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Virtual Worlds

April 22, 2008

Organic's Mark Kingdon Flies to Linden Lab

News just dropped that Organic Chief Mark Kingdon has flown the coop to join Second Life developer Linden Lab as CEO. Congrats to Mark, a longtime friend of ClickZ. Here's hoping he can help marketers wrap their brains around the virtual world -- something that hasn't exactly panned out so far.

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February 26, 2008

GoFish Hooks WeeWorld

After officially launching its kids oriented ad network last week, GoFish wasted no time in signing avatar-based social network WeeWorld to its list of publishers.

There have already been 21 million "WeeMees" avatars created on WeeWorld, according to the company, which advertisers in the GoFish network will be able market to using graphical display ads, Flash animations, specialized games, backgrounds, environments and sponsorships. What had Tabreez Verjee, president of GoFish, particularly excited when I spoke to him, however, was the forthcoming WeeWorld virtual world environment. Using the GoFish ad network, he hopes to allow marketers access to the world for branded virtual clothing, sponsored playgrounds or other features.

"It's exactly the kind of immersive opportunity that our advertisers are looking for," he said of the as yet unnamed virtual world. "It's not a banner at the top of the page, it's deeply integrated into the experience."

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January 23, 2008

Virtual Wrestling and Cheetah Girls Face Off

It's interesting enough when major brands decide to try out advertising on a virtual world platform to reach a younger audience, but when this combo comes along I had to chuckle. Over at teen-oriented virtual world Habbo, World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE) is running a campaign for its "Royal Rumble" pay per view event later this month. The campaign was created by virtual world agency Millions of Us as a "Habbo Royal Rumble" that lets kids vote on who they think will win the event on January 27. Meanwhile over at Stardoll, the virtual world for teen girls, Cheetah Girls star and Dancing With The Stars alum Sabrina Bryan has launched her own virtual presence. Bryan will offer fashion advice and her “Team Sabrina” virtual T-shirts for avatars to wear.

No word yet if the two virtual world campaigns will go head to head in a battle royale, but I'm betting on Bryan.

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January 9, 2008

Time Warner Invests in Teen Virtual World Gaia Online

Media giant Time Warner is getting in on the virtual worlds game this week, making an undisclosed investment in "teen hangout" site Gaia Online. The investment came as part of a Series B funding round for the company, and followed deal Warner Bros. made with Gaia last months to show free and pay-per-view versions of the studios films in Gaia's virtual cinemas

Without knowing the monetary amount of the investment, it's hard to say how seriously Time Warner is taking the future of virtual worlds and Gaia in particular. Still, the youth oriented worlds are getting more publisher and advertiser attention after a tough 2007 for virtual worlds in general. Last month Coca-Cola migrated its virtual property to PG-13 world There.com and Disney bought Club Penguin in August. The Gaia Online world claims to have approximately three million unique users per month, with members spending an average of more than two hours on the site per day.

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November 13, 2007

Second Life Goes Condo

If you're interested in buying a condo in some far flung location, but worried you might travel all the way there only to realize it's not what you want, Global Condo Center has the sales pitch for you! Instead of buying the property sight unseen, or poking cheesy cardboard mock ups, head on into Second Life and take a look at the virtual version of the property.

This week the company launched a virtual version of its Urban & Resort Condo Center showroom that includes the 3D virtual floor plans of 40 or so projects from around the world for customers' avatars to tour. The company created its own Second Life island for the condos with the help of virtual world project specialists Clear Ink and Code 4 Software.

The idea of setting up a virtual world mock up of a real world location for avatars to peruse does remind me of Starwood Hotels campaign in Second Life, which was sparsely visited due to the fact that avatars don't really need hotel rooms since they don't sleep. Even so, a show room is probably as good in the virtual world as it is in real life, but personally I'd still like to put my hands on something that expensive before I buy it.

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October 25, 2007

Millions of Virtual Artists

Is virtual art still art if it's not really real? It's a question that Millions of Us, a digital agency specializing in virtual worlds, isn't worried about. Instead, the agency has launched its own artist-in-residence program to "discover and celebrate" the work of artists in the virtual world and social networking space.

The first artist recognized by the program is U.K. based Rob Wright, aka "Robbie Dingo," who made a splash in the Second Life virtual world with a short film interpretation of Van Gogh's "Starry Nights." His first project in conjunction with Millions of Us is a film adaptation of electronic music artist Kirsty Hawkshaw's song "Meteors," seen at left.

Of course, it's not as though Millions of Us is giving Wright, or any other artists the company plans to sponsor over the coming year, any funding for the virtual art. Instead, Millions of Us will provide "technical resources" and informal collaboration to the artists from its staff. Still, it's nice to see companies supporting the arts, even if it’s virtual support.

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October 15, 2007

Not Sure What Gift to Get Her? Try Real Gift Cards for Virtual Clothes.

Prepaid gift cards seem to be all the rage these days. Walking out of your local convenience store it's possible to get cards for everything from movie tickets to books to groceries. But here's a new one… cards for virtual clothing for virtual teen girls.

Stardoll, a virtual world destination specifically for "tween" and teenage girls, has signed an agreement with GMG Entertainment to begin producing, distributing and marketing prepaid cards for sale at 1,500 retail stores in the United States. The cards will be available in denominations between $10 and $25, which is then converted into the site’s virtual currency of “Stardollars” and can be used to buy virtual clothing and accessories for users to put on their avatars. Each Stardollar is approximately 10 cents, and the virtual clothing prices usually range between three to seven Stardollars, according to the company.

What I have to wonder is if you get a card that doesn't have any real money on it, and give it to your teenage daughter to let her buy nonexistent clothes at pennies on the dollar, are you really teaching her fiscal responsibility? Or are you just trying to be "cool?"

Posted by MatthewNelson at 10:38 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

October 11, 2007

Omnicom Joins Millions of Us

Holding company Omnicom has made an undisclosed investment in Millions of Us, a digital agency that specializes in virtual world and social networking advertising campaigns.

The investment was made by Diversified Agency Services, which is a unit of Omnicom Group, and while other digital agencies like Agency.com, Organic, Tribal, DDB and Critical Mass, have been bought outright by Omnicom, Millions of Us will still retain its independence.

"We're in control of the company completely, and it's a great deal for us and for Omnicom," Reuben Steiger, founder and CEO of Millions of Us told me. And while he wouldn't disclose how much of an investment the company had made in his agency, he did say "They don't tend to invest tiny amounts."

"They have a reputation among the holding companies from an entrepreneur's perspective. They bet on the entrepreneur, and let you operate," he said.

Steiger said that Omnicom made its investment in his company because virtual worlds and social networks are no longer a niche play, but have become a global category defined by hundreds of millions of users in reach, and because Millions of Us is an agency specializing in that space instead of operating as a virtual world business.

"It represents a pretty significant endorsement on the part of both of the category of virtual worlds and the broader category of social networks and online communities on the part of a large and influential company," he said.

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October 10, 2007

Metrics, IBM and Dancing Avatars at the Virtual Worlds Conference and Expo

Amidst the dancing women in body suits and the corresponding avatars tracking their movements onscreen, the attendees and businesses at the Virtual World Conference and Expo in San Jose this week all seem to agree that virtual worlds are still clearly in their infancy, and have lately been getting a bad rap.

While they acknowledged that there are clearly a lot of marketing efforts that have failed spectacularly in virtual worlds like Second Life, as cited by ClickZ's own Editor-In-Chief Rebecca Lieb recently, they insist virtual worlds shouldn't be counted down and out quite yet.

"Seven out of 10 businesses fail in the real world, and over 15 years it's nine out of 10," said Jared Freedman, president of Code 4 Software. "You're going to see a lot of losses."

Even so, several companies used the show to release tools and software efforts to help bolster marketers' and advertisers' ability to track and manage virtual campaigns online. Code 4 Software quietly started offering its AdSoft SL Powered Networks as an ad network system specifically for Second Life. Although the company will officially launch the system November 15th, Code 4 customers can now purchase ad space in the virtual world which the company monitors and tracks using its own V-Tracker application. V-Tracker will log how long a users' avatar is near an advertisement, said Freedman. "It tells you how many people came, where they went, what they did," he said. "I'll need to know how long you were there to get the impressions. Ad networks need to have verifiable return on investment."

Another company, Clear Ink, is also tackling the metrics problem with Second Life's virtual world by releasing Slogbase as an open source avatar tracking system. Slogbase uses beacons around a virtual marketing site that identifies the Second Life identity and position of avatars, and transmits the information to the Slogbase server via Second Life's standard LSL code, according to Steve Nelson, EVP, chief strategy officer for Clear Ink (and is no relation to yours truly).

"As in all other marketing efforts, measurement is crucial to success. And we developed this because it's what we needed," said Nelson. He said Clear Ink decided to give Slogbase away free because "Part of what you're doing by giving things away open source is that you're helping the overall community."

Second Life itself got a boost in its cachet through a partnership between IBM and Linden Lab, the creator of the virtual world. Together the two companies intend to develop open standard technologies and methodologies for 3D virtual worlds, with the eventual goal of creating interoperable virtual world platforms so users can bounce from one to the other.

And finally, at least one virtual world, There.com, used the show to crow over its recent success stories online. Not only did There.com sign teen publication CosmoGirl magazine to its service and will create a virtual village with fashion shows CosmoGirl readers, but it also released statistics from a recent promotion with music recording giant CMG. Following a 10-week period of virtual events with bands like Korn, Yellowcard, Mims and the Beastie Boys on There.com, the company said they saw 17,500 visits to the CMG virtual area, with 2,600 visits to the company's minisite. It also sold 1,258 pieces of virtual merchandise from the events, according to Michael Wilson, CEO of There.com, who said that CMG surprised him by allowing them to discuss their results.

"They are willing to talk about it, so they must be proud of it," he said.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 9:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

CSI Goes Virtual to Track a Killer

In his real world presentation at the Virtual World Convention today in San Jose, the creator of CBS's popular crime show franchise CSI, Anthony Zuiker, detailed his plans to take his real world show and plunge it into the virtual world of Second Life, all while inviting advertisers along for the ride.

Zuiker, speaking as the opening keynote presenter for the show, explained that characters from his CSI: New York television show will chase a murder suspect online during its October 24 episode. As part of that show, and two :30 spots that will run with it on CBS, viewers are going to be invited to log onto a specially designed section of the virtual world created by digital agency The Electric Sheep Company, which CBS took an investment stake in earlier this year.

More than just a plot line gag, Zuiker explained that (spoiler alert!) the villain from the upcoming episode will manage to escape investigators during the shows cliffhanger season ender, and then return when the show begins again in February. In the meantime, viewers are going to be able to hunt for the killer, CSI style, in the virtual world. In fact he'll provide new killers to start hunting every month.

What interested me however, was the fact that those virtual investigators will be using a "Cisco Teleconferencing Center" to process the clues they find online. And Zuiker invited advertisers to come and talk to him about putting their products within his virtual world, joking that everybody from consumer goods firms to caffeinated drink companies can have a kiosk where investigators could gather.

"Why? Cause investigators need to be caffeinated to solve crime," he joked.

I did ask Zuiker how advertisers can successfully put their brands online in a virtual world, especially considering the spate of bad press such efforts have seen lately, but he said having the backing of CBS air time will bring in viewers and having engagement online will keep them there.

"Some product are not happening in Second Life cause there's no interaction," Zuiker told me. "The key to do this is to feature things on air, and then in a gaming mechanism in the world so the product is in use. Not just background that no one is going to pay attention to."

As to who the killer is in the upcoming episode? I'm not telling.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 2:21 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

September 27, 2007

Google Middle Earth

The road through Middle Earth is long and windy, and now it's been mapped by Google. For its "Lord of the Rings Online" game, developer and publisher Turbine, Inc. licensed the Google Maps API to map out world of "Lord of the Rings." And like all things Google, it's in beta! "We will keep it in beta as long as we're adding features," said Jim Drewry, director of marketing at Turbine. The map and wiki Turbine offers to its users is part of a retention-based marketing strategy.

When Turbine called Google to ask about licensing the map API to create a map for Middle Earth, Google was a little taken aback. When you use the API Google "almost assumes you will be mapping the earth. When it's not the earth, things get interesting," said Drewry. Turbine created the map with hundreds of thousands of map tiles stitched together. It's hosted by Turbine, and trafficked through Akamai.

link

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July 9, 2007

Disney-Run Virtual World Going Ad-Supported

Disney is embracing an ad-supported model with ToonTown, its previously subscription-only virtual world for kids, according to a story in MediaWeek today. A free beta version of the massively multiplayer online game was apparently introduced in May, and Disney plans to roll out a completely new version of the virtual world this fall. The list of virtual worlds and MMOG's targeting younger folks has grown considerably since ToonTown launched, and now includes Neopets, Gaia Online, Club Penguin, Stardoll and Nicktropolis, among others.

Posted by Zachary Rodgers at 5:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 29, 2007

Google and Microsoft Adding Street Level Views to Maps

Both Microsoft and Google are adding new features to their Map applications available online, and frankly both look pretty cool.

And while this is clearly another case of the two high tech giants battling it out for Internet eyeballs, it's interesting to note that the two companies took very different approaches to how they wanted to give users a whole new way to view their map results.

Microsoft is now offering three-dimensional, photo-realistic views of New York City buildings and landscapes via Microsoft Live Search Maps. Using its system, and taking note that Windows Media Player 9 is strictly required, a Live Search Maps user can fly through the New York streets in a gray scale but detailed 3-D map of the city. Google Maps, on the other hand, is now offering its Street View as actual 360 degree photographed images of areas a user might be interested in. The Google Maps Street View images can also be manipulated to swing around your point of view or "move" down the street.

In addition to New York City, Microsoft is planning on providing cityscapes of Austin, Texas; Cape Coral, Fla.; Cincinnati, Ohio; Indianapolis, Ind., including the Indianapolis Motor Speedway; Northampton, England; Ottawa; Savannah, Ga. and Tampa, Fla. Google is starting off its Street View with the San Francisco Bay Area, New York, Las Vegas, Denver and Miami. Google is also launching Mapplets, as a developers tool to enable third party companies to create mini applications that can be displayed on Google Maps. These Mapplets contain a variety of information, from housing listings to crime data, and tools like distance measurement, the company said.

Of course, what tickles me about these two approaches is that it looks like Microsoft spent a lot of man hours and technology on creating a virtual world directly from the real one, while Google just sent somebody out with a camera and told them to take a picture every quarter mile or so. Time will tell which system appeals to users more.

Posted by MatthewNelson at 9:40 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 17, 2007

Microsoft's Second Second Life Presence

Millions of Us, a virtual worlds/social media agency, recently launched Microsoft Virtual Studio in Second Life. They're also touting the success of the adjacent Microsoft property Coders' Cove island.

The community-building effort challenged coders to find hidden "eggs" and solve puzzles in order to win access to a mysterious blimp hovering above the area. Winners were accorded 900 square meters of virtual land (their lease is up in November, though).

Which reminds me -- this coming Monday, May 21, ClickZ is sponsoring the first-ever conference wholly devoted to Advertising in Social Media. We're going to be discussing projects in Second Life, social networks, syndication, and much, much more.

Check out the agenda, and if you're in New York, please make every effort to join us. We have an amazing line-up of speakers and one very cool, topical topic.

Posted by Rebecca Lieb at 3:11 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

May 7, 2007

Hotel Tweaks Design Based on Second Life Feedback

Starwood built its aloft SL hotel in Second Life last September, built by marketing services firm ElectricArtists. Critics said the hotel was empty, which could harm a brand a year out from its real-world opening. Fast forward nine months to May, and the hotel is about to reveal a new design strategy in the virtual world based on input from Second Life residents. Visitors to the virtual hotel commented on design features in public spaces, guest rooms and the hotel's exteriors. Some of the changes, which will make it to the real-world hotels, include radios in the guest room showers, additional seating in the re:mix lobby, and display and support of local artists.

While the changes will be incorporated at aloft SL, they will be for a limited time. The hotel chain has asked residents to submit suggestions in the form of 500 words or less to virtualaloft.com of what to do with the land from aloft island when the campaign is completed. Residents have until Friday, June 1 to make suggestions.

Posted by Enid Burns at 1:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

April 25, 2007

TV, Tech Support, Pizza in the Metaverse

Brand success in virtual worlds like Second Life often depends on the interpretation of the real world product to the virtual world presence. This week, new brands and a handful of new services are making their way into the metaverse.

If you can't be there, you can watch it on TV. Yes, even in Second Life social events and programming will be televised. Rivers Run Red created the media channel for users to watch in their on virtual homes, or in the company of others. One issue this solves is the problem with overcrowded events, which slows down loading speeds. In addition to streaming live events, Rivers Run Red is currently allowing content providers to enroll in the VLTV launch program and pilot scheme. Rivers Run Red is also working on the entry of the ING Renault F1 team into second Life.

If watching TV or chatting with the F1 team gives you the munchies, you'll soon be able to order a real pizza via the virtual world. A step beyond the "/pizza" functionality created for "EverQuest II," Dynamedia Marketing plans to open kiosks throughout Second Life where citizens can order and pay for a pizza in Lindens, and have the real pizza delivered at your physical world door. Dynamedia conceived of the idea, and is working with specialized search engine Pizza.net to make it happen on a national and even international scale. The recently-launched search engine itself may still be a little rough around the edges. Dynamedia has plans to expand pizza kiosks to food courts, and create immersive shopping experiences where consumers can buy real world goods through their virtual personae shopping. There are still virtual/real money issues, but expect to see virtual-to-real opportunities appear before the ramp-up to the holiday shopping season.

Because all of this Second Life activity could stress out even an Intel Core 2 Duo processor to the test, Best Buy's Geek Squad recently made its entry into Second Life. Click here to go there now if you're a 'lifer. Geek Squad Island hosts two virtual volcanoes, and "House of the Future," a technology museum. Geek Squad agents are standing by to assist you. However, certain technical issues including being unable to run Second Life may require you to pick up the phone and call Geek Squad's real world hotline.

Posted by Enid Burns at 4:46 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

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