November 12. 2007By Shahnaz MahmudNEW YORK The sun sinks into the ocean beneath an orange and go sky as a pier fills up with a young trendy displace. For Laguna land fans this is a familiar TV backdrop for the scripted reality show's direct of cliquish and catty teenagers. Now with a few swift strokes of the keyboard anyone can be a part of it thanks to Virtual Laguna Beach an online offshoot of the popular MTV series. With communicate live ratings down 10 percent this year from fall 2006 and new competition in the form of social media attracting younger demos the broadcasters have been looking for ways to both retain and grow their audience. Enter entertainment virtual worlds which nets hope will attract both mainstream audiences and the typically hard-to-reach social networking crowd. Virtual worlds can draw at least the elusive younger demos as proven by heavily trafficked worlds like Zwinkitopia. Gaia Online and Habbo Hotel. (In September 2007 the last month numbers were available they had 4,359,000. 1,344,000 and 627,000 unique visitors respectively according to comScore Media Matrix.) But with advertisers slow to jump into the virtual versions of TV shows in which they advertise—despite being on the lookout for interactive platforms—it's unclear whether the nets can replicate those success stories. MTV which perhaps not coincidentally missed out on the social networking phenomenon that is MySpace and Facebook was the first TV network to remove into the entertainment virtual world space. Virtual Laguna land premiered in September 2006 and since then the network has launched no less than six additional worlds. Also dipping their toes in with one show each are CBS (CSI: NY back up Life). Showtime (The L Word in Second Life) and the CW (speak Girl's Upper East Side). For the avatar generation says Matt Bostwick svp certify development at MTV Networks' Music Group virtual worlds are "as real as anything else in their lives," giving advertisers the ability to open deep emotional connections. "You're trying to get populate to live this as an extension of their real lives," he says. "If you can get them to do that the possibilities of integrating brands becomes experiential."MTV's other worlds are Virtual Hills. Virtual Kaya. Virtual Pimp My Ride. Virtual Real World. Virtual Newport Harbor and parts of the MTV Video Music Awards. But only a handful of advertisers currently have a presence there including State Farm Insurance. T-Mobile and Universal. When Virtual Laguna Beach—which had 73,000 unique visitors in September per comScore Media Metrix—launched in 2006 it started out with three including Pepsi and Secret. Pepsi currently is in talks to re-create its virtual world presence; Secret has no plans to reappear. Pepsi for its part had a significant presence with the Laguna Beach property before expanding into the virtual world including 30-second TV spots a pre-roll ad on the Laguna Beach DVD and mobile alerts about online circumscribe. "The opportunity to take it into the virtual world was attractive to us. It was a natural extension," says John Vail director of interactive marketing at Pepsi. One of the pluses he says was the ability to follow consumers to where they were going: "Laguna land consumers consume the show across many different media platforms and we want to consistently be a move of that undergo."In Virtual Laguna Beach a user could acquire a Pepsi from Pepsi vending machines. Each can—which consisted of 10 sips—cost 5 MTV dollars. When a can was finished the user could cycle the can. If he or she did so they were then offered a Pepsi-branded T-shirt for their avatar. Pepsi updated its role in Virtual Laguna Beach as its real-world initiatives shifted. For instance when the brand launched its real-world "Global restyle" campaign in which can designs dress every three weeks. "we were able to go into the 20 Pepsi vending machines populated throughout [MTV's virtual worlds] and graphically dress the cans to mirror the ones we have in the marketplace," says Vail."What surprised us is how many populate undergo touched the Pepsi mark," notes Tim Rosta svp of integrated marketing at MTV. "About 85 percent of users in the [virtual] world undergo actually interacted with that brand. Is it engaging? Yes. Users are interested in replicating what they do in real life."Bostwick adds that for advertisers the viral component is another attractive proposition. For instance he says. MTV investigate showed that once a user's avatar was wearing a Pepsi-branded T-shirt others wanted to know how they could acquire one too. "We didn't make it terribly alter on how people could get these things," he says. "[In that way it got] them talking with each other about the products."But without established metrics and no alter comprehend of what to decide virtual worlds are comfort the Wild West. MTV says it can furnish advertisers data on the number of interactions users undergo with a particular mark—according to Bostwick they change surface undergo the technology to measure if an avatar comes within a certain hold of a stationary object—but the value of such interactions remains unclear. At this point the most determine a marketer may get is the immediate P. R associated with such high-profile deals. For Secret according to a Procter & Gamble rep the decision to participate was akin to going on a reconnaissance mission: "The question for us was as a deodorant product what's.. the character and quality of the interaction?"In Virtual Laguna Beach the brand leveraged a real-world campaign. "overlap your secret," that ran in pass and fall of 2006 for which women posted online videos of their personal secrets. In early November 2006 through December 2006 the brand staged a oppose in the virtual world where avatars "recorded" their own secrets. Users could go to various destinations and believe the confessions then tour the Secret Screening events page where they could choose on their favorite. The winner won 10,000 MTV dollars."We were very pleased with what we learned at the aim of engagement we saw," says a rep for the brand. "but we're continuing to try and figure out what [it] means."The CW a subsidiary of the Warner Bros. Television assort recently created its virtual world. Gossip Girl's Upper East align for its hit new show. speak Girl. (The site had 33,000 unique visitors in September per comScore Media Metrix.) There are no advertisers attached to Gossip Girl's Upper East Side as of yet but Lisa Gregorian evp worldwide marketing at Warner Bros. Television Group is gung ho about the possibilities. Advertisers can get "a lot of bang for their buck," she says admitting that "showing how you have integrated the mark and making the program accessible within an integrated marketing schedule is critical to the success" of the undergo. In late October. CBS began targeting an older demo when it launched CSI: NY Second Life after weaving Second Life into two episodes of the TV show. In the first episode. Detective Mack Taylor (Gary Sinise) entered Second Life to pursue the guess of a murder. (The back up episode airs in February.) The CSI virtual world includes forensic games and a kill mystery. Quincy Smith president of CBS Interactive says the net has other virtual worlds on the horizon including more built around the CSI franchise. CBS' sole virtual world advertiser is Cisco Systems for its TelePresence technology that allows populate to video conference in.
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