PRESS RELEASE
26 February 2008
For Immediate Release
Virtual Worlds and Serious Business
A new 9 point business plan has been released by virtual worlds specialists Daden Limited to help businesses and organisations make sense of the emerging phenomena of virtual worlds.
The white paper is based on Daden's ten year experience of virtual worlds and its recent observations of their commercialisation over the past few years. The paper aims to guide businesses considering virtual worlds through addressing 9 key questions.
The key distinction between virtual worlds and the web is that the web is mainly about information and transactions, whereas virtual worlds are about experience and social interaction. The reason why many business presences are unsuccessful in virtual worlds is because they fail to grasp this difference.
Daden believe that organisations thinking about using virtual worlds should have a clear idea that covers what it wants to do, why it wants to do it and how it expects to do it. This is summarised in our 9 point plan.
What's the aim?
Who's the audience (real or virtual)?
Private world or public world?
Which world?
How to engage?
How do you implement?
How do you market?
How do you staff?
How do you maintain interest?
David Burden, Managing Director says “We've lost count the number of times organisations have come to us with plans for a virtual world presence that really haven't been well thought out. That's why we've put together our 9 point plan. To make organisations think before they build.”
Daden have built environments in several virtual worlds, and have developed interfaces between virtual and real environments. “We have a deep understanding of the possibilities offered by new technologies as well as experience of the marketing and usability issues to know what might work, and what won't.” said David.
Virtual worlds are at and early-stage in their development, but all the indications are that they will become more and more important over the coming decades. The organisations which engage now and make their mistakes whilst (relatively) few people are watching, and capture mindshare whilst there is little good competition will be well placed to capitalise on this technology as it enters the mainstream.
David Burden ends “The key aim of this paper is to show how businesses can actually use virtual worlds for real business advantage. Our advice to anyone is to spend more time in the initial planning stages, considering what it is you want to achieve with your virtual presence.”
-ends-
Notes to Editor:
Daden Limited is a virtual worlds agency working in Second Life and other virtual worlds. Our aim is to help you engage with your audience using some of the most interesting technologies around today. We offer 4 main services:
Inform - help you understand virtual worlds
Involve - build your presence
Integrate - connect SL to/from web services & real world devices
Interact - create virtual characters & chatbots
Daden's virtual world clients include the University of Coventry, Birmingham City University (and 2 other UK universities), Birmingham City Council, several marketing agencies and consultancies, consumer brands such as Vauxhall, and B2B brands such as CIBA.
Daden are based in Birmingham, UK, and are also virtual tenants at the Serious Games Institute in Coventry.
Links:
Daden's white paper Virtual Worlds and Serious Business can be downloaded from their website www.daden.co.uk
Contact Details:
All media enquiries should be addressed to:
Soulla Stylianou
Daden Limited
103 Oxford Rd
Moseley
Birmingham
B13 9SG
Tel: 0121 698 8520
Mobile: 07814 145167
Email: soulla.stylianou@daden.co.uk
