Marketing Avatar

Prepared By:

• Pankaj Sharma

• Siddhanta Das

• Arjun Paul

• Sourav Nath

• Chaitanya Babu

A case study on avatar based marketing in Indian context

Avatar: An Intro

A Brief History of Word AVATAR According to Hindu Mythology, Avatar describes the worldly incarnation of

Lord Vishnu. It was popularized in its Cybersense by Neal Stephenson in his 1992 cult

novel Snow Crash. Visual representation of a user in an online community. Conspicuous online manifestation of people’s desire to try out

alternative identities. Avatars are endowed with mannerisms, skills and wardrobes.

Avatar

Classes of Virtual World

Virtual World

Combat Focused Games

EverQuest Lineage World of Warcraft

Virtual Social

Interaction

Adults Oriented

Second life Entropia Universe Redlight

Teenagers Oriented

There Sims Online

Habbo Hotel

Virtual Social Interaction Sites: There.com

It is a 3D online virtual world created by Will Harvey and Jeffrey Ventrella Venue for socializing with less role-playing than is typically found in

MMORPGs It contains 12 major islands and numerous smaller islands, 500,000

members and many community places including businesses

Virtual Social Interaction Sites: Second Life• A Massively Multiplayer Virtual World (MMVW) with

users designing, conducting business, building relationships, entertaining, learning, and living their second life.

• 3-D virtual world entirely built and owned by its residents and inhabited by people from around the globe.

• Spread over 20,000 acres of land.• San Francisco-based company Linden Labs governs

Secondlife.com

Virtual Social Interaction Sites: Second Life

Place to

shop network buy and sell land

build proverbial castles in

the air and

work to become

successful businessmen

.

Place to satisfy

libidinous fantasies

Reality of Virtual World

‘Value’ of a thing determines price. ‘Real Money’ economy is connected to virtual world economy

through the exchange rates w.r.t. to the site. For eg. it is Linden for Second Life

Economy figures and statistics are available on the respective website.

Avatar: Possibilities and Opportunities

Fast increasing number of Avatars. Thriving business on 3D social networking sites. E-commerce model: From Virtual to Real world. A right place to advertise.

Marketing in Virtual Worlds

Ability to generate sustained consumer engagement with a brand. Second Life residents run businesses that sell virtual products

and services priced in Second Life’s Linden dollars. Wells Fargo Bank operates a virtual world called Stagecoach

Island, designed to educate teens about money matters. Coke Studios is a teen-oriented virtual world run by Coca-

Cola.

Marketing Avatars

Advertising has always targeted a powerful consumer alter ego Marketing depends on soliciting people’s dreams Avatars might also be enlisted to play a marketing role. Live customer attendee and feedback can be outsourced! Letting customer create a new shirt design, and see if other avatars buy

that => if yes, new product development back in real world. Buying real world products from virtual world! (shipped, paid in linden

dollars)

Marketing Avatar

• Second Life clothing designers have been approached by real-world fashion houses, and at least one business makes real-world versions of furniture based on virtual “furni” designed by Second Life residents.

• Avatars ultimately could run virtual-world stores selling real-world products

• As the barriers between virtual worlds and real life blur, so do the barriers between virtual worlds and the rest of cyberspace.

Real Brands in Not-So-Real World Second Life - Nike sold virtual shoes to avatars. There - Levi Strauss promoted a new style of jeans. Sims Online - McDonald’s installed virtual fast-food kiosks Sims Online - Intel incorporated its logo into the screens of virtual

computers Habbo Hotel - Kellogg’s sponsored a competition Second Life - Coke machines/kiosks are common. Second Life – Adidas did a marketing campaign for one of its

products, while Toyota sold virtual cars.  

Fitment of Avatar Based Marketing in Indian Context

Indian Internet Market Indian internet user base has been forecasted to touch 503 million by

2017, from the nearly 278 million users it had in October 2014 With 300 million internet users, India has the second largest internet

user base in the world The mobile penetration of active internet users is 220 Million. There are total 92+ Million active social media users via their mobile,

which is almost 41% of the total mobile internet users.

Indian Internet Market Internet is still an

affluent phenomenon

Fitment of Avatar Based Marketing in Indian Context

Indian Internet Market Biggest target segment on internet – School going

kids and Youth

Fitment of Avatar Based Marketing in Indian Context

Fitment of Avatar Based Marketing in Indian ContextOnline Advertising in India Digital Advertising has also been witnessing a steady growth. The online

advertising market in India to touch Rs 2,938 Crore. Growth of the online ad industry will be consistently more than 40%

Fitment of Avatar Based Marketing in Indian Context

Advantage: Indian Marketers Counter Touch and feel mentality of Indian consumers Leverage creativity of customers – free of cost! Digital self – true aspiration of consumer Right place for test marketing After sale services through virtual sites

Major Challenges for ABM in India• Poor enabling infrastructure

– Low internet penetration – Limited broadband penetration

“Platform required too much computer hardware capability ”• Localization of content

– Language is a major barrier to popularize Virtual 3D sites in India“Each virtual world has a different culture”

Major Challenges for ABM in India

Consumers’ privacy concerns about the detailed tracking of avatar data pose obvious challenges

Operators of virtual worlds make sporadic attempts to limit the unauthorized use of real-world brands

Strong resistance to real-world commercial encroachment exists in many virtual worlds.

Questions???

That’s All FriendsThank You!