Second Life Hires Its First CMO to Market The Metaverse
Second Life developer Linden Labs launched a digital world two decades before everyone started talking about the metaverse. Now, the company has hired Steven Feuling as its first chief marketing officer to leverage his experience in advertising and media and attract more users and pitch its unique aspects against newer rivals like Meta and Roblox.
Second Life Metaverse
Feuling comes to Second Life after long experience with major brands like Microsoft, Disney, and General Motors, as well as media groups like MDC Partners’ Assembly. He is planning an aggressive marketing push for Second Life to highlight how it serves its users. Social connections and artistic creations are central to Second Life in a different way from the more gaming-centric Roblox and Epic Games. The platform also takes a minimalist approach to collecting user data for ads compared to Meta’s new venture. There is real money on Second Life, too, thanks to its Tilia virtual payment system and connected market. Content creators can create and sell digital goods through Tilia, which the company claims saw $650 million in transactions last year, $80 million of which went right to the developers.
“Linden Research remains one of the most innovative companies in technology, and it’s exciting to join the team that will lead the next stage of its development,” Feuling said. “Whether helping to support the renewed interest in metaverses for Second Life or building awareness of Tilia and virtual economies, I’m thrilled to apply my broad marketing expertise to assist in Linden’s growth.”
Meta Growth
That growth is at the heart of Feuling’s hiring. Second Life reached a million users in 2013, a decade after launching, but with tens of millions of Roblox and Sandbox users, not to mention Meta’s theoretical userbase of billions, there’s a lot of room to catch up. Feuling’s connections as an ad executive and event marketer come into play here. One or two major brands making Second Life their home for metaverse events and exclusive content could fuel a lot of growth.
The competition in those events is already heating up. Last weekend, Roblox just hosted Lizzo at the Logitech Song Breaker Awards, the first music awards show in the metaverse. The same weekend saw Decentraland holding the first metaverse marathon, while Google and the NBA have launched a basketball metaverse to explore during the NBA Playoffs. One or two big names like that and Second Life could have exactly what it’s name implies.
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