Masquerade Banner Promotion - Weasel Words Again....

[Lasher Oh]

Commerce Team Lin Wrote..

Next Banner Promotion

The next banner promotion is for the theme “Masquerade”, which could be the following:

• Costumes/masks for avatars
• Avatars that may be considered “dress up” avatars
• Decorations to support a Masquerade themed event
• Other items related to a Masquerade themed event

If you would like to add listings to this promotion, please move them to the Celebrations/Masquerade category. We plan to launch the banner the week of May 21

(my bold)

Following the unprecedented flagging festival that accompanied the vaquely explained Madstyle promotion I feel CTL should make a move towards earning themselves some TLC by being more specific about what is and what isn't considered suitable for this 'masquerade' banner promotion of theirs.

For instance is the Commerce Team Manager aware that a google search on the word Masquerade returns  mainly hits that are categorised as fancy dress costumes and Halloween Costumes - thus in the world according google a Masquerade costume could be anything from a full blown Venetian gown and mask with accompanying Cinderella coach with horses mice and fairies right  through to a Naughty Nurse with a stethoscope drooping over her chest.

How about drilling down a bit for us and  communicating what is and is not included in the Masquerade theme rather than couching it  with opened ended weasel words such as 'could be' and 'may be'

[Sassy Romano]

Or how about not interfering with commerce and just provide the tools that permit effective advertising and promotion without someone at LL deciding what does and what doesn't qualify to be boosted?

[Ilyra Chardin]

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Sassy Romano wrote:

Or how about not interfering with commerce and just provide the tools that permit effective advertising and promotion without someone at LL deciding what does and what doesn't qualify to be boosted?

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Logic?  They don't need no stinking logic!

:-P

[Lasher Oh]

 

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Sassy Romano wrote:

Or how about not interfering with commerce and just provide the tools that permit effective advertising and promotion without someone at LL deciding what does and what doesn't qualify to be boosted?

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+1 for that sugestion!

^L^

[Josh Susanto]

I'm still OK with the word "masquerade", but I agree we need a list of things to be specifically excluded from the promotion.

[Parrish Ashbourne]

One thing that my help is that this time you have to chance the items  category to be in the promotion and not just add a keyword.  This could mean moving the time out a category that the item all ready has good placement in so I think people might think a but more before doing so with an item that's questionable.  I agree that the definition could be clearer, but it's better then some in the past.

Here's my comment on banner promotion form an other post

[One suggestion on Banner Promotions, I realize that not every one is going to have items that fit into every promotion, but if we have more notice, then at least every one have the choice if they want to participate or not.  Often my items don't fit in to a promotion, but I find it fun to build new things that I normally wouldn't, all so I think this my make the promotions more interesting for shopper if more people have time to build new items specifically for the promotion instead of only moving existing items into the promotion.]

I think Masquerade is a great idea for a promotion in SL but to really make it work it needs to go beyond the marketplace, for starters add it to the destination guide for clubs hosting Masquerade Ball or party's during the promotion.  Even with the short 3 day notice this still could be pulled off just make the destination guide part happen the last week of the promotion assuming the promotion will run at lest a month long. That would be time enough for club owners to get ready and would give people a reason to go shop to dress up for the Masquerade balls and party's at the end of the promotion.   This would all so be good for sales as club owners would need to do some shopping to get their clubs ready for the events.  This would turn the promotion from a simple sale into an event where people would have a reason to want to shop.

 

[Paul Hexem]

Depending on who you ask, Masquerade could also have to do with vampires. If they're going to keep doing this, they really need much clearer definitions.

[WADE1 Jya]

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Lasher Oh wrote:

 

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Sassy Romano wrote:

Or how about not interfering with commerce and just provide the tools that permit effective advertising and promotion without someone at LL deciding what does and what doesn't qualify to be boosted?

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+1 for that sugestion!

^L^

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+2 :catembarrassed:

[Josh Susanto]

My current recommendations for future promotions are:

1) ALWAYS set a keyword that will not already be in use such as "masquerade2012". This makes the theme of the promotion clear, but without causing to be included items which will only incidentally pop up on the promotion.

2) Rather than try to regulate what fits the keyword and what doesn't, simply set a limit to the number of items a merchant may have on the promotion at one time. This provides an incentive to merchants to promote only the items which they see as best fitting the stated theme. If they do otherwise, they'll only be hurting themselves. And if they have nothing very appropriate to offer, the amount of spam will remain smaller than previous and stay ranked low for relevance. Some people may use alts to get around the limit, but that seems like a tactic that would require a lot of work for not all that much benefit, so even people with no integrity at all will mostly not create more than a few alts. 

3) Set up a forum listing possible future promotional themes, based on legally viable keywords for which shoppers are already searching at high rates. If shoppers are looking for it, that would seem to be a pretty good hint that at least some of them are trying to buy it. Letting merchants know about this instead of keeping it as some kind of secret (as is done now) could be a win for LL, merchants and customers.

4) Set up a referendum system in that forum by which users can vote on future themes in order to help LL prioritize them in terms of what merchants expect they will be most able to provide. If merchants already have something that shoppers want, promoting that first might actually generate sales (instead of just a bunch of dubious delisting work for Linden employees). And if merchants don't have enough of something yet, a referendum could at least provide some ability to project what can be made available before trying to promote things or before deciding not to promote them.

5) Change promotional themes more frequently and announce them several promotions in advance. Plans do have to change sometimes, sure. But having some kind of an advanced plan is almost always better than not having one. Making  new promotions more frequent and more predictable allows merchants to focus on any foreseeable promotions for which they might prefer to devote their time in preparation, rather than being tempted just to look for ways to game the current and/or next immediate promotion, not having any idea what might be a better use of their energies. This should also help prevent promotions from becoming stagnant, and somewhat broaden the total range of promoted items over the course of a year. It also provides a more clear comparative basis for a decision to either repeat or not repeat a promotion at some later time. If there's a concern that generating a new graphic for each promotion is going to be (unwanted) extra work for Lindens, forget about that. Users can submit suggested graphics for possible future promotions on the promotions forum well in advance, and if there's a problem, it's more likely to be spotted early.

OK... what am I missing?

[Anaiya Arnold]

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Josh Susanto wrote:

 

OK... what am I missing?

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The authority to implement these standards and processes.  Nothing else springs to mind.

[Josh Susanto]

Well, the Lindens so far have responded to public ridicule, if it's sufficiently public and sufficiently ridiculous.

 

[Parrish Ashbourne]

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Josh Susanto wrote:

My current recommendations for future promotions are:

1) ALWAYS set a keyword that will not already be in use such as "masquerade2012". This makes the theme of the promotion clear, but without causing to be included items which will only incidentally pop up on the promotion.

2) Rather than try to regulate what fits the keyword and what doesn't, simply set a limit to the number of items a merchant may have on the promotion at one time. This provides an incentive to merchants to promote only the items which they see as best fitting the stated theme. If they do otherwise, they'll only be hurting themselves. And if they have nothing very appropriate to offer, the amount of spam will remain smaller than previous and stay ranked low for relevance. Some people may use alts to get around the limit, but that seems like a tactic that would require a lot of work for not all that much benefit, so even people with no integrity at all will mostly not create more than a few alts. 

3) Set up a forum listing possible future promotional themes, based on legally viable keywords for which shoppers are already searching at high rates. If shoppers are looking for it, that would seem to be a pretty good hint that at least some of them are trying to buy it. Letting merchants know about this instead of keeping it as some kind of secret (as is done now) could be a win for LL, merchants and customers.

4) Set up a referendum system in that forum by which users can vote on future themes in order to help LL prioritize them in terms of what merchants expect they will be most able to provide. If merchants already have something that shoppers want, promoting that first might actually generate

sales

(instead of just a bunch of dubious delisting work for Linden employees). And if merchants don't have enough of something yet, a referendum could at least provide some ability to project what can be made available before trying to promote things or before deciding not to promote them.

5) Change promotional themes more frequently and announce them several promotions in advance. Plans do have to change sometimes, sure. But having some kind of an advanced plan is almost always better than not having one. Making  new promotions more frequent and more predictable allows merchants to focus on any foreseeable promotions for which they might prefer to devote their time in preparation, rather than being tempted just to look for ways to game the current and/or next immediate promotion, not having any idea what might be a better use of their energies. This should also help prevent promotions from becoming stagnant, and somewhat broaden the total range of promoted items over the course of a year. It also provides a more clear comparative basis for a decision to either repeat or not repeat a promotion at some later time. If there's a concern that generating a new graphic for each promotion is going to be (unwanted) extra work for Lindens, forget about that. Users can submit suggested graphics for possible future promotions on the promotions forum well in advance, and if there's a problem, it's more likely to be spotted early.

OK... what am I missing?

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Their not even using a keyword this time, for the Masquerade promotion they have created a category for it, so it wont include items that were not intended to be there, all so I think people will be less likely to move thing there if it's not related sense moving it requires taking it out of an existing category. 

I think my suggestion to combine the promotion with events that would be listed in the destination guide would help make guessing what fits in the definition easer,  if every one knew that at the end of the promotion there were masquerade balls and events to go to and that the promotion was to get ready for it, all so gives people a reason to want to shop during the promotion.

Totally agree on needing more time and that we should be able to suggest promotion ideas.

[Josh Susanto]

Category instead of keyword sounds pretty good, too, since things can only be in one category at a time, thus less discouraging gaming the pertinent search function. 

We can already suggest promotional ideas. There's just no evident integration of such means of suggestion into the decision process behind the promotions.

I'm not suggesting that LL simply allow merchants to decide promotions. I'm suggesting that a more transparently itelligent process be instituted in which it can be made clearer whether or not information provided by merchants is even being given any consideration at all.