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9 Jul

Britain’s Next Top (Virtual) Model

Kids/Tween Worlds, KZero Clients, Teenage+ Worlds

Stardoll has signed a deal with Britain’s Next Top Model (shown on the Living channel) to promote the show and give away virtual clothes. Exclusive previews of the series are being shown in the Stardoll Cinema.

Taken from New Media Age:

Living has expanded the deal for the whole series following a teaser video that saw more than 100,000 plays. It earlier worked with Stardoll to promote America’s Next Top Model, which attracted 740,000 video views.

Stardoll has a wide user age spread so this partnership makes sense as it targets multiple ages. Two thirds of Stardoll members Mothers play the site without the daughters.

It’s also another good example of how virtual worlds are moving their brands into new channels.

Stardoll leads the pack in terms of registered users in the fashion space, but they have competition, as shown in the Radar segment below.

KZero services:

Strategy

Business Planning

Marketing/Media

Product Development

8 Jul

The Brand New Worlds

Kids/Tween Worlds, KZero Clients, Teenage+ Worlds, Virtual Research, Virtual World strategy

Here’s a presentation giving an overview of how real world brands are creating their own virtual worlds and MMOs.

For a pretty-much complete list of all brands inside virtual worlds, including third-party activity, click here.

Brands in Worlds

KZero services:

Strategy

Business Planning

Marketing/Media

Product Development

7 Jul

‘Make the world play more’ say Ikea

Kids/Tween Worlds

Playreport is a global research project on children, families and play, initiated by IKEA. They conducted 11,000 interviews in 25 countries and spoke to 8,000 parents and 3,000 children aged 7-12. The report is being promoted over on and here’s the video.

5 Jul

Augmented Reality Brand Tracking

Augmented Reality, Virtual Research

Here’s an update to our presentation showing the use of augmented reality by brands and companies.

Augmented Reality Brand Tracking

KZero services:

Strategy

Business Planning

Marketing/Media

Product Development

4 Jul

China Bans Online Virtual Money Dealing for Minors

Virtual Goods

June 22 (Bloomberg)

China, the world’s biggest Internet market, said it will prohibit companies that operate platforms for online virtual-currency transactions from providing services to minors in an effort to prevent abuses.

The ban will be implemented Aug. 1, according to a Ministry of Culture statement on its website today. Online game operators that issue virtual currencies for use in their titles won’t be affected by the ban.

The Chinese government has tightened control of the Internet as the number of web users rose 29 percent last year to more than 384 million, the most of any nation. China, which prohibits pornography, gambling and content critical of the government, has blocked access to foreign websites such as that of Facebook Inc. and closed local sites. Google Inc. cited increased censorship as one reason for closing its China search site in March.

More on Business Week.

4 Jul

Young Children’s Play in Online Virtual Worlds

Education, Kids/Tween Worlds, Virtual Research

This is a great article by Jackie Marsh from the University of Sheffield. The piece, ‘Young Children’s Play in Online Virtual Worlds’ is taken from the Journal of Early Childhood Research. If you’re in the kids virtual world or MMO space I’d recommend taking the time to read this. I’ve ‘bolded’ the parts that I think are particularly interesting.

Abstract

Virtual worlds for children are becoming increasingly popular, and yet there are few accounts of children’s use of these worlds. Young children are spending increasing amounts of time online as technology continues to create significant changes in social and cultural practices in the 21st century.

Some of children’s online interactions can be categorized as playful in nature; however, play and technology are frequently positioned as oppositional. In this article, I explore the tensions surrounding the relationship between play and technology and relate it to similar discourses concerning the concepts of ‘real’ and ‘virtual’. I then move on to consider the growing popularity of virtual worlds with young children and examine the way in which the worlds have been marketed to children and parents/carers on the basis of their propensity to offer online play in a safe environment. The article provides an overview of two virtual worlds currently targeted at young children and draws on a survey of primary children’s use of virtual worlds in order to identify the nature of play in these environments.

One hundred and seventy-five children aged 5–11 completed an online survey and 15 took part in group interviews in which their use of virtual worlds was explored. This article focuses on the data relating to 17 children aged from five to seven years who used virtual worlds. Findings indicate that virtual worlds offered these young children a wide range of opportunities for play and that the types of play in which they engaged relate closely to ‘offline’ play. The implications for early years educators are considered. Continue reading →

3 Jul

Music videos in virtual worlds

Music, Videos / Machinima

You know you have a really engaging virtual world when users start creating content within it – if it’s allowed that is. Obviously for K&T VW’s giving users the ability to create content can lead to moderation (etc) issues, but for older teen worlds it’s a great idea. It’s also a as IMVU’s recent performance clearly demonstrates.

On that note, here’s a selection of machinima showing users re-creating music videos inside virtual worlds. Hat’s off to these guys as it’s a time-consuming exercise but perhaps these types of environments are breeding grounds for the movie directors of tomorrow.

Furthermore, we’re now seeing an emerging trend of real world artists using virtual environments as creative platforms.

Also expect to see a greater degree of involvement between artists and fans in the future. Sure, following someone on Facebook on Twitter provides a tertiary level of engagement but understanding and then leveraging these relations from virtual worlds brings both stakeholders much closer together.

Our case study, The Five Rules of Virtual Brand Management provides a strategic framework for real world brands and entities to maximise these opportunities.

Continue reading →

2 Jul

Another AR app: Olympus

Augmented Reality, Videos / Machinima

KZero services:

Strategy

Business Planning

Marketing/Media

Product Development

2 Jul

Q2 Radar Slideshare Presentation

Kids/Tween Worlds, Teenage+ Worlds, Virtual Research, Virtual Worlds Radar Chart
Kzero Radar Q2 2010

The full Radar Chart report and presentation can be ordered (for free) here.

KZero services:

Strategy

Business Planning

Marketing/Media

Product Development

1 Jul

Q2 Radar: Brands and Learning dominate new entrants into virtual worlds sector

Education, Kids/Tween Worlds, KZero Clients, Strategic Marketing, Teenage+ Worlds, Virtual Research, Virtual World strategy, Virtual Worlds Radar Chart

We’ve updated our Radar Charts for Q2 2010. These charts show both existing virtual worlds and platforms in development (closed beta). This time we’ve included MMOs into the Radar charts and we’ll be building out this list over time.

As a whole, the virtual worlds and MMO marketplace is changing quite dramatically. Whereas 12 months ago a concept we called ‘Chasing the Penguin’ was the main thrust of activity. This related to completely new companies setting up shop funded on the basis and excitement caused by the Disney acquisition of Club Penguin. This led to a massive influx (60+ new worlds) entering the marketplace going after the lucrative kids and tween sectors.

Of course, there’s only so much time kids have available and only so many times these kids can convince their parents to part with their hard-earned cash – we’re seeing casualties now.

As our last post explained, the virtual world and MMO marketplace is now shifting to being brand dominated as companies with existing customers, channels and operations see the value in sliding the brands and offerings into immersive environments.

The uplift in new platforms being developed as a result of these brands can be seen in the Radar segment shown below.

The other key segment seeing increased activity from new entrants is Education and Learning with a wide range of companies across many different educational areas developing their offerings. Continue reading →

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