As the global economic forecast continues to look grim, it is inevitable the people will seek solace in the fantastic. What better way to escape the mundaneness and pressure of real life than to immerse yourself in a world where you are unencumbered by the pressures and fads that drive our daily routine?

Of course, I’m talking about the much heralded metaverse, Second Life. Second Life (or SL to those in the know) has been touted as the next best thing; a virtual environment where people can do pretty much anything they do in the real world (meet people, drive cars, buy and sell land, earn money, have affairs) without having to leave their house.

The figures look impressive; over 8 million registered users around the world, some earning more than $50K a year in real money (the currency of SL, the Linden Dollar, can be exchanged for real dollars) and a raft of big name brands looking to set up shop.

With all the hyperbole, it is not surprising that clients are interested in SL as a potential recruitment tool; a recent poll on our website indicates that over 44% of those surveyed believe SL is a viable platform for recruitment. On the surface everything seems ideal: low cost maintenance, broad reach to a young and intelligent audience and a constant supply of MI to help you understand what is and isn’t working.

However, peel away the surface and not all is as it seems. Of the 8 million inhabitants, only a couple of hundred thousand are regular users, most of which fit into a specific audience niche – technically savvy, heavy internet users and quite often unhappy with their lot in life.

Then, there is the fact that SL isn’t the only metaverse in existence – talk to the younger generation and they are more likely to cite Habbo Hotel, Runescape or even neopets as places they spend their time in. And when you revisit the poll you see that 27% of those surveyed have never heard of SL.

Therein lies the rub. With a user-centric design approach based on deep insight into the end consumer; we continually advise clients that the brief should drive the choice of creative solution, not the other way round. But at this point, there is very little understanding of what sort of user is actively using the channel. And quite frankly, at this point in time, most Second Lifers are going to SL to escape, not to participate in real world activities

When a client is interested in getting involved with something that is technically innovative, our advice is that, you need to test the channel: in this case, to understand SL, you need to spend some time, immerse yourselves in a world that is, quite frankly, bizarre, alien and wonderful in equal parts.

This often proves difficult at work, as the access requirements for SL run counter to the security policies of most large organisations. To do this from home requires commitment and time; two precious commodities in modern life.

So in order to know whether SL will ever prove a viable recruitment channel, we are left to rely on clients willing to fund an ideal; something unproven, where we don’t understand the rules of operation, where real people hide behind sword-wielding avatars, whose personalities are often eccentric manifestations of the person (or creature) they would like to be. Where mistakes will be made and the client has to be prepared to learn as much from what went wrong, as what went well. And in an environment where there is heavy pressure to show return on investment, such clients are few and far between.

So Yell, KPMG and IBM, we salute you for your audacity. But I’m having enough trouble managing this life already.