Once you've made the descision to get involved in a virtual world, you've then got to work out how best to do it. For the more closed worlds (eg Habbo Hotel) you'll have to work closely with the world owner to develop the branding opportunities. For open worlds like Second Life though you can deal directly with virtual engineers and marketeers such as ourselves - you never have to deal with Linden Labs or get their permissions.
Whilst a typical "presence" involves some form of building in the virtual world, it could also just be seeding the world with a gadget, a piece or viral media, some sponsorship, a competition or anything else that acheives your objectives. Remember though that you are entering a community - you are the outsider and you need to carefully judge your activities just as you would if you were entering a new real world country or culture. Of course we can help you develop ideas that work, and warn you about what won't work.
If you are establishing a "physical" presence then you need to think about:
- The aims, objectives and audience, as this will effect the world you use, and even where in the world you go and what you build
- Where in the world to set up shop - in Second Life choices will include the mainland, a business, media or retail park, or your own island
- What sort of structure to build, and what to build into it
- How to manage the presence and build community around it in the long term
- How to let people in the real and virtual worlds know about what you've done
Pricing - people always want to know about pricing! Of course we don't want to go into detail here, and prices will be highly dependent on which world and how complex the project. But to give you an idea our typical project prices range from just a few thousand pounds, to around fifty thousand pounds or more for a very big project. Most projects, though, are in the £5k - £10k bracket, and we can usually approach things on a phased basis, so we can prove the concept as you go along. In other worlds your virtual world presence will be costing about the same as a new web site, doing a new glossy brochure or having a stand for a few days at a real world exhibition.
Read more about our Design and Build service, and our marketing and presence management services.
If you want to talk through ideas with us then just contact us to arrange a meeting.
