Have you heard of Second Life, the virtual universe? While this might be old news to some of you, it's interesting to know that the community is now past 250,000 residents, and is now a booming virtual world, with its own economy.

How is that interesting to us advertising people? Well, for starters, Second Life has its own currency, which you can buy using real world money. The world has its own little businesses : whether you're selling clothing for your virtual character, houses, building services, games, etc...everything is sold and bought for real. Some SL citizens already have begun selling their services as advertisers, but it won't be long before you see actual ads from brand-name announcers. Linden Lab Inc. are creators of Second Life, which they created as part of a unique socio-cultural and economic experiment.

Some real-world in-game advertising agencies (such as IGA and IGN Entertainment ) already have begun to investigate Second Life's advertising market potential. While the segment is still small, one might consider Second Life as a unique communication channel to reach a very specialized worldwide crowd morsel for specific uses, for example, lauching viral campaigns. I'd be curious to see current SL user demographics.

Second Life is ENTIRELY FREE. You get (weekly?) allocation money (Linden Dollars) for loggin in, and you don't have to buy currency if you don't want to participate in the economy. There's a fair deal of stuff to do and land to explore.

Check out the place and create your own character for free at http://www.secondlife.com/.

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