Avatar-Based Marketing?

... or: a way to build a more intense, participatory brand experience.

Marketeers are always looking for new ways to reach consumers - and for reaching the gray matter behind the proverbial eyeballs even more effectively. A recent article in the Harvard Business Review points to a radically different approach in marketing: targeting not the "real" consumers but their alter egos, the "avatars" these consumers are controlling in a growing number of games and virtual online worlds, populated already by millions of people all over the world. The idea isn't exactly new to me (see Second Life - Ein zweites Leben online; only available in German). Discovering it on the pages of the HBR was quite a surprise, though, as these "avatars" and the virtual worlds they live in are still very much a geeky subculture. Or are they?

The article gives a rather well done overview about the applications of these virtual platforms for some very real marketing projects and lists some early projects going on by renowned brands, already testing the virtual waters ...

Technorati Tags: business, net business, net life, second life, web 3.d

Everyone, who knows me a bit in my "First Life" (more on that term later) or who has read the last posts here before my blogging hiatus in 2005, will know that I am extremely interested in these "virtual online worlds". Some call them MMOG, Massive Multiplayer Online Games, but that term can be misleading because some of these virtual worlds are no "games" at all.

What is a virtual world?
These platforms can be characterized best by the fact that you enter them in the form of an avatar, a virtual personality whose looks you can define yourself and which you control through your PC, navigating a virtual 3D landscape. (You can see my own avatar to the right.) This might sound like a typical 3D shoot them up game but isn't. One of the important differences is, that you share the same world with thousands (or millions) of other avatars, which are controlled by other people from all over the world. Another difference, which is even more important to me, is the fact that the purpose of these platforms - at least the more interesting ones - is not to shoot at each other. 

What is the purpose? That is even harder to define. The most prominent of these platforms is called Second Life - which is literally true for some users. And what's the purpose of life? It has as many purposes as there are people around. But I will try not to wax philosophically for too long. What people are using these platforms most for is: socialising (chatting et al.), clubbing (yes, you can dance in these worlds) playing all kind of "games in games", building (virtual houses, castles, cars ...) designing (clothes for example) and having virtual sex. The latter might sound a bit crazy or disgusting to some readers. But just think about he phone sex industry and please note, that sex has always been a great driver for the technological progress.

Current size and target audiences
What makes these worlds so interesting for marketing purposes is, that people are extremely engaged here. Many users spend 40 hours or more in these worlds. They spend 12, 20, sometimes 200$ per month "inworld" (as the afficionados call it), and maybe are spending more time relating to their friends all over the world here then in "real life". Of course you might call that sick. But that certainly will not stop this development. And it is a massive development. Currently the biggest MMOG, World of Warcraft, has some 6 million users. But WoW is roleplay and not very adaptive to marketing purposes. The biggest of the open, adaptive platforms, Second Life has only some 250,000 users of which a maximum of 7,000 is online at any given time. Small fish, indeed. But the growth rates are enormous. Second Life, for example grows at a rate of 15% per month. This is "interesting", to say the least. Or as the HBR phrases it:

And as the technology improves over the next decade, virtual worlds may well eclipse film, TV, and non–role-playing computer games as a form of entertainment. That’s because, instead of watching someone else’s story unfold in front of them on a screen, users in these worlds create and live out their own stories. 

Why do marketing in a virtual world?
But it is not only he enormous growth rate, that makes virtual worlds interesting for marketeers. It is the extreme involvement of its users.  The HBR again:

When marketing online, “you want sustained engagement with the brand rather than just a click-through” to a purchase or product information, says Bonita Stewart, responsible for interactive marketing for DaimlerChrysler’s Jeep, Chrysler, and Dodge brands. “Avatars create an opportunity for just this type of engagement.”

And I can only second this. People take their virtual lifes extremely serious and are involved deeply. A dream audience for any marketing activity - if done right. We are not talking banner advertising here. This could become important, too, as the audience grows. Currently it is more a kind of event marketing that makes sense and works best. The BBC, for example, recently broaproduced a segment of its Newsnight program from within Second Life. A fashion brand opened a virtual store in the world. At least two record companies have produced events surrounding the release of new albums. One of the biggest US banks, Wells Fargo, established an own world named Stagecoach Island to teach teenagers handling money and investments. Levi Strauss promoted a new style of jeans by offering virtual versions for sale to avatars of the virtual world There. Coca Cola and DaimlerChrysler both opened up own virtual worlds for special target groups etc. etc.

This is still a market in its infancy. But the heat is definitely up. And advertising is coming into these world, too. Advertising can already be found in many games, expecially sports simulations. Ad space along virtual race tracks can be booked like a 1/1 ad or banner space these days. The first projects for bringing it onto open online worlds are in their way, too.

But all these are more or less technical issues, which will be solved in the next few months. The biggest challenge for marketeers might be, whom to approach: the avatar inside the virtual world or the person behind it? This is no an academic question. Avatars are the expression of peoples dreams about themselves. And - to quote the HBR again:

For starters, avatars are certainly useful subjects for market research. “Marketing depends on soliciting people’s dreams,” says Henry Jenkins, head of MIT’s Comparative Media Studies program. “And here those dreams are on overt display.”

It is a bit more complicated than that, or as Tony Walsh writes:

I don't adopt the identity of my main avatar (the one I designed to look like my real-life appearance) any more than I adopt the identity of my IRC chatroom alias. I act through my main avatar as if I would in real life. However, were I to wear my zombie avatar, I might adopt the identity of the zombie for amusement purposes. Or, I might not.

 

But anyway, avatars and virtual worlds are certainly a vehicle, which might overcome some serious limitations of current eCommerce usage patterns:

avatars are likely to window shop. Michael K. Wilson, CEO of Makena Technologies, which runs There, says that e-commerce sites, while they have reduced retailers’ brick-and-mortar costs, don’t address the inherently social nature of shopping, especially for women. But in the mall of a virtual world, an avatar could try on—and try out in front of virtual friends—real-world clothing brands or styles her creator typically couldn’t afford or wouldn’t dare to wear. If she got rave reviews from her pals and became (along with her creator) comfortable with the idea of wearing a particular outfit, a purchase in the real world might follow.

 

A virtual shop

A new and unique opportunity for an intense, participatory brand experience

This is not theory. At least the social aspect of buying - shopping like my wife likes to call it - can be found in every shop and mall of Second Life. This mechanism works. Most Real World brands only have to realize this.

The target groups might be small currently. But the opportunities are very real, already. Maybe my Second Life friend Forseti said it best in his own weblog:

One important point: companies thinking about marketing to avatars should not just focus on the current numbers, or think about avatars as an audience you reach but have no control over [...]. Rather, think about the potential avatar in every single one of your customers or clients. Virtual worlds offer a new way to create a more intimate relationship with each customer, and a way to build a more intense, participatory brand experience.

I couldn't have said it better.

Comments

[jurly]

in den späten 90ern sind alle avatar-einsätze glorreich gescheitert - genauso wie die firmen, die sich des themas verschreiben hatten (cycosmos, etc.). ich bin gespannt, ob der technische fortschritt alleine reicht, das thema wieder zu beleben.