Business & Games: The Blog

Alpha Mediaworks uses game-like virtual environments to model and demonstrate effectiveness of outdoor advertising campaigns. From their website: “Outdoor DRiVE PRO is a virtual environment that enables you to easily input planned outdoor advertising into a module and view the art as if in the driver’s seat. The program gives advertisers the ability to assess the impact of a design through a variety of simulated environments that judge billboard readability with distance milestones.”

Continue reading "Game-like 3D Environment for Modeling Outdoor Advertising Campaigns" »

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Although Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas does not feature any brands or advertising for real world products (they do pay tribute to a few commercial locations), the highly detailed and “intergrated” campaigns for fictional brands are a source of insights in how to market real products in games. One such brand is the soft drink Sprunk, which is most likely an apparent parody (tribute?) of Coca-Cola’s Sprite (see the packshot below).

Continue reading "Case: Fictional and Proxy Brands: Sprunk" »

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Here’s a report from today’s in-game concert by the U2 in SL band. The concept in brief: players stream a soundtrack into the world and create character animations for the performance itself. The major problem was the number of avatars the server could accept without the latency becoming too noticeable. Otherwise, a truly fantastic performance with every detail thoroughly worked out.

UPDATE: I wrote about it before, but for clarity am reiterating here: the U2 in SL is a fan-made performance and should be discussed as such.

Continue reading "Second Life: U2 Concert Report" »

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New World Notes wrote in December about Global Travel International, a real-world travel agency that set up an office in Second Life to help people plan their vacations and trips from within the game. It’s not a real e-commerce establishement since the business doesn’t process any sales in-game, but is more of a tool that lies somewhere between a personal office visit, a phone call and a chat room. The old SL office apparently had TV screens with footage of various destinations, but the company has recently moved and hasn’t set up yet.

Continue reading "Second Life: Virtual Offices of Real Businesses" »

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I have already written about U2 fans who play out their favorite band in the Second Life. The group is giving a free in-game concert today and tomorrow. Second Life time is the same as West Coast’, so it makes 11 am PST today and 5 pm PST on Sunday.

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Clickable Culture:
“Linden Lab have launched SLurl, a web application that gives the general public read/write access to an interactive overhead map of Second Life. Existing users of the virtual world can also use the map to “teleport” directly to an annotated location.”

The map works a lot like the familiar Google Maps. It also opens the way to many new possibilities for enhanced advertising of SL goods on RL web. One thing we are going to see is RL web and search ads for in-game businesses.

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Advertising in Games Forum East, April 12, 2006, NYC, Metropolitan Pavilion.

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Press release, July 11, 2005:

“Globally Habbo Hotel audience has reached 4 million unique browsers per month.

From an advertising perspective, Habbo concept offers one of the most innovative and cost-effective ways to communicate and interact with the teen demographic, build brand loyalty and modify consumer behaviour. Habbo Hotel turns traditional online marketing campaigns into live virtual marketing experiences. The viral marketing effect of these campaigns is multiplied by the fact that these take on a life of their own, outside the Habbo environment, as they flow into myriad fan sites and discussion forums. The companies that have already benefited of this immersive advertising capability of Habbo Hotel are i.e. Coca-Cola, Nike, L´Oreal, Gillette, Procter & Gamble, Playstation to name a few.”

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Some data points from an old article in iQ Magazine: “Advertising’s New Game“, Michael Boland, Nov-Dec, 2003:

“The price of in-game product placements starts at about $50,000 and can exceed $500,000, which is small compared to the millions that companies spend for product placement in major movies.”

“Revenue from in-game advertising for PC and console games (including product placement) will reach $975 million in 2005, according to Forrester Research estimates. Michael Oxman agrees. “It’s an efficient media buy,” he says, adding that the cost per 1,000 impressions is about $1.50 to $5; the comparative cost for television advertising is about $20 to $25.”

Michael Oxman was “managing partner at JAM International Partners, which helps game publishers find ad partners.”

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Enid Burns, “New Video Game Sites Compete for Readers, Ad Dollars”, Clickz.com, Feb.24, 2006.

“Everyone’s talking about in-game advertising as a channel to reach the elusive young male audience, but editorial sites that cover video games can help advertisers achieve the same objective. That’s why a handful of such sites are readying to launch and compete for gamers, and ad dollars.”

“Sites like IGN and GameSpot.com have enough traffic and users, 27 million unique users a month.”

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Mark Wallace, “Touching Aimee’s Panties“, The Escapist, Issue 8

“For those who’ve never set foot in a virtual world it’s hard to imagine why someone would pay cash for a sword or a skirt that’s made of nothing but software. But what even most gamers don’t realize is that the things they’re buying and selling in online worlds aren’t virtual at all.

Continue reading "Scratchpad: Virtual Goods as Real Content" »

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Zachary Rodgers, “Midway Taps Double Fusion to Represent In-Game Ads.” Clickz.com, February 23, 2006

“Midway Games tapped Double Fusion to sell and serve dynamic ads in multiple games over the next several years. The only title definitely included under the deal is Stranglehold, slated for release in fall 2006.

Additionally, the company hired Atari veteran Sarah McIlroy to head its in-game advertising and promotional efforts. Whereas Double Fusion will represent dynamic ad inventory such as posters and 2D video placements in 3D games, McIlroy will court advertisers seeking deeper integration with the gameplay.

The Double Fusion agreement provides for dynamic, rotating ad placements in PC games — the first time Midway has engaged in anything other than static, permanent ad units.

Many see a great opportunity in dynamically serving ads to players of console games, but until connected consoles see wider adoption and equipment manufacturers like Sony and Microsoft decide how to approach the market, PC-based games are bound to provide the most inventory.”

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“Spam Alert: Fight Night 3 PSP Costs Privacy“, Kotaku, Feb, 19, 2006
“Pay to Play Fight Night 3 Online: The Details“, Kotaku, Feb, 19, 2006

EA’s Fight Night Round 3 game for PSP requires players to register with their email addresses and allow ESPN to send marketing materials or pay $2 to access the game’s online mode.

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Continue reading "The Luminous Flesh" »

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Business Week, Feb. 27, 2006, “Rated M For Mad Ave.” A few data points and quotes:

Game: Activision’s American Wasteland of the skateboarder Tony Hawk series. Brands: Staples Center, Jeep Wranglers, Grand Cherokees, and Liberties.

“Jeep learned that all players were shown the 3-D vehicles an average of 23 times in 20 minutes. And 96% of those who recalled seeing the Jeep felt the vehicles fit well in the game. Feedback even more welcome to Jeep: 51% of American Wasteland players, including some not yet driving, said they would recommend Jeep to a friend, and 65% would consider eventually buying one. “Gaming performs much better than TV” in turning brand awareness into an actual preference, says Bonita Stewart, DaimlerChrysler’s (DCX ) director of interactive communications.”

“Nielsen forecasts that ad spending on brand placement in games will balloon from $75 million last year to as much as $1 billion by 2010.”

“This is a new world of interactivity that puts gaming on the same plane with advertisers as cable TV,” says Tim Harris, who heads the gaming unit of media agency Starcom MediaVest Group.”

“And far from rebelling against ads in their players, gamers seem to be telling advertisers they want to see more of the brands that help define who they are.”

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Csven (thanks for the warm welcome in SL) points to the critique by Clickable Culture of a recent post by Shanth Ideas that offers tips to marketers eyeing virtual worlds. Highlights:

1. Few of the existing virtual worlds allow and even fewer encourage marketing activities by the real world brands.
2. Very few of these worlds are open-ended and integrate user-created context within the main game.
3. In-world brands exist in the context of the overarching megabrand of the host virtual world.
4. Blogging and reporting on in-world experiences is not (yet) big enough to make any significant difference.
5. The virtual world is not a contiguous space encompassing a variety of games.
6. Outside companies might find themselves competing with established in-world businesses for the same virtual market.
7. Just because an outside brand is established doesn’t mean it will be more desirable in a user-created online world. It may be more viable for outside brands to co-opt in-world brands rather than try to compete directly.

(#6 and #7 are in the comments section)

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J.C. Penney will construct a 15,000-square-foot physical manifestation of the virtual store at One Times Square on the corner of 42nd Street and Broadway, New York, in which shoppers can purchase the company’s full range of merchandise at interactive kiosks. The store opens on March 3, 2006 and closes on March 26. Shoppers will be able to buy everything in the store at interactive kiosks, which will feature all of the 250,000 items available at the company’s web site.

– Business Week via PSFK

So now a real-life store will look more like a store in Second Life. See more on SL merchandising in the upcoming post.

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A few pointers from Csven to the discussion about SL residents using real-world trademarks:

– Resident complains he (she?) was approached by a Linden employee and asked to remove cars modeled after Nissan and Toyota and sporting respective logos (SL Forums thread).

– Linden Lab says any use of a real-life logo without permission is an IP infringement as is considered abuse under the terms of service (SL Forums post).

– Clickable Culture: Second Life is rampant with intellectual-property infringements–it’s just ignored (blog post).

Continue reading "Second Life: Trademark and IP Infringement" »

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Harvard Business Review is working on an article due June that considers the opportunities of advertising that targets the avatar instead of the player behind the computer. Highlights (verbatim):

– The intensity of the experience makes an avatar “not a puppet but a projection” of some aspect of the creator’s self, says Philip Rosedale, the founder and CEO of Linden Lab, the company that produces Second Life.

– Avatars can influence purchasing decisions or, at the very least, offer insights into their creators’ tastes. Simply observing how inhabitants of a virtual world use a particular type of product or choose, say, their virtual vacation destinations can generate valuable information.

– Companies may also be able to market directly to avatars in their virtual worlds, persuading them to, in effect, purchase real-world goods for their creators, just as those creators buy virtual-world paraphernalia for them.

– Marketers may even discover ways to sell to avatars after they accompany their creators back to the real world.

Paul Hemp, Harvard Business Review Online, “The Avatar as Consumer“.

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Dwellget (located on the Taco sim) is a Second Life store with some of the most realistic layout and merchandising. There is a strong apparent reference to the real-world Target. Just as in real life, it is important to lay out your store in a way that enhances customer experience and maximizes profits. One added dimension to merchandising in SL is the issue of usability, since an SL store combines the visual metaphors of a RL brick store with the mechanics of online shopping. Here are some of the constraints that can inhibit the shopping experience:

Continue reading "Second Life: Merchadising: Dwellget" »

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Hacking and griefing are some of potential problems that advertisers in virtual worlds should plan for. In October 2005, the entire Second Life grid was taken offline, overwhelmed by the load of self-replicating objects that have become known as Griefspawn (see article in The Escapist).

Griefing refers to players intentionally causing discomfort in other players and can be manifested in a variety of ways that range from verbal abuse to an assault by automated scripts that ruin the game experience or even crash the system. The results often are visually entertaining (at least to the griefer, if not the victim), and the scripts are fairly easy to acquire.

Continue reading "Second Life: Problems: Griefing" »

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Continue reading "In Mixed Virtual Company *Update*" »

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The SL iPod store that sells costumes with the green background that will transform any avatar into a walking billboard.

The Pearbook store gives away branded t-shirts.

Coming next: Hooters, Corona, Budweiser.

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Dave Edery interviews Michael McHalle, a senior producer at Konami, on ad intergration into Karaoke Revolution Party for Xbox. Highlights:

• Ad sales are done by Massive, but Konami retains the approval rights for ad content.
• Ads should be age-appropriate for the audience.
• Ads should fit the general art style of the game.
• Konami has a guide with screenshots of the game environment.
• The process of planning where the ads will go and integrating the ad-serving technology into the game takes time that could’ve been spent on other work.
• It would have been nice to store the streaming ads locally on the Xbox.

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“We are long-time U2 fans who also belong to a 3D virtual world called “SECOND LIFE”. In that world we are a group of role-players who go by the name of “U2 in SL”. We have created avatar character likenesses of Bono, The Edge, Larry Mullen Jr, and Adam Clayton. We believe we’re U2’s FIRST virtual tribute band!”
– U2 in Second Life

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“As part of Newsnight’s Geek Week, business correspondent Paul Mason and presenter Jeremy Paxman broadcast TV’s first ever face-to-face studio session from inside the computer game Second Life.” (BBC story). Below are the screenshots of the set. The set is located around Crameri, 251,5.

Continue reading "Second Life: BBC Newsnight" »

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Screenshot of Stagecoach Island viewed from the Active Worlds browser. Source: Cristiano Midnight on Second Life forum post.

Continue reading "Second Life: Wells Fargo’s Stagecoach Island Moves to Active Worlds" »

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“This project explores immaterial production in a virtual world, and if and how this can be transferred into an economy of material production. We have collected a series of objects produced and owned by inhabitants in the online world Second Life and will sell physical reproductions of these objects via our web shop.”

– Objects of Virtual Desire

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Found the store that sells Pearbook laptops mentioned earlier. The laptop does have a functionality allowing to send emails to the real-world addresses (much like the SL’s internal IM system). The Pear brand is an apparent parody (or tribute) to Apple. Note the store design and free t-shirts (note to self: take pic of t-shirt).

Continue reading "Second Life Media, Merchandizing: Pearbook Store" »

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This Coke machine is located in the Passions club, but many others can be found throughout the grid. It’s functional in the sense that when activated, it produces cans of Coke, but despite the presence of life-like selection buttons, no other drinks are available. The cans are given away for free. Drinking Coke doesn’t influence the character in any perceptable way (there are no character stats that play prominent roles in other games).

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Aster Lardner has developed a system that allows skywriting.

“Pixel prims can be modified by special request. Default are scaled full bright cubes set to phantom. These can be modified so the bottom is see-through, making it invisible from the ground; so that it is semi-transparent and round for “puffy cloud” skywriting; so that it is solid and textured for giant tiled floor mosacs; so that it deletes it self after a set time; and also so that it is a custom object you design for things like cropcircles.”

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Known ad networks in Second Life:

• MetaAdverse by Rathe Underthorn (both RL website and SL location; will take snapshop; see write-up in AdLab).
• Wolhaven Advertising Network by Traven Sachs (see ad on SLexchange; will explore functionality).

Many in-game media are also looking to attract advertisers by selling air time and ad space. Here’s an offer posted on SLexchange by for ad time on Seijaku Live TV (contact Escort LeFarge):

Continue reading "Second Life: Advertising Networks and Services" »

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Second Life offers many media bridges between itself and the “real life”. One of them is in-game radio streaming, appropriately expressed through a boombox metaphor (found and photographed in a store). There’s also capability to stream video (mostly QuickTime) files. Some billboards and objects, when clicked, spawn a out-of-game browser window and load a predefined page, although I don’t see