I’ve been writing a few post about the Future of Online Advertising that went on last week in New York. The most interesting and eye-opening session to me was Electric Sheeps Joel Greenberg, “Advertising In The Virtual World.”
If you think Social Media has given us marketers a great new space to market a product or brand, wait until the virtual space online really opens its door to us. Joel described the virtual space as, “connected community that has game like immersion (without game-like goals) and social media functionality”
You must of heard of Second Life by now, the largest virtual world online with 7+ million registered users. There are many ways of advertising and branding through this channel, and it really is only the beginning! This video really describes its functionalities and opportunities:
Here are some interesting stats I found that should interest you (not new statistics but should be in the same area today):
*25% of Second Life’s users are from outside the USA, with UK the second-largest country of origin.
*The average age of users is 32, and the median age of users is 36.
*There are $5 million USD in virtual transactions per month conducted between users.
*75% of users are buyers, 25% are sellers.
*”Low hundreds” of members call Second Life their full-time job
*Anshe Chung, Second Life’s most notable land baron, makes $175k per year flipping virtual real estate.
*$6.5 million USD in transactions took place in the last 30 days since March 7, 2006.
*75 million instant messages relayed in Second Life in the last 30 days since March 7, 2006.
*Second Life is growing at a rate of 15% per month.
Other up and coming virtual sites to be aware of are There.com and Kaneva.com. The virtual space, much like Social Media, will start breaking down into all types of niches and you will find your target audience/demographic.
