Once the talk of marketing departments across the UK, the virtual metaverse better known as Second Life is widely regarded as a flash in the pan. However, during 2007, resident numbers grew by a million a month, and by August 2008, the total number of registered accounts in Second Life was 14 million.
Greater growth has occurred in virtual worlds catering for younger audiences. Stardoll, for example, has more than 18 million accounts, Barbie Girls over 10 million, and IMVU more than 20 million.
While the popular MMOGs (massive multiplayer online games) World of Warcraft and RuneScape attract players largely aged between 13 and 19, the average Second Life user is 32 years old. This demographic, ranging from influential early adopters to web-savvy potential brand advocates, has caught the attention of brands now looking to position themselves in these virtual worlds.
Ian Hughes, IBM's metaverse evangelist, created a presence for the brand in Second Life after stumbling into the virtual world in April 2006. He says: "I began with a private island and would invite IBM clients and partners to visit. That has led to a 12-island complex, including a healthcare island where we demonstrate products and host events, a code island where we stage lectures on software engineering, and a science island that contains a giant 50ft, high-resolution molecule model - it works as a meeting point and doubles up as an exhibit that travels to other islands. We even sponsor a virtual ballet on one of the islands."
In November 2006, Nic Mitham set up K Zero, an agency that helps brands to position themselves in virtual worlds. "I spent the first half of 2007 just observing and blogging about what was happening in the different metaverses. By the summer, brands including Nokia, the Spanish government and L'Oreal Paris were on the phone asking me to integrate them into these environments," he says. Mitham has identified more than 30 virtual worlds targeted at eight to 13 year-olds, and five more for under-eights. Some of the children's sites have more registered members than countries have citizens. These include Neopets, with 45 million, Disney's Club Penquin, with 20 million, and the largest virtual world, Habbo (formerly Habbo Hotel),with more than 100 million registered characters worldwide.
Habbo has communities in 32 countries and attracts 9.5 million unique users each month. "It launched in the UK during 2000 with just a one-page ad in a teen magazine, and doubled in size virally over four years," says Habbo UK marketing manager Alistair Williams. "In 2005 we introduced celebrity visits, and by the end of 2007 had reached a million unique UK users."
Youth interface
Habbo's brand appeal is its ability to engage with the difficult-to-reach teen market - the average user is 15 years old. This has resulted in Williams working closely with organisations such as the NSPCC, drug advisory service Frank, and the campaign to offer schoolgirls the cervical cancer jab Cervarix, as well as companies such as Disney, Momentum Films and marker-pen maker Stabilo.
"The brands we work with have to add value to the Habbo environment as we are incredibly sensitive about how our young audience views us," says Williams. "In the case of social groups, they offer advice and guidance on issues such as bullying and drugs. If it's a film brand, in the past we've recreated film environments in rooms within the Habbo hotel, or developed quests based on movie storylines. For months after we finished working with the St Trinians movie, avatars were still walking around in school uniforms. It proves that true brand engagement that adds value to a self-expressive virtual environment really works."
Mitham stresses that before jumping feet-first into a virtual world, brands should carefully select the metaverse that best reflects their core values. "It needs to be viewed as a serious media planning decision," he says. "There is now a much wider choice and a rapidly growing trend for more vertical worlds that focus on particular genres such as fashion, or interest groups such as interior design. The imminent launch of Digital Doll House and recently launched fashion sites such as Go Supermodel and Frenzoo.com are examples."
The audience demographic may not always be as clear cut as it first seems, either. K Zero consults for the Stardoll fashion and beauty metaverse, which has a targeted age range of nine to 17 year-olds and an average user age of 14. But 11 per cent of its 17 million-strong global membership are aged 21 and over, representing 1.7 million people. This older demographic is largely made up by the parents of the younger users, and surprisingly they show high levels of engagement. From a study in February 2008, K Zero discovered that 80 per cent of the member sample logged in to Stardoll on a daily basis, and 54 per cent logged in with their mothers. Over 60 per cent of these mothers have their own Stardoll accounts, and 64 per cent log in without their child being present.
Tread carefully
Once a user engages with a virtual world, it is generally for the long-term, so brands should be careful not to disrupt their experience. Just because you can build a 200-storey building in Second Life, for example, residents will not necessarily appreciate you for it. Most brands will typically stage three-month campaigns and then leave. Some, like IBM, however, have settled into Second Life permanently.
To build a permanent existence, similar methodologies to creating a website should be followed in terms of ease of information, assimilation and navigation. Most companies set their teleport (the place visitors are first taken to when they arrive at a venue) at the most central place, and will also have a billboard showing a map. The way retailers sign-post their offerings to manage customer flow in the real world should be exactly the same for the virtual world.
"We never wanted it to be a badging exercise, we wanted a permanent existence that would develop as the metaverse develops," says Hughes. "But in the same way you wouldn't emigrate to a new country without visiting it and getting to know its cultures, nor should you just buy land and attempt to colonise Second Life. Brands need to trust the serendipity of Second Life and consider their contribution carefully. Reebok, for example, came into Second Life 18 months ago with limited-edition customised trainers. The brand wasn't there to make money, as you could buy the virtual shoe for 50p, but it raised the profile of avatar shoeware in general. This benefited virtual shoe retailers, and with some avatars walking around in Reeboks, the brand gained a unique presence that would last for the lifetime of the fashion trend."
Giving away something is an important strategy for brands in Second Life. This virtual sampling can enhance a product beyond what is possible in the physical world (sunglasses that let their wearer see further, for example) - and word of mouth in a virtual space can easily spread to the real world.
Serious money
The costs involved in engaging with a virtual world are undoubtedly less than if you were to stage the same campaign in the physical world. But with more bespoke options available, it is becoming a serious media-buying discipline. According to Mitham, there are three options for brands. "You can introduce the brand to an existing metaverse; take an existing platform and re-skin it for your own purposes; or start from scratch and create your own virtual world. The first option costs between £20,000 and £50,000; the second around £200,000; and the third more than £1m," he says.
With Habbo, once brands have been vetted to ensure their suitability, they can choose from a catalogue and have a basic presence built for a starting price of around £15,000. Bespoke furniture, enhanced tools and the length of the campaign all push up the price, but as Williams states: "Habbo is much quicker for advertisers than building their own presence. It is moderated 24 hours a day, chat logs are captured and we work with the police and government agencies to give users and advertisers peace of mind."
Hughes, Mitham and Williams all agree that virtual worlds have come of age. Hughes, a Second Life advocate, even admits that most new worlds coming online are better designed than Second Life - but 14 million registered users can't be wrong, and its appeal keeps on growing. Virtual worlds in the pipeline include Sony Home, which will be available on the PlayStation 3 later this year, and Lego Universe, which is expected late next year. Both are believed to include third-party brand advertising options.
THE PANEL
- Nic Mitham is founder and managing director of agency K Zero and goes by the avatar name Nic Whizenhunt.
- Ian Hughes is a metaverse evangelist for IBM and goes by the avatar name epredator.
- Alistair Williams is UK marketing manager for Habbo, the virtual community for teens. He goes by the avatar name UKChaserAl.
SMART THINK!NG VIRTUAL WORLDS
1. Design. Creative concepts should be developed outside of the virtual world initially. If a concept is strong enough, it can be explained without the need to develop it in-world.
2. Integrate. Consider taking campaigns from other channels and integrating them into virtual world platforms.
3. Give. Make products that do something interesting and more than they're able to in the real world to engage with residents. Let them take them free or for a very low cost, customise them, show them off and take them around the virtual world.
4. Existence strategy. To exist in a virtual world, host regular events to cultivate a valuable community.
5. Promote your metaverse existence in the real world. A key feature is to teleport people from a website directly into a specific venue in-world.
CASEBOOK - How L'Oreal set up shop in Second Life
When L'Oreal Paris decided to venture into a metaverse marketplace to promote its beauty products, it turned to agency K Zero. With an average user age of 32 and a million potential brand advocates registering accounts each month, Second Life was the ideal landscape on which to stage a virtual campaign.
Around 95 per cent of existing brands build private offshore islands in Second Life and provide content in the hope that users will visit. But many are left deserted with services that don't translate into the virtual world or strategies that have never developed beyond the wishful thinking of 'build it and they will come'.
K Zero therefore decided to take a different approach with L'Oreal and devised a three-pronged campaign. "We matched the demand for personalised avatars with L'Oreal's different make-up looks and came up with layer skins that could be given away for free and worn by users," explains K Zero managing director Nic Mitham.
He adds: "In the physical world, L'Oreal doesn't own retail outlets, so we identified seven virtual stores run by real people making real money and developed partnerships that allowed us to seed in the skins. Then we developed a life-sized handbag containing L'Oreal products that residents could engage with, and placed it in a popular meeting zone."
The campaign ran for three months from September 2007. The combination of product placement and in-store and brand engagement resulted in 34,000 make-up skins worn by avatars. The strategy to work with stores including Love Aly, Calla, Nuclear Boutique, Lassitude & Ennui, Minx and Nick Ree meant that the products were well positioned and integrated with other metabrands. Meanwhile, the decision not to announce the campaign in the real world proved the strength of virtual world marketing.
"Generally, real world principles do still need to be applied in the metaverse," concludes Mitham. "Residents could take the skins, as opposed to the brand trying to force them onto users, and we were able to track the impact it was having in real time. This was an exceptionally successful campaign."