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CRY plans to raise money through Second Life
CRY is planning to create an island on Second Life which will let CRY members interact with each other and also donate money to the NGO
CRY, which created an office in Second Life in January 2008, is now planning to expand its presence in the virtual world. The nonprofit organisation will launch a CRY island or world, which will enable its members to interact with each other. A company called Indusgeeks is developing CRY World in Second Life.
Second Life is an advanced level of social networking developed by Linden Lab. It is an Internet enabled virtual world, in which users create their virtual avatars, which can move around and interact or socialise with other users. Members can participate in individual or group activities, and create and trade items like virtual property and services with each other.
CRY office in Second Life |
CRY is using experiential marketing in a virtual way to let the users of Second Life experience the role of CRY and what it does. Users have to register with CRY World in order to experience it. CRY World will showcase the troubles of children in India via a 3D animated video. There will be a CRY Centre where CRY members can gather and interact with each other on projects they are doing. An interactive game called CRY Game will allow members to hone their donation management skills by virtually allocating money for various causes.
CRY World will also be used for raising real funds for CRY. There will be donation boxes in CRY World, where members can donate money using credit cards. In the US, American Cancer Society had used Second Life to raise $115,000 in 2007.
Indusgeeks has plans to launch a 3D animated video viral campaign on video sharing sites such as YouTube.com, which will promote and invite users to explore CRY World. "The same video might be used as a TVC in the future," says Banerjee.
CRY World is a sponsored project and CRY is not spending any of its own money on it.
Around 13 million users worldwide, including 50,000 Indians, are registered with Second Life.