Lessons from the Past and a peek into the future
The Rise & Fall & Rise of Virtual Worlds Is Among Us
After the intial euphoria of tens of millions of users migrating to virtual worlds such as Second Life, things seemed to slow down as visitors became less frequent. Despite U2 launching there and many other virtual publicity events (including PR Smith’s team launch of Northern Ireland’s creative digital hub in Second Life – see slide show) .
A PR Smith experiment in 2008 compared selling a rugby shock charity tshirt in both the real world and Second Life’s Virtual Dublin. The shock rugby tshirt, although designed to shock and trigger debate, the facts contained on the tshirt were mathematically accurate. The PR Smith charity tshirt experiment is not really statistically valid but the results revealed that the limited edition shirt met its annual target of selling 200 tshirts in the real world while the virtual tshirt just over 250 virtual tshirts in Second Life for Linden Dollars. Thereby hinting that virtual worlds were still working.
By mid-2009, the comeback had started. Kzero.co.uk consultancy reported membership of virtual worlds up by 39% in the second quarter of 2009 to an estimated 579 million. Virtual worlds like World of Warcraft, Entropia Universe, Habbo Hotel, Club Penguin and Second Life are now also reporting profits, bucking the recessionary trend.
Why put off boosting your results? Contact me now +44 (0)20 8567 4659 or email me paul@prsmith.org
