Virtual Thirst
On Monday, crayon helped launch our first official effort on behalf of our client, Coca-Cola. I attended the two press launches from a lounge at Heathrow Airport and my hotel room in Cannes! The project, named Virtual Thirst: Coke + Alt + Refresh, involved Second Life, but not in the way you might have thought.
For starters, it was a very atypical entry into the Virtual World of Second Life (Coca-Cola has been very active in Virtual Worlds, but until now had not done anything official in SL). Instead of purchasing an Island and creating a grandeous ediface of brash self-congratulation, this was a lot more understated and ground up. I use the analogy of planting a seed and with the right amount of nurturing, maintenance, light, water etc (you get it), something special sprouts up...
Another nuance was that this was not about SL for SL's sake. Virtual Thirst is about interpreting anything along the continuum of "the metaphorical quenching of thirst" to expressing the essence of the Coke brand and what it means to you. In this particular case, Second Life became the perfect way to bring unfettered creativity and limitless imagination to life.
Finally, the third element to the program was that we worked - and continue to work - extremely closely - with the Second Life community. The initial protoypes (see below) were all created by the SL community; we tapped into an advisory board of SL influencers and finally we have a judging committee of SL stalwarts.
So what is the program? In a nutshell, design (any way you choose to) a "machine" that "vends" an experience. Think the exact opposite of a rectangular box that dispenses cans. Find out more at www.virtualthirst.com or just visit the pavillion on crayonville Island and experience these machines yourself. In the interim, here are some video showcases of the initial prototpes to wet your appettite...'er quench your thirst...you know what I mean :)
The Dance Bottle - created by Audio Zenith
The Experience Machine - created by Zee Kaos
The Vintage Truck - created by Latok Neumann (music by Now is Now)
Jukebox - created Latok Neumann (music by Matthew Ebel)
