Happy October Holiday
I just read an interesting article about advertising in virtual worlds on the Digital Marketing Inner Circle.
The article called “Innovative movie promotion on virtual worlds” introduces a general overview and a small case study for movies launch on 3-D singaporean environment Twinity – James Bond, Batman, The Spirit and Angels and Demons.
Virtual worlds are truly impressive both from a user and a marketer angle: the easthetics, the promise of an alternative reality, the integration of all kinds of media and interactive games…
But these platforms are really difficult to master. Just to customize an avatar, design and monitor a campaign requires a lot of time and people.You have to outsource to specialised companies and experts anyway.
“Virtual worlds are a relatively new medium” article says, true, but I think it’s rather a relatively newly used medium.
3 years ago in my previous company in Europe we launched actions on Second Life for one of our magazine. SL was quite hot at that time - politics were having their campaigns there and there even was cyberterrorism. We did our little experiment as we were trying a new toy and that was it.
Who should use virtual worlds for advertising ? In my opinion 2 kinds of people : firstly entertainment industry like media, music, movies and video games. And secondly the ones who want to create buzz and bring attention to their action – politics to show they’re cool and activists to generate PR.
I will only focus on how to use effectively this medium for the entertainment industry.
To begin, I don’t think regular release on virtual worlds is very relevant, even with features like buy items and engage fans in discussion. Interactive games is the very least you can do.
To quote the article introduction “The challenge of advertising in virtual worlds involves taking advantage of their unique features” This is rule # 1 : don’t just replicate what is done on other mediums aka make a magazine online or a traditionnal online advertising campaign on a virtual world with a little 3-D twist.
Take it to the next step.
To use effectively virtual worlds and its advantages here is what can be done in my opinion for those whose target is active on the medium.
x Create a teasing. Don’t just arrive on the world and paste your poster. This is what I call badvertising. Instead, start to give some hints. Create a relevant mystery, like angels and demons, but without naming yourself.
x Use influencers already active in the world or make sure you create yours sufficiently in advance. Two reasons : the complexity of these worlds make them difficult to master as I mentioned above and users on virtual worlds don’t easily trust newcomers (just like in forums)
x Spread your teasing, your buzz and engage more and more users without mentioning your brand/product at first. It’s better risk controlled if it doesn’t quite work out. Once the audience is fully engaged, then you subtly reveal the brand/product behind it.
x Reward immediately the people who engaged with you during the campaign. Give them something really valuable, not just an exclusive itw of Daniel Craig (he’s hot but who cares?). Give something in the real life (movie tickets, pass, free subscription, invitation to offline event..) to really bound with your audience
x Use viral and PR to leverage your action.
x Clean after you. Don’t just abandon all elements of the campaign behind if you must leave.
I’m really looking forward to see how this can be used in China where young people level of engagement with virtual is extremely high.
To be followed…
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