Well the end of the day got pretty interesting when it came to the discussion of Virtual Worlds. Our panel was Cory Ondrejka from Second Life, Mike Wallace, editor of 3pointd, and Corey Bridges (Pirate Corey) from Multiverse. The discussion primarily focused on the future of virtual worlds as a medium for online community. Now, we at Brand Guerilla, haven't been involved in too many of these worlds, but you can see the impact these could have on education, entertainment, and even government.
One of the interesting facts that was brought up when the pnel was asked about their aspirations when it came to virtual worlds, was the issue of identity. Where does the real world identity turn on and off? Does your your online identity create a disconnect from your offline one?
These, we believe, can be a vital issue in the future of the online world.
Now, how does this issue impact branding and marketing? Well, the benefit is creating virtual worlds (games already master this sense of community) to enhance user experience. Think of an online campaign that drives consumers, or prosumers, to a URL that spawns them into a virtual world where they will not only interface with the brand and it's commnity, but give suggestions on how to enhance the user experience with that brand. That brand could be anything.
This is a win win for the consumer and the company. So in that aspect, your offline will become your online, and vise versa. Now that will create a lot of buzz becasue the brand, product or service becomes remixable by the consumer for the consumer. Besides, wasn't that one of the things this country was founded on? Imagine a brand created, or enhanced, by the people for the people. That's the power of the virtual world.
Once again, if you want a "feed the monkey" t-shirt, just look for one of our representatives. They'll be wearing one.
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