Virtual Worlds the New Social Network?
We've all heard of
MySpace,
YouTube,
Facebook, and the myriad of other social networks that have popped up since the infamous
Friendster spawned the social network revolution. MySpace sold for $580 million and everyone has jumped on the social network bandwagon. Since then however, we've had some interesting developments in the space including virtual worlds, which is essentially a social network based on a movable avatar.
Second Life is the most popular of these with a in world economy and real money being transacted. I previously wrote about
how I thought that this would be an interesting addendum to the Web with Linden Labs (who owns Second Life) to open up their architecture and allowing anyone to plug into their API (application programming interface) similar to the World Wide Web but in 3D space.
While I still believe that this is Web 3.0, I can't ignore these new Flash based applications like Habbo Hotel, Webkinz, Club Penguin, Runescape, and a bunch of other in browser applications. While most of these are for younger users (children and younger), there is an appeal to many based on the lack of a download and simplicity of it (a common complaint about Second Life is usability). Recently Sony was in talks to acquire Club Penguin for $500 million+. (
via Techcrunch) This puts Club Penguin with a demographic heavily skewed toward youth right up their with MySpace. The big difference between the two is that users are willing to pay a fee to dress up their avatars in Club Penguin and have access to members only areas.
I think this customization will allow these social networks to finally monetize. MySpace which allows HTML customization is free, but with virtual worlds, the ability to feel like you purchased something as you would in real life appears to be worth payment. So users feel like there is value in having customized clothing for the avatars which is similar to having personalized wallpaper in MySpace. It's an interesting concept and I bring it up because of the potential for true interaction with your customers. There is now a way to track to see if users would like to use your product for their avatar (which would be fraction of the cost of real world usage). Further, as I previously mentioned, in the virtual world you can create anything, so another great opportunity to see how users interact with your brand.
Watch this space since it appears that it will follow the way of the social network where a virtual world will appear for the long tail.
Labels: facebook, myspace, runescape, second life, sneakerplay, social network, the long tail, web 3.0, webkinz, youtube
Social Network Woes?
This past week
MySpace announced the purchase of Photobucket for $250 million in cash. Compared to News Corp's $580 million acquisition of MySpace, this looks relatively expensive. Further since
Photobucket users are primarily MySpace users, News Corp is paying a lot for an incremental amount of eyeballs. Why would News Corp do such a thing?
Well, in a case of the rich getting richer, MySpace is the primary destination for social networkers out there. Sure, there's
LinkedIn for business folk,
Friendster for early adopter social networkers,
Sneakerplay for sneaker lovers,
Facebook for college students and so on and so forth. However, nothing beats the shear strength of MySpace's reach and depth (176 million as of right now). MySpace helps to launch many items of interest
including a high proportion of Michael Eisner's Prom Queen episodes, various movies and television shows, and of course the original intent of MySpace: music and unsigned bands. MySpace video is second only to juggernaut
YouTube and the numbers for MySpace are staggering, with the social networking site consistently in the top 5 sites hit, searched for, and session time.
MySpace is protecting its territory and rightfully so. However, those of you who remember Friendster also remember how quickly that social network flickered out. With niche social networks coming out, MySpace wants to be the ONLY destination for social networkers. Two weeks ago, I was notified that my account on Nike's Runner's social network would no longer be supported. I suspect that as time goes on this will be a common scenario. However, the niche social networks do have targeting which many advertisers find valuable. The social network is stronger than ever however, we are slowly seeing segmentation.
I would compare this now to the age of network television versus cable. We have the big players, the MySpace, Friendster, LinkedIn, and Facebooks (akin to ABC, CBS, NBC, and Fox) and then the niche players like SneakerPlay,
MuscleDog,
Barack Obama Supporters, etc which all serve a very important purpose. And if we take this a step further, I could definitely see MySpace purchasing other social networks (like StockPickr for example) similar to NBC and CNBC, simply to sell highly targeted niche advertising.
Labels: barack obama, eisner, facebook, myspace, news corp, nike, prom queen, sneakerplay, social network, stockpickr, trends, youtube
Marketing Imitating Art
Just as life imitates art so does marketing. AdAge reports on this
growing trend with different products, most popularly sneakers and cars. In fact, something like sneakers is such a popular art that social networks such as
SneakerPlay have popped up around one's sneaker collection. (For the record, I am also a sneaker addict with about a dozen different pairs of sneakers.) Similarly the
Toyota Scion has done a great job at being customized and thus a work of art in itself. To some degree, cell phones have also become a work of art (fashion) as well.
This being said, how can we capitalize on this as marketers? I think the first thing that we have to think of is WHY people do this? WHY do you want those shiny metallic purple sneakers? WHY do you want that lime green striped Scion? People want to be different, they want to be unique, they want to be recognized as individuals in this age of targeted marketing; the Long Tail. The more you allow someone to play with and customize the more control they want. We could go into a long discussion about iPods but I think that if Apple opened up not only the Apple architecture but also allowed for an infinite color palate of colors people would have multiple iPods for different occasions (my work out iPod, my going out iPod, etc).
Keep in mind that Products as Art only goes so far. Technical gadgets are the best candidate for this (laptops, cars), along with anything that you wear (cell phones, iPods, clothes (obviously)), and anything that you use that defines you (pens, tools, etc).
Nike Plus created the wearable iPod with sleeves, sneakers and a whole line of clothing and sneakers that integrated the iPod with the rest of your running outfit. Putting gemstones on your phone was popularized by Paris Hilton but now its tough not to see at least a few people with these "pimped out" phones.
Alienware took a commodity and made your desktop PC into your own. With technology we can create customized products for each individual and I think that soon people will expect this.
I think that the takeaway is that if you can customize your product with colors, designs or patterns (cosmetic changes), you should allow your consumers to do so via your website. Not only will they feel that this pattern is unique to them, they will become your brand advocate by integrating it into themselves as ART.
Labels: alienware, ipod, nike, scion, sneakerplay, the long tail
