for capturing just how truly miserable Chicago Winters are.