Our last post explored the early waves of brands in virtual worlds, most of them somewhere between not very compelling and outright bad.

A more positive example of extending a brand into the immersive space is CSI: NY, the popular TV detective series. In October 2007, CSI: NY linked the TV series and a virtual world. It wove together the story and visual elements of both. At the same time, it included subtle educational and instructional elements, teaching the TV viewers about the virtual world.

In addition to the TV story, CSI: NY created an immersive, interactive game experience in Second Life, as a true extension, using the virtual world for what it's good at. The experience is interactive, shared with others, and presents crime puzzles related to the TV story and characters.

This was a success. The 10-12 million TV viewers translated into multiple hundreds of thousands of sign ups for the virtual experience, initially crashing the servers. Whenever you go to the CSI: NY place in Second Life, you'll find people there playing the puzzles and games - it's very different from the early and soon empty ruins of the retail shoe stores.

Another interesting example is the shared consumption of content in a virtual space, like the Sundance Festival brand. But there are also non-brand examples of regular screenings of user-generated animated movies shot in virtual spaces, called "machinima", with directors present when showing their work. Like YouTube in 3D, many machinima screenings are live music events. They're not mass events (yet), but they're real-time and more intense than the asynchronous social media around user generated content we are all so familiar with now. And almost always linked to a Myspace and YouTube presence.

Another example is the "Virtual Lower East Side" music community, combining an edgy website with a virtual world built on "There.com", another virtual world platform.

Barbie girls, similar to Stardoll, is an example of a more simple 2D virtual world targeting young girls. Extremely successful, ramping up user numbers after just a few months to now 11 million users. The business model includes premium subscriptions, decorating and self expression, and socializing. An example that you don't always need high fidelity 3D graphics.

So, in summary, how can brands successfully extend into the virtual space and engage with their target audiences in this new medium?

- Firstly, by making sure you use the virtual experience for something where other channels don't offer as efficient or effective ways to achieve the same.
- Secondly, by doing a user-centric design of a brand experience that views the experience holistically across channels and media but from a users perspective.
- Thirdly, by keeping in mind that one of the main differences between a virtual experience and a web site is that the virtual experience is a real-time, synchronous, shared experience between people, so make sure there are people there. Or, put differently, you are more like an actor or a participant in a movie or story than a consumer of media.
- Lastly, by integrating across all channels, deploying each for what it's best at but also using them all to cross fertilize and cross promote one another.