Ever thought about integrating offline goods, services and experiences into virtual
worlds.
As you often hear “There is a “whole new world out there” has never rung so true as this absolutely superb report from trendwatching.com What excellent research and so well presented.
Here is just a couple of paragraphs which should entice you to visit their article and the on-line worlds.
These on-line worlds are referred to as “YOUNIVERSE-style sites” and the figures beside them represent the size of the on-line communities as sourced from : Betsy Book, May 2006:
- Habbo Hotel: 50 million members
- Neopets: 70 million+ virtual pet owners
- Coke Studios: 8+ million registered users
- Virtual Magic Kingdom: 1+ million registered users
- Goonzu: (Korea): 3 million members
- Guild Wars: 2 million members
- Project Entropia: 400,000 members
- Ragnarok Online: 17 million members
- Second Life: 290,000 members
- World of Warcraft: 5.5 million members
“As online worlds mature, ‘production’ solely for online use may
become the norm, before potentially moving on to invade the ‘real
world’. Which means YOUNIVERSAL SELLING opportunities more than
anything else. Look at what aforementioned Nike, Habbo, Virtual
Kingdom, and American Apparel have planned or have already rolled out,
and what other brands like Puma, Nissan are doing in this field:
Players of the NBA 2K6 game may soon be able to use the exclusive 24/7 Nike iD
customization feature to personalize shoes they’ve added to the
locker—this actually mirrors a customization feature that Nike offers
customers through the Nike iD website. In addition, Nike and 2K Sports
may cooperatively launch new shoes during the NBA season for exclusive
use (!) in NBA 2K6.
American
Apparel is planning to test-market its first line of jeans within the
Second Life store this summer, two months before they hit physical
stores for the back to school season. And in an effort to drive traffic
to both virtual and physical stores, anyone who buys clothes in the
Second Life store will receive a coupon for 15% discount on merchandise
bought in real world stores (source: BusinessWeek).”