Virtual World Metrics Draft

Measurable Results for Projects in Virtual Worlds? What is measurable, what might be and what should be … Second Life, October 22nd, 2007

What we believe ...

We believe ....

... that the future internet will not be limited to a web of ‘pages’, consisting of text, graphics and some snippets of sound and moving pictures.

... that the next evolutionary step of the world wide web will lead – among other innovations – to the 3D Web , a platform where the information contained in flat pages today is presented as a virtual world , rendered more or less realistically on the screen before our eyes.

Making Sense Of Business in Virtual Worlds

We are consulting and supporting organizations and individuals on their way into the realm of virtual worlds.

Our projects, products and services are always set into a context of integrated brand communication , have a clear focus on Return-on-Investment and are subject to measurable key performance indicators .

No Project without Performance Indicators!

Every project needs clear goals and performance indicators!

Only measurable performance indicators are good performance indicators

Good performance indicators should have a direct correlation to the projects success

No Project without Performance Indicators!

… and the projects success has to have a direct correlation to the organizations success

Sales volume

Financial results

Awareness

Attitude

The only thing really important, is the final result …

Helmut Kohl, Chancellor of Germany 1982 to 1998

And what should be the final result?

Every activity of a company, even “pure brand building”, in every media channel has to

win new customers

retain existing customers

Generate profitable business

in the end

Anything else ... might be somewhat nice ...

Can we measure that (yet)?

Can we measure at least, how “good” we are?

In SL/virtual worlds generally

with certain projects In comparison with

other media channels

other projects

??? ??? ??? ??? ???

What Metrics are We Talking About?

There are metrics and metrics

There are …

Metrics for the world as a whole which is the biggest, best, most involving, easiest, whatever? SL, There, Entropia, Gaia, HiPiHi, Habbo …?

Metrics to compare projects in one world Who has more sales, leads, visits, visitors, minutes spent? etc.

Metrics to compare virtual worlds with other channels Reach, Demographics, CPC, CPT, CPL …

Metrics to evaluate and optimize a single project Where are the people? Where do they enter/leave? For how long are they with us? Who comes back? Et.

Metrics in Second Life

A little bit is “built in” – a little bit!

Wie sieht es mit der Messbarkeit in SL aus?

What can be measured, too

Avatar

Position

Orientation

Sitting/standing

Avatar name

Avatar age

etc.

Derived performance indicators

Time spent, level of activity,

Amount of returning visitors

etc.

Available Tools

Examples

Maya Realities

SL Metrics

Second Labs

Slogbase (Clear Ink)

…

Meist frequentierte Bereiche.

Einstiegspunkte (Landmarks?)

Summarische Angaben/Grafiken

This is the State of the Art like 1996 on the Web!

In the focus of all measurable activities

The Hit

The Visit

The View

It’s For Free these Days

Check out Google Analytics

Are these the numbers, that we need?

Not really!

At least not these numbers alone …

What we really need

In the focus today (of current web metrics)

Transactions

Conversion

Awareness

Attitude

Example: Measuring Conversion

You can’t measure this in SL easily with the tools of today!

State of the Art today: „Where are the Avatars?“

What we need to know: What these Avatars …

do (click on)

buy

give/take

say

This is impossible or hard to measure for current tools

> Additional scripted “sensors” are needed (Standards?)

Example: Measuring Awareness

The coin of awareness on the Web today:

Ad-Impressions

Ad-Clicks and the CTR

(Leads)

The „Problem“

(This is not really the focus of current VW projects)

That is hard to measure with current platforms/tools

There are no (accepted) standards

We do this ... (*cough* *cough*)

Since spring of 2007 we are offering an advertising network in virtual worlds, which has already seen campaigns by Deutsche Post, Funny Frisch, Axel Springer, EnBW, Gothaer Versicherungen or Festo AG.

Where we measure exactly, if the ad has appeared on the users screen, for how long, etc ...

Lookout: what will/has to happen

Tools

Less focus on measuring position (or “traffic”)

More focus on “pathes” and conversion goals

Measuring, what the avatars see and hear

Measuring, what the avatars do

Creating an establishing standards

Establishing „web-analog“ standards for performance metrics (Ad-Impression, visit, unique visitors …)

Establishing “some” accepted platform metric (accounts, sessions, usage/engagement “levels”, time-spent, )

Imprint

The ideas and concepts presented here have been created by and are the property of The Otherland Group GmbH. They are protected by Copyright laws in Europe, the USA and other countries. The reproduction of this document and/or distribution to third parties - as a whole or in part - is strictly prohibited.