Businesses Feeling Out Virtual Worlds
A Gartner report (covered by eMarketer) shows that 90% of corporate attempts to use virtual worlds fail within the first 18 months. Despite this finding, Gartner says that virtual worlds could still play a vital role in the future with 70% of organizations developing a private internal virtual world by 2012.
The projects so often fail either because they are launched for the wrong reasons (for the cool factor or to keep up with competitors) or because marketers don't understand at a fundamental level how virtual worlds ("Web places") are different from the rest of the Web (the pages that compose the "2-D Internet"). "Realistic graphics and physical behavior count for little unless the presence is valued by and engaging to a large audience."
Another eMarketer article reports that brand marketers are scared of wasting more money on virtual worlds after previous failures. Problems include a lack of established marketing
metrics and benchmarks for virtual worlds and a perception that statistics on the number of people who regularly visit virtual world have been inflated.
One of the things marketers need to take into consideration when it comes to virtual worlds is consumer engagement. For example, "Toyota's Scion campaign let
Second Lifers test drive in-world versions of the vehicle, making for a
more engaging experience than items which couldn't actually be used in
the virtual world."
Finally, iMedia Connection offers an extensive article (highly recommended for those of you looking at virtual worlds) on how consumers behave in virtual worlds and the best marketing approaches there. The article, based on real-life research, takes a look at "how the role of identity changes when people step into virtual spaces, and how marketers can learn to deal with the uncertainty inherent in marketing to consumers in virtual spaces."
Posted by Universal Ad
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