ONLINE MEDIA DAILY -- Mar 14 -- For some brands, harnessing the power of virtual worlds--or even just the idea of crafting a marketing campaign focused on one--is an immobilizing prospect. This year, about a third of the more than 34 million child and teen Internet users in the U.S. will visit virtual worlds at least once a month, according to eMarketer.
The full article was originally published at Online Media Daily, but is no longer available.
Mark Brooks: I didn't list the advice on marketing to virtual worlds users in this article. It basically said, find partners, spend $100-$500k and prepare to fail ! The same rules apply on virtual worlds as in any social network. Advertisers who are stuck on invasive traditional advertising methods will fail. One needs to identify members of the community who are bonefied fans of your brand, and then encourage them along by empowering them as ambassadors/evangelists of your brand. Pay attention to them. Listen to them, take their advice, show them you took their advice. Fan the flames of enthusiasm. This is all very granular micro-marketing, but the effects resonate far and wide.
“Virtual worlds” have been getting a lot of media coverage over the last few years, but now is a particularly interesting period as “virtual worlds” are becoming mainstream. I expect we are going to see a huge jump in virtual environments (and related advertising) for a couple of reasons. First, the latest apps are browser-based and don’t need to be installed on users’ machines. Second, these apps are now designed to be easily plugged into other dating and social networking sites; for example, OmniDate can be quickly integrated into most dating sites (www.omnidate.com). BTW, when it comes to virtual environments, advertising possibilities are nearly endless.
Posted by: Igor | Mar 19, 2008 at 01:25 PM