Marketing in Virtual Worlds.
From the LA Times Article, an avatar looking into an empty Second Life store…
Well, this post on Slashdot regarding the LA Times article about marketers abandoning Second Life sure does have a lot of comments following it. Some are slag, but many are well thought out and reasoned. I think it’s very interesting how heated this topic gets people, and I love the passion people have; good, bad, but very little indifferent!
Something I have been preaching about for quite a while is that virtual worlds are places where people generally want to go to escape the bonds of their real lives. So, it makes sense that they wouldn’t want to marketed to in the same way there that they are in everyday life. I doubt people would want to pay good money to sit in a theater and watch what they had just done all day. We go to places like the movies, plays, and even virtual worlds, for entertainment and to experience something beyond our normal, first life.
Certainly advertising & marketing is going to play a large part in these worlds, but it’s not going to look like just slathering everything with logos and calling it done (not to say that’s the only thing that’s happening now…). Brands who want to make this work for themselves are going to have to bring value to the worlds in a non-intrusive and useful way. Brands will need to bring something to the table to gain their credibility in-world. Just because a brand is strong, and even cool, in the physical world doesn’t mean very much in the virtual world unless they create themselves as strong, and even cool, all over again within the society and context of the virtual worlds in which they’re participating. The goal of not breaking the experience of ‘being in another world‘ is an important one, as well.
Interestingly enough, within Entropia Universe most of the advertising and marketing is for in-world products, events, and services. I think that’s actually very exciting and I think it marks a way for real world brands to participate, as well. Another interesting aspect about Entropia Universe is that they’ve been profitable for the last 11 quarters. I think amidst this negative press about Virtual Worlds it’s very important to bring up the successful worlds, like Entropia Universe.