It's been a frantic month of travel and client deadlines, so the time since my last post has been unacceptably long by any blog best practice standards.
If there's an upside to that, it's that I've had enough airplane time in the last month to get through a virtual (no pun intended) rash of new articles that are well worth reading about virtual reality, and how retailers are beginning to see glimmers of success in their practical application of these technologies.
Unlike earlier stories about the failures of expensive virtual world marketing campaigns (see my previous post on this topic), the articles listed here are well worth taking seriously and indicate that we are, indeed, starting to figure this out.
The areas of promise fall into three camps:
First, consumer research. Driven primarily by CPG companies (Kimberly Clark, P&G, General Mills), virtual store aisles are providing valuable insights into consumer shopping behavior and response to packaging, product placement and promotions. First, read and article from MediaPost Publications (The Power of the Virtual Shopping Trip), about how virtual environments trump in-store testing on a number of levels, including speed and ability to control environmental factors. Three more articles worth reading are from E-Commerce Times (Around the E-Commerce Corner: More 3-D, Avatars) the Indystar (Market Research, Virtually Speaking) and The Post-Crescent (Virtual Reality Gives Kimberly-Clark a Head's Up). You can also read my previous post on this topic; clearly progress has been made since that writing.
Second, marketing. While there are still many issues around effective measurement and the cost of execution, there's evidence that retailers are moving beyond the virtual shopping mall storefronts and into tactics that promote virtual brand engagement and community. You can read more about this and get some good stats at eMarketer (A Second Look at Virtual Worlds) and Business Week (Second Life Marketing: Still Strong).
Third, business productivity. Read a recent WSJ article (Virtual World Gets Another Life) about how IBM and others are creating virtual corporate environments and meeting spaces where training, presentations and discussions can take place. For some great visual examples of this in action, look at Business Week's CEO Guide To Virtual Worlds.
I for one, was thrilled to see how these technologies are evolving past the video game stage into valuable business application. Now if I could just find an avatar that would write my blog for me when I get too busy....
Comments