Virtuality and the rise of the avatar

Patrick CollingsSagacite Brand Agency

March 2008

This presentation builds on an earlier one dealing with social media, user generated content and virtual worlds. That presentation can be viewed at http://www.slideshare.net/pjcollings/brands-in-the-digital-arena-patrick-collings/

Thanks to Fallon strategic planners Aki Spicer and Avin Narasimhan for bringing the work of philosopher Jean Baudrillard and the quote from William Gibson to my attention.

what are we going to look at

understanding virtuality

the concept of virtual worlds

second lives become real

brands in virtual environments

follow the avatar

key takeaways

virtualityvirtualityis already part of our lives

“The matrix has its roots in primitive arcade games. … Cyberspace. A consensual hallucination experienced daily by billions of legitimate operators, in every nation, by children being taught mathematical concepts. … A graphic representation of data abstracted from banks of every computer in the human system. Unthinkable complexity. Lines of light ranged in the nonspace of the mind, clusters and constellations of data. Like city lights, receding”

The Metaverse is a fictional virtual world where humans, represented by avatars, interact with each other and software agents, in a 3D environment that uses the metaphor of the real world.

Jean Baudrillard (1929 - 2007)

French philosopher who tackled the concept of virtuality in society, specifically "hyperreality" where the real object has been effaced or superseded, by the signs of its existence. Baudrillard argued that we lived in a world where we seek simulated stimuli and nothing more

our children brought virtuality homeour children brought virtuality home

we trade incurrenciesthat we neveractually hold

we immerseourselves inthe game

our work haslong beendigital

our work haslong beendigital

clip from the matrix of morpheus and the red and blue pills

virtual worldsvirtual worldsthere are more than you think

what is a virtual world

promotional clip of sony’s virtual world demonstrating some of the common features and functionalities of

virtual worlds

bit like an unscripted video game

comparable to internet in 1990s

regarded as the first steps towards web 3.0

By 2011, 80% of active internet users will have an avatar

Gartner Consulting

your kids probably alreadydo

barbiegirls

webkinz

clubpenguin

zwinky

neopets

imvu

second life

gaia

habbo

redlightcenter

kaneva

unique US visitors in Sept 07, in millions

virtual worlds and gamingare of the same genre

second lifesecond lifewhere all the brands went

the virtuality of second lifeintroducedthe reality of avatarsto adults

players built their own worlds2

players could sell what they owned4

1 players created their own stories

players owned what they built 3

from september 2006 to march 2008, the number of second life members grew from 800,000 to 13,000,000

they came

during the same period the number of simultaneous second life users grew from 10,000 to 57,000

they played

in the space of 16 months the average value of transactions per day on second life went from $500,000 to $1,200,000

they paid

in february 2008 nearly 55,000 people had a positive linden dollar flow, up from 44,600 in september 2007

they profited

from the beginning of 2006 to the end of 2007, the size of second life grew from about 100m square meters to 900m

they stayed

typical unit is an “island” of 65,000 sqm

by 21 march 2008 there were 13,292 private islands

they evolvedavatars continue to become

more realistic (even if it is in a fantasy way), as does their

environment

32average age

45% females

49average hoursonline per month

North America Western Europe Far EastAustralasia South America Other

the virtuality of brandsthe virtuality of brands not so simple

great virtual land rush

what went wrong

no effective advertising channels2

indifference and hostility from residents4

1 rush to live the hype

replicated real world strategies 3

life goes on

200,000 products

including brands that are not officially there

what should brands do

1 be aware

at the moment that is probably where south africa-focused brands should be

see virtual worlds as evolving stories21 be aware

RPis very big in second life

merge real life and second life storiesmerge real life and second life stories

see virtual worlds as evolving stories21 be aware

don’t try conquer, immerse 3

see virtual worlds as evolving stories2

treat virtual worlds as petri dishes4

1 be aware

don’t try conquer, immerse 3

“...if you believe that role playing behaviours indicate people’s latent deep-seated wants and aspirations then your company could potentially use these worlds as a staging ground for new product designs to get early customer feedback”

Accenture

innovate and produce multiple options

branded entertainmentthe rules that we are developing for

are the ones we should be applying

follow the avatarfollow the avatarfor our futures are intertwined

avatars are crossing over

existing when we are offline

testing our understanding of what constitutes a relationship

avatars do not only exist in virtual worlds

they play in our games for us

we make movies about them

avatars appeared in their own movies, progressing from extras to star

clip from the polar express. see next slide

clip from beowulf showing how in less than three years the animations

had become far more lifelike

Ray Winstone

John Malkovich Anthony Hopkins Angelina Jolie

and they became them

reuters “embeds” journalist adam pasick in second life and renames him adam reuters

adam also covers real life events from second life

and starts to lose his real life identity

all of which leaves me with questions

will we acquire brands for them2

will avatars become brand ambassadors4

1 will wandering avatars represent us

or let them influence our brand choices 3

takeawaystakeaways

virtual worlds are increasing 2

brands need to rethink the rules4

1 virtuality is part of our lives

their future lies with the youth 3

bandwidth constrains 6

their impact is still to be realized8

5 look to branded entertainment

avatars exist beyond virtual worlds 7

“One of the things our grandchildren will find quaintest about us is that we distinguish the digital from the real, the virtual from the real.

In the future, that will become literally impossible. The distinction between

cyberspace and that which isn’t cyberspace is going to be unimaginable”

William Gibson

For ongoing coverage of and commentary on virtuality, virtual worlds, avatars and social media in general please visit the Brand Architect blog at http://www.collings.co.za/

Patrick Collingspatrick@sagacite.co.za+27 (0)83 616 0967