And who’s got ad units for the year’s hottest gadget of the year? That’s right — Greystripe .

The rich media mobile advertising network introduced the first full-screen ad units for the Android OS. In addition, the company launched an Android software development kit, which will allow game and application developers to insert ads and monetize. The SDK supports pre-roll, inerstitial and post-roll inventory.

“Given users reluctance to adopt Google Checkout and pay for apps, the free-ad supported model makes sense for Android,” said Michael Chang, CEO for Greystripe. “As the number of Android phones has reached critical mass, providing a cross-platform solution that reaches a broad base of consumers becomes even more important for our developers.”

iPhone and Java partners such as the Casual Games Network and Jump Games have jumped on the opportunity and are using the Greystripe’s tools for their Android releases. Greystripe has delivered ads into over 300 million ad-supported games and applications on the iPhone and Java platforms.

“When I went to this conference center that they had created, it was incredible,” said panelist Raz Schionning (Second Life name: Razor Rinkitink), director of web services for American Apparel as he described his virtual experience, “I’ve done lecturing before, and you step up in front of a room and you see a lot of people out there, and there’s lights, there’s a microphone. There’s a certain feeling—excitement or intimidation, or whatever you might have looking out at the audience as you get ready to speak. If you’re sitting in front of your keyboard, you probably wouldn’t have any of that. But it was remarkably realistic. It really felt like a conference.”

In the June issue of the Harvard Business Review, senior editor Paul Hemp (SL: Hempman Richard) wrote an article called “Avatar-Based Marketing.” His article examines marketing and advertising, and how it applies to the virtual personas (called avatars) people create for themselves in environments like instant messagers and chat programs to full-blown 3D digital worlds like Second Life. In order to take things one step further, Hemp, along with Rodica Buzescu (SL: Ansible Berkman), coordinator for all of the Berkman Center’s activities within Second Life, organized the Second Life marketing panel. “It covered a gamut of topics ’cause, especially now there’s a lot of big companies circling this space as the next realm to advertise,” said panelist W. James Au (SL: Hamlet Au), Second Life journalist and blogger.

The Sandbox Economy
Second Life’s society is based on creating, buying, selling, and marketing virtual objects. Every Second Life user has access to 3D modeling and scripting tools to create their own clothing, machines, buildings, vehicles, whatever. They also retain intellectual property rights for anything they create.

Players in the game use Second Life’s in-game currency called, Linden Dollars, to buy and sell their creations. L$250 is worth about $1 USD. Second Life’s economic connection with the outside world means that it’s entirely possible to run a real business entirely within the game. According to Au, there are thousands of Second Lifers doing just that. “When I say a few thousand, that’s the estimated amount of people who make over 20,000 US dollars a year by buying and selling user content.”

And where there are goods to sell, there will always be advertising and marketing services to sell those goods. “There’s already an active thriving advertising industry in Second Life like…billboards [and] a lot of viral advertising,”said James Au. “Fashion tends to be the most popular item to buy. The fashion designer will get their friends to wear their clothing and go to the cooler nightclubs and stuff to build up an audience.”