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Crayon’s Launch Event

Posted on October 26, 2006
Filed Under Second Life |

Okay that was both illuminating, right at the bleeding edge of tech, and just a little bit of geek looking into the future.

This evening (UK time) I attended the launch of Crayon, the New Marketing company. What was different? Well, the launch event was on their island in Second Life - which is fitting given that their Head Office is in Second Life. Put simply, they’re walking the walk. Want to market in SL? Then you go to the company that is based, runs and hangs out in their specially converted diner in SL. I wonder where they pay corporation tax though?

If you look at it from one angle, around the world there were maybe 30-40 people hunched over their keyboards, peering at a 3d rendered image. From the other angle, we were all invited to attend a pretty damn exclusive international gathering of some of the brighter names in the online/new marking space. The fact that I didn’t have to travel half way around the world to do so (and neither did most of the Crayon(*) employees meant that I was totally chilled and relaxed in my own environment (in their environemnt) for the event. It also meant I didn’t earn any air miles.

One of the exciting things in the launch keynote from Joseph Jaffe was that Crayon isn’t going to be a walled garden of talent. The idea and ethos is to reach out to anyone with the skills, and use them. It’s a fair bet that at some point Crayon are going to act as nothing more than a bridge between someone hunting, and someone offering. The collaboration with MillionsOfUs to promote the launch event highlights this, as does their approach to myself to help contribute to a number of pitches to their potential clients.

Definitly a glimpse at the future, in all sense. Working in Second Life, with all the attendant problems of lag, number of people in the sim (57 at the launch, an SL record?), the thirty second delay on a Shoutcast stream compared to IM and textual reactions, they will all be overcome. Being first isn’t the key to success. Being the best is. On first impressions, Crayon is arguably the first (given their corporate definition) but are well on the way to proving themselves as the second. I wish these frontiersmen all the best.

(*) It’s the name of something proper, it has a capital letter, okay?

Comments

7 Responses to “Crayon’s Launch Event”

  1. Jaffe Juice on October 26th, 2006 21:01

    We’ve launched!!!!

    How and where do I start? What a surreal experience. We pulled it off and are now officially…real (and virtual) We’ve launched simultaneously in the real and virtual worlds. At precisely 12noon EST…our traditional and social media press releases hit

  2. C.C. Chapman on October 26th, 2006 21:47

    Ewan, thank you for coming. For taking some cool photos and for the honest write up.

    And thanks for not bugging me every hour to tell you who I was working for. :)

  3. Neville Hobson on October 26th, 2006 22:50

    Ewan, thoughtful post. Thanks. Loved the virtual kilt!

  4. Shel Holtz on October 26th, 2006 23:59

    Allow me to join the chorus of crayons who have praised your insightful post, Ewan.

    Now I’m going to go read some E.E. Cummings.

  5. Nicole Simon on October 27th, 2006 14:31

    If it is, then why did you write all of the tags in small caps, hm? :)

  6. Alex Kajinsky on October 30th, 2006 5:27

    I am so bored with Joseph Jaffe claiming to be a pioneer when all he is doing is regurgitating what everyone else is saying, but laying his own verbose platitudes over the top. C’mon Ewan, I read your posts a lot … you’re smarter than that…

  7. Ewan on October 30th, 2006 10:02

    Alex, having not met Jaffe in RL, I can’t fully comment on the first, but I have met and know both CC Chapman and Neville Hobson and woudl not expect them to blow smoke over something like this. And I’m sorry, but I do regard Crayon as a pioneer. They are in the first wave of the Secnd Life businesses, so they clearly deserve the pioneer lable. As to ‘first’ they’re in marketing, of course they’ll define something narrowly in their favour.

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