What do you know about marketing on virtual worlds?
Has marketing on virtual worlds worked for your company? What method did you use? Which virtual world did you choose, and how did you make this decision? If you don't mind sharing, what were your results? What were your goals, and did you succeed?
Is there a resource you would recommend, for learning more about this?
Answers (2)
Erica F
Social Media Optimizer, Publisher at ALC Publishing, President of Yuricon
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My gut tells me that an event, or limited-time space would work better than a permanent site.
Like websites and real world stores, the key question has got to be "why would I come back?" I remember the days when website were essentially adverts and info pamphlets and marketing managers were bitching about not getting repeat visitors - well, there wasn't any reason for them to come back. Same with a virtual site. You have got to give someone a reason to come - to stay - and then to come back.
I've seen popular one-time events work for small audiences. But what would keep a person coming back?
John F
Digital Strategist. Web Consultant. Innovator.
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[I don't like quoting myself, but I answered a similar question a couple of months ago. Hope this helps...]
The sense that I get with Second Life is that the bloom is off the rose. After a meteoric rice fueled by popular media, growth has flattened and companies are leaving/abandoning as quickly as they are joining. If you look at membership number over the past 4 years, you'll see that they are at the slowing-growth end of the classic s-curve.
One of the more successful launches in recent years was Club Penguin. Club Penguin caters to children between the ages of 6-14 and promises parents an environment free from advertising. Purchased by Disney in August of 2007 for $350 million (with an additional $350 million if certain financial incentives are met), Club Penguin has been an unqualified success. Launched in October 2005, with just 15,000 members, as of August 2007 it has 12 million activated members and 700,000 activated members that pay between $4.83 - $5.95 per month. This activity yields $3.4 million - $4.2 million in revenue per month. It is estimated that in 2007 Club Penguin made $35 million profit from revenues of $65 million.
As successful as Club Penguin has been, it has been eclipsed in terms of membership and traffic by Webkinz, targeted to a similar age group but with the added benefit of offline toys to build the brand with.
There are some others that boast gigantic membership numbers, including:
Habbo Hotel (Sulake Corporation)
Total accounts: 80m+
Created in: 2000
Age range: 13-16
Content creation: Avatar
Major markets: Global
Metaverse type: Social learning
Whyville (Numedeon)
Total accounts: 2.4m+
Created in: 1999
Age range: 8-15
Content creation: Avatar
Major markets: North America
Metaverse type: Social learning
Gaia Online (Gaia Interactive Inc)
Total accounts: 6m+
Created in: 2003
Age range: 13+
Content creation: Avatar
Major markets: Global
Metaverse type: Social
How active and vibrant these worlds are is difficult to tell without joining and spending significant time there. But it's clear that virtual worlds is most popular among younger users. Whether or not they can take off among older audiences, or whether we'll just have to wait another 10 years for these current users to grow up - and technology to evolve even further - is subject to debate.
Kzero, a UK-based virtual world consultancy, has some data and a blog. Some of the data in this response is from them. Some of the projections are a couple of years old and show how optimistic they actually were when compared to actual numbers.
Hope this helps...
