Socnets are an increasing source of virtual good spending

eMarketer’s article “Virtual Goods Mean Real Dollars” emphasizes the fact that the creation of virtual goods is one of the most promising ways for marketers to enter the virtual world space and that social networking sites are a growing source of virtual spending platforms.

With an increasing number of virtual worlds and social networking sites offering branded virtual goods to their members, the increase of 134% in revenue totals from last year is not a surprise. This statistic is predicted by Piper Jaffray’s “Pay to Play” report. The report continues to explain that most of the branded virtual goods revenue came from virtual worlds last year, and the authors predict “the trend is shifting to more virtual goods revenue coming from social networks.” This trend is something the industry experienced first-hand with Britney Spears launching her branded virtual goods in Facebook’s gift shop just yesterday. Read more here.

Debra Aho Williamson, eMarketer’s senior analyst, said “nothing says engagement like a flock of avatars crowding a virtual store and showing off their haul in their virtual home.” This is true and the fact that virtual good purchases are becoming more of a norm, is proving to marketers and retailers that virtual goods are desired in the real world. Marketers must realize that there is a need to alter their virtual goods constantly so they can stay on top of the consumer demand.

Here’s our forecast for virtual goods.

A clever way to raise money… Britney does it again

Britney Spears has thought about it and realized that virtual gifting may be the answer to raising money in this crisis and that virtual goods are “in.” The pop singer is selling branded virtual goods on . This is a first for the social networking site reporting that it marks a first time a global recording artist is offering “virtual gifts specific to their likeness.”

Computer iconographer, Susan Kare, collaborated with Spears to design the star’s themed gifts. The gifts are all based around “memorable Britney moments” and include items such as her infamous schoolgirl outfit, a Britney birthday cake, and icons of the singer. Each gift costs 20 credits in the , an equivalent of $2. With close to 2 million Facebook friends, Britney Spears may have found the solution to raise an easy million.

Intel Labs and Fashion Research Institute Collaborate

Intel Labs and the Fashion Research Institute (FRI) have entered into a new research collaboration that will help fashion designers make more efficient usage of virtual worlds.

The Fashion Research Institute is providing visual content to aid Intel’s 3D Internet research, while Intel supplies the technology. Shenlei Winker, CEO of FRI, explains in his blog that “this collaboration is currently scheduled to run for a year, during which time FRI will provide increasingly complex, highly detailed, large scale (beautiful) designs which will be showcased in Science Sim with hosting and hardware provided by Intel Corporation.”

FRI is interested in virtual worlds because the fashion industry, which uses soft consumer goods, does not use 3D computer aided design tools used in the durable goods industry. Designing clothing and fashion accessories, real-life 3D objects, are more accurately displayed with 3D sketches rather than 2D sketches. The advantage of using a 3D environment, such as a virtual world, in design concepts will reduce errors when replicating, manufacturing, and producing the design.

Furthermore, fashion designers and manufacturers can greatly reduce environmental waste as well as time by designing and re-creating prototypes in virtual worlds. One example is that designs can be reviewed simultaneously by designers and manufactures on different sides of the globe.

Virtual goods purchased by 12% of Americans

A new study released yesterday by Frank N. Magid Associates and PlaySpan shows that more than one in 10 Americans or roughly 12 percent have bought a virtual item at some point in the last 12 months. The virtual goods and currency market is estimated to reach $1.8 billion this year (US) and demographic research offers insights into who is buying what and where.
Virtual world usage is significant as nearly half of the respondents who report being active MMO participants are also virtual item consumers.
More info can be found in the article by Wagner James Au here.

Puma in Football Superstars: Virtual store and goods

Football Superstars is now live and doing rather well with over 250k registered users already (more about this over on ). Puma is one of the lead brands in-world at the moment (with Reebok) and is deploying a virtual goods strategy. Here’s some imagery from the campaign.

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