I got my beta invite to PlayStation Home last night. Home, for those of you who don’t have a PS3, is Sony’s attempt to create a 3D environment where gamers can congregate and connect with each other. Much like Second Life, Home lets you create an Avatar, sets you up with you an apartment and then lets you begin to interact with others inside this virtual world.

While still in its infancy, Home definitely looks interesting. And there are some definite indications that Sony plans on monetizing this virtual real estate.

Here are a couple snaps I took.

In game advertising (IGA) is a nascent market, but one that is projected to hit $732 million by 2010. Just as an example, in the recent election, President-elect Obama reportedly spent $44K for billboard ads in the popular Burnout driving game (see Obama’s in-game ad bill).

Granted, this kind of spend probably doesn’t make sense for most real estate brands. But for the right company, looking for the right vehicle to reach the 18-34 male demographic, IGA may make sense.

Personally, I know that’s where I’m spending the majority of my free time these days. It’s not watching TV or reading the newspaper.

virtual real estate, real estate marketing, playstation home, second life

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In one of the more interesting announcements to come out of Connect last week, Coldwell Banker announced it had modeled a real life listing inside of the virtual world Second Life. (You can see the full property details here)

As far as a publicity gimmick, it was inspired – but as far as a practical way to market a listing it strikes me as an expensive, time-consuming practice.

Second Life, which claims over 8 million virtual residents, has been a hotbed of corporate activity recently trying to get a handle on Web 2.0 environments. This is not new territory for CB either, as it has already opened a virtual office in the world. (see Coldwell Banker Opens Office in Second Life)

But as a recent issue of Wired magazine reported, this push by Fortune 500 companies has been largely ignored by most residents (see How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life) who seem more interested in exploring the seedy side of cyberspace.

If CB really wanted to explore marketing listings in a virtual world, they would be better advised to use a tool like Google’s SketchUp to create a 3D model of the home and populate inside of Google Earth. (see It’s a Google world)

This approach has several advantages. One, it’s free.

Secondly, Google Earth is far more accessible to average consumers. Users do not have to register with the service, a simple download to their desktop suffices. Further, users do not have to create an ‘avatar’ and subject themselves Second Life’s unituitive learning curve, with it’s bizarre teleport and flying behaviors.

Google Earth is a complex 3D rendering of the real world, but one that ultimately is easy to navigate – and a listing inside its confines has the necessary context and relevancy missing in Second Life.

Marketing a property with Google Earth doesn’t have the headline pull of putting a listing inside Second Life – but at the end of the day, could be far more practical and useful.

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Second Life (SL) is like World of Warcraft – they are products largely driven by virtual communities that have very quickly developed its own meta universes. They’re also kind of like twitter (you can follow me here) – I don’t really get it.

But I’m probably alone here. Thousands, if not millions of people are using it to live out virtual fantasies through their SL avatars.

Being that it’s a virtual world, many of these fantasies center around real estate, and buying and trading virtual land. Some residents like Anshe Chung, the “Rockefeller of Second Life” claims to have made over $250,000 from creating, renting and selling virtual homesteads to new residents.

So it only makes sense that a real estate company would try and capitalize on this virtual land rush too…

Coldwell Banker (CB) announced today that it is the first national real estate company to sell homes to SL residents. From their press release:

Coldwell Banker has an inventory of more than 500 homes on 550,000 square meters in the Ranchero section of the Second Life mainland, one of the largest home developments in this virtual world. These virtual homes will vary in price based on size and style, including southwestern, colonial and contemporary, among others. In addition, Coldwell Banker is offering homes perched atop a picturesque hill overlooking the ocean. Second Life residents can meet with a Coldwell Banker sales associate avatar in the brand’s virtual office and schedule an appointment to tour virtual properties of interest. Homebuyers who close a purchase with Coldwell Banker will receive free “virtual furnitureâ€? for their new home as a closing gift.

You can see a current map of the SL world (or “grid”) here – Ranchero is located just in from the inlet on the eastern side of the island that kind of looks like a “J”.

It’s a interesting idea. Large companies like CB are making all kinds of creative plays in SL’s cyberspace – HSBC has a bank, Toyota has a dealership, even Reuters has a SL news bureau. For good reason too, SL can be a test bed for new ideas and it gets people interacting with their products and services; and it’s a relative cheap investment:

…an island costs $1,675 for about 16 virtual acres, plus $295 a month for maintenance fees…

(more in Investor’s Business Daily: Companies Are Finding Second Life)

Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to figure out where CB’s headquarters was. If anyone can find it, can they post a SLURL in the comments?

This commercialization of SL is not without controversy however. Folks who resent this corporate intrusion (nicknamed “Grievers”) have taken matters into their own hands; apparently there’s a Second Life Liberation Army who have shot virtual customers outside a virtual American Apparel store and even gone as far as detonating virtual nuclear weapons (more in USAToday article).

Then of course, there was the infamous “Phallus attack” on virtual Realtor Chung earlier this year (see Virtual Real Estate Tycoon Assaulted in Second Life).

I’m sure we’ll see more attempts to capitalize/advertise in these virtual worlds in the future. CB is definitely ahead of the curve on this one and, in a day and age where advertising is becoming so ubiquitous and consumers are becoming increasing desensitized to tradition branding efforts, this is a way for a major real estate brand to try and cut through the message clutter.

If you’re interested in checking out Second Life, click here to join.

Of course, in the mad rush to take advantage of the opportunities in Second Life, let’s not forget that you should also Get a First Life.

Update:

I found it.

Here’s the SLUrl to teleport you there.

Porsches and Beamers parked outside and CB-branded helicopters on the roof. Nice.

Nobody was home when I visited, but there’s coffee and donuts and there’s a nice boat to hang out on while you wait.

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