Promoting your brand…VIRTUALLY!
Use of virtual worlds to market real world product…
A variety of well known brands are setting up shop in Virtual Worlds. Why is this? While it is a relatively new medium for advertising this is a clear demonstration of branding, and not necessarily direct marketing. For the vast majority of companies that have entered virtual world spaces for advertising/promotion purposes success is reported, whereas a handful of others have pulled out stating no clear value return on investment.
With the interruption of marketing/ advertising messages into our world on a high frequency basis- are we even paying attention to companies trying to brand in a virtual world space? Most of us enter a virtual world for pleasure to interact and unwind from the “real-world” while others enter a virtual world to conduct business. Once an untapped arena, now virtual world/real-world crossover promotions are becoming common place. Many high-profile players have migrated into SL and other rival online worlds for brand promotion. For marketers, it is a new channel to explore, filled for the most part with fresh eyes and impressionable young adults to market products to. More and more companies are moving into the virtual space utilizing in-world marketing campaigns while some virtual world sites remain advertisement-free. Major brands like Coca-Cola with an online island in SL see real value in delivering an advertising message to consumers via virtual world advertising/ branding.
So what’s the future of advertising/ branding within the virtual world space? I would suggest that with the current state of the economy some marketers will cut experimental advertising in VW’s, however some marketers will view virtual worlds as an opportunity to take a low-dollar risk while typical big-dollar budgets for traditional advertising mediums such as: television, radio, and print are summarily slashed. Virtual worlds have been around just long enough to demonstrate clear results/ advantages, although some marketers have been skittish and remain skeptical of this emerging marketing opportunity. The jury is still out if the smart investment is in virtual worlds just yet. Me, my money is on virtual: Engagement equals results and virtual worlds have the high ground!
