Directions for a Newbie Marketing to the Virtual World

[Sta.rtUp.biz]

I need to develop a virtual world marketing campaign for my company.

Where do I start? Websites? Places to buy advertising?

[Attila Beke]

The question is, what is your virtual world about? Is it a game, like World of Warcraft? Is it a socializing environment, like Second Life?

You can start with bigger network sites, like warcry.com, tentonhammer.com, mmorpg.com, fileplanet.com, onlinewelten.com etc. Ask them for cooperation.

Beware: they are only for 3D virtual worlds and you must probably show some screenshots too.

[Ken GB]

I'd agree with Attila; sort out what you're trying to achieve by doing this (I mean beyond just 'advertising'). Are you thinking of doing actual 3D viral products/environments or just putting up billboards in 3D VW? Or just ads on websites?

[Phil Guest]

It depends on what you are trying to achieve and who you wish to reach. I offer a few simple guidelines to consider when planning your campaign

- Be clear about why the brand is in the VW
- Be realistic about what you will achieve, consider the scale of the reach you are likely to get
- Ensure your brand adds value to the community and its presence is relevant in the context of the world
- Engage and involve inhabitants, this helps build the value of your brand to the community
- Incentivise and reward, give them what they want, which can be virtual items as well as physical, in fact virtual is often preferred if the item is exclusive
- Deliver on your promises
- Stay awhile and build a lasting presence, don't just hop in and then disappear, after all VW allow brands to build advocates.

As for worlds, AVW has a very helpful guide which you can download from this site for a list and if you want to reach Teens then drop me a line and I will introduce you to Habbo.

Hope this helps and good luck

Phil

[Wayne Porter]

Goals.
Type of product or service is important too.

What do you want to accomplish? Having executed one almost flawless build (and one that didn't flop but didn't sizzle- client didn't know what they wanted) the one that did well was one that solved virtual world problems instead of trying to "market" directly.

That help at all?

regards,
Wayne
http://www.wayneporter.com

[Wayne Porter]

"Be realistic about what you will achieve, consider the scale of the reach you are likely to get"

A great point. We built proprietary software to measure all kinds of engagement metrics, but the next step is to weld the virtual to the real. I see the virtual as a high immersion environment that acts as a "creative engine" capable of expanding reach once the message hits a medium that is not so "thick".

-wayne
http://www.wayneporter.com