Merging Virtual & Real Activities: Discussion Guide (Virtual Worlds 2007 Panel)

Slide 1: Merging Virtual Activities with Real World Activities

Slide 2: This document presents the discussion guide for the “Merging Virtual Activities with Real World Activities” panel at Virtual Worlds 2007 [proprietary content presented during the panel has been omitted] April 29th, 2007 New York, NY Distributed by Greg Verdino gregverdino.typepad.com

Slide 3: Joel Greenberg Vice President/Marketing Innovation The Electric Sheep Company Roger Holzberg Vice President/Creative Director Walt Disney Parks & Resorts Online Randal Moss Manager/Futuring and Innovation Center American Cancer Society Paul Hemp Senior Editor Harvard Business Review Greg Verdino Vice President/Director of Emerging Channels Digitas, a Publicis company

Slide 4: Discussion Guide

Slide 5: At this stage we know very little about the real people behind the avatars (particularly true for Second Life) and not much more (maybe even less) about how a person’s in-world activities impact their real world activities, brand preferences and buying behaviors. Is it realistic for organizations to expect real world results from their virtual world efforts?

Slide 6: Where do virtual worlds fit within the broader context of cross-channel communications plans? What are some of the best ways to integrate virtual world experiences with other online and offline channels?

Slide 7: You “meet” a consumer in the metaverse – what are the appropriate and effective ways to bridge that relationship into the real world? Conversely, you have built a relationship with a consumer in the real world – how can you take advantage of your virtual world presence to deepen that relationship?

Slide 8: How can companies integrate v-commerce with e-commerce and/or traditional retail? What are the challenges?

Slide 9: How do you measure the success of your virtual world initiatives? What specific business goals have you set? What are the benchmarks and how is your program performing against those benchmarks?

Slide 10: How can we – as an industry or as individual companies – bridge the gap between the real and the virtual? What data will we need in order to do that?

Slide 11: Many companies are still skittish about 2D social media; using your own experience how did you convince your management to make the investment in virtual worlds? What were the key internal selling points and where did you turn inside your organization for support? What were the key hurdles and which internal gatekeepers were the most formidable challengers?

Slide 12: There has been so much hype about Second Life that it is easy to lose sight of the fact that there are a variety of virtual world platforms for companies to choose from, and that no single metaverse is right for everyone. What factors should a company consider when deciding which platform is right for them?

Slide 13: A number of companies have chosen the private label route – Disney with VMK, vMTV, Warner will be rolling out artist-specific worlds on the Doppelganger platform, Wells Fargo pulled out of SL and how has its own private metaverse offering, etc. When is private the right decision and how does a company weigh the pros and cons?

Slide 14: It’s still early days, but if you had to pick one virtual world implementation that you would consider best-in- class (the sim you wish you had built, the one experience that you would show your co-workers to get them excited about the possibilities), which would you pick and why?

Slide 15: When do you think 3D internet will reach critical mass and what has to happen (in technology, consumer adoption and usage, corporate adoption, etc.) to get us there?

Slide 16: gregverdino.typepad.com