It’s been over two years since Business Week put Second Life on its cover. For those needing a refresher, Second Life is a virtual online world where users create their own identities and interact in a 3D environment. In its May 1, 2006 issue, Business Week hailed the concept of a virtual world as something that could help companies “transform the way they operate by providing a new template for getting work done, from training and collaboration to product design and marketing.”

The minute I saw it, I couldn’t help but think of the supposed “Business Week curse”, the gist of which is that once Business Week puts a company/individual/industry on its cover, the story is already over. The tide has already turned. Elvis has left the building. Call it the ultimate contrary indicator. The cover story really seemed to exaggerate the potential of Second Life and probably signaled the demise of the virtual world phenomenon, or so I suspected.

I felt vindicated in this hunch after reading an amusing piece in Wired magazine last year on Second Life. The not-so-subtle title said it all: “How Madison Avenue Is Wasting Millions on a Deserted Second Life.” The article discussed how ad agencies were so scared of missing the virtual boat that they were willing to waste millions of their clients’ dollars on what were essentially fancy billboards in an empty digital landscape.

Of course “empty” is an exaggeration. It’s not that Second Life has no users – it has several million, in fact. But these users are at least a thousand times more likely to congregate in adult-oriented locations like “Sexy Beach” than they are to hang out at the “Coke Virtual Thirst” pavilion or shop at the Sears store. They see enough of these brands in their first life, after all. Why go to a fantasy world to consume the same?

Which brings us to today. On June 10th, Plan Sponsor magazine sent out its daily News Dash email with a brief story synopsis about Aviva’s new Second Life presence. According to the article from sister publication planadviser, Aviva’s virtual island is “a venue to communicate with insurance and annuity agents.” It’s used for “recruitment, education, and training.”

While we’ve been skeptical of Corporate America’s attempts to leverage Second Life for pure advertising purposes, it sounds like Aviva’s efforts are geared toward serving its existing workforce or its business partners. This makes much more sense to us than clumsily reaching out to consumers who probably have very little interest in learning about insurance products through their avatar. If anything, this shows that Business Week wasn’t completely off-base when it suggested that Second Life might have this role. And it sounds like at least one financial services firm is giving it a go. 

While we haven’t had the opportunity to check out the Aviva island yet, we have been doing a lot of research on Web 2.0 and the way it’s impacting financial services. Our most recent issue of the Consulting Insights newsletter featured a cover story on the subject and it’s generated a lot of client questions and media inquiries.

For that reason, we’re going to publish a comprehensive ”state of the industry” report on this timely topic early this fall. If you’re interested in being notified about the report when it’s released, drop us a line at info@corporateinsight.com and we’ll be sure to reach out to you when the time comes.

And while you’re here on the Corporate Insight blog, we encourage you to join the conversation on Web 2.0 and financial services by posting a comment to this and any of our other posts on this hot button issue.