BMW in Second Life: Achim Muellers

Linda Zimmer has an extensive interview (in-world) with BMW's Munich Express, also known as Achim Muellers, Head of Brand Relations and Cooperations at BMW.

If there are any car manufactures out there thinking about how to use Second Life you should go read the whole thing.

Highlights:

"[9:03] Munich Express: i guess everybody has a different strategy - our's was to come in, talk and learn from the residents - that's one of the reasons we're meeting today

[9:05] Munich Express: step one is to understand exactly what is going on,get to know what the residents are looking for and then come up with win-win activities

[9:07] Munich Express: as far as actual product demo’s in-world are concerned, we believe that the programs provided so far don't allow us to create what we would call a driving experience


[9:30] Munich Express: very soon we will host panel discussions and bring in other bmw experts as well - hopefully they type better than i do

[9:32] Munich Express: sl is great to get very honest feedback - more honest than in any focus group - that's one important feature

[9:33] Munich Express: well in a focus group, you sort of know what's expected from you - that's a bit sarcastic, i know

[9:33] Munich Express: my impression in second life is that the residents are more extroverted and honest about their feelings

[9:37] Munich Express: at the beginning it took some convincing that sl is not a game - administrators have a problem with that.

[9:37] Munich Express: now more and more are coming on board, not only from marketing but also r&d

[9:49] You: One of the questions IBM has posed is how corporations feel about the lack of control over the infrastructure for their environments here. So you have any comment?

[9:50] Munich Express: it's not only the environment i think it's the brand all together - comes back to what we discussed earlier in terms of consumer generated content

[10:09] Munich Express: for me these meetings are important, beacuase i keep learning that way and that allows me to improve the bmw appearance in sl"