Where to go?
As with any type of marketing, when it comes to virtual worlds you need to be clear about who your audience is, and in this case which world they are in. If you are after pre-teens you'll find them in places like Club Penguin, teens might be in Habbo Hotel (100m registrations) or There, twenty-somethings in Twinity or Kaneva, and thirty-somethings in Second Life (13m registrations). You need to choose the right world for your campaign. We can provide geodemographics for most of the major virtual worlds.
It's about Experience
Marketing in virtual worlds tends to all be about experience and social interaction - leave heavy information-based content, and most transactions on the web. If you are in a virtual world then look to create an experience, something that avatars, and their friends can participate in together.
Here are just some of the marketing projects we've seen in virtual worlds:
- Virtual shops and hotels
- Car-culture islands, and cars
- Customisable trainers
- Beauty "skins" and designer label clothes
- Flooded islands to highlight climate change
- Voting kiosks to get users involved
- Sponsored events to support others
- Giveaway gadgets to get messages out
Worlds Have Their Limits
Of course the scope of what you can do will be limited by the world you are in. As you'd expect the opportunities in pre-teen and teen worlds are far more limited than in adult worlds, and you'll need to work closely with the world owner to do anything. At the other end of the scale a world like Second Life is completely open, you just run your campaign with no need to get official blessing from Linden Lab.
A Tiered Approach
Once you have decided what you are going to do in your chosen world we recommend that you take take a three-tier approach to marketing their virtual world activities.
- In-World Marketing
This breaks down into two areas. The first is getting your brand and events in-front of users through their world browser - this might be a log-in splash screen, or specific functions like events listings. The second is about marketing actually in the world - buying billboard space, having field sales staff, doing in-world PR - in other worlds all your usual marketing activities but done in world.
- The Ecosystem
There are a considerable number of web sites, podcasts, newsletters and other publications (mostly on-line) that cover virtual worlds. We can provide our clients with contact details for all the key publications, and advise on which is best suited for each type of business.
- Real World Marketing
The final tier comprises marketing activities both on and off line which promote your virtual presence - but in the real world. This will range from conventional PR, search engine marketing to on and off-line advertising. You can support this marketing with video content for YouTube and the like, and dedicated registration and virtual world location URLs to help people experience your virtual presence more easily..
Next Steps
In only the last 2 years we have seen a wide variety of marketing campaigns in virtual worlds. We are beginning to get a good idea of what works and what doesn't. If you'd like to avoid the mistakes of others and talk about how virtual worlds could support your next marketing campaign then please get in touch. We're always happy to do informal briefing sessions to help you understand this technology better.
Why don't you:
- Download a copy of our Marketing flyer (PDF)
- Check out the Corsa Guide to Second Life project which we did for Vauxhall, integrating SL objects and residents with the web to create a user driven guide.
