I could only snicker when I read this piece from Wired titled How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life. It gives some credibility to the idea that its writers are better at buzzwords and superficial looks at technology than actual depth.
The poor man paints a broad, negative and mostly superficial picture of Second Life, without having a clue of its inner workings. He says it is empty with nothing to do and that big brands such as American Apparel and Coca-Cola are failing here. Let's help him to understand a few facts.
The grid is not empty. Sure, the total number of users is inflated, only active users should be counted. That's one thing. But anyone who took a bit of time to discover SL knows better than a feeling of emptiness (in human presence) and of nothing to do. In RL, people come and go from home to other places. A place that's empty right now will perhaps be packed in an hour. It applies to SL.
If the guy took the time to learn anything, he would have known that it is possible to build, create, dance, broadcast, meet people, etc.
The point where he fails the most is about business success. He takes the example of a few multinationals such as Coca-Cola and says that they are not getting traffic. That's for sure. I remember going to the sims of American Apparel, Adidas and Armani to find them empty... but also BAD.
Companies that throw money at a sim in SL often think that being present with their flagship products will help them succeed. They do not realize that they often do not adapt them well, such as designing a quality texture to replicate the quality of their clothing. Make me choose between a bad replica of an American top and a gorgeous, well-crafted one at Mischief and I'll buy the latter.
And then, RL brands fail at promoting their activities in ways that are easy to reach within Second Life.
I found the Adidas sim by typing the sim name. My numerous searches in the search engine failed miserably. They didn't even care to buy a L$50 classified, which would have been easy enough to find! How can you attract customers if you do nothing to reach them?
In short, brand power does nothing if you don't have product quality and do not learn how to fetch people. Did Coca-Cola and Adidas build their RL brands by sitting on their butts and waiting for people to come to them? Of course not. Why would they expect it to work in SL? Nonsense.
If companies want a presence, they have to find meaningful activities to make their sims compelling and market their efforts.
Is that too hard to understand?