Developer Millions of Us and marketing firm Crayon put a refreshing spin on metaverse marketing today when they hosted Coca Cola executives in SL who announced a contest to build a virtual vending machine.

Michael Donnelly, (Mickey Douhet in Second Life), Director of Global Interactive Marketing for Coca-Cola, rejected the option of building a virtual island and instead asked residents to re-create the magical experience that comes from reaching for a frosty Coke, popping the top open and guzzling down the fizzy beverage.

"The idea of a complete transformation of a real world machine into a fantastical invention that dispenses experiences sounded pretty cool to us," Donnelly said. "Avatars don't have thirst as humans do, but they do thirst for new experiences."

Donnelly said he was flattered that SL residents had already designed virtual Coke cans and vending machines in SL, proving there are coke fans everywhere.

Working from the company headquarters in Atlanta, Donnelly said he had been secretly logging into SL for almost a year. "I wont present myself as a super expert in SL. I don't hang out every day but I commit to doing it once a week and have for many months."

Citing a Forrester Research report which advised that entering Second Life was like entering any other region of the world, Donnelly said, "Coke is treating Second life as an entirely new market."

Coke had already been experimenting with virtual worlds and creating it's own, Coke Studios which launched in 2002. The company has virtual environments in Mexico, Spain, and Hong Kong . Donnelly said Coca-Cola chose Second Life over other virtual worlds because of SL's lack of a safety net, referring to other virtual worlds as "walled garden communities." "Specifically SL is where the traffic is. Its hockey stick of growth is intriguing."