China Conquering the Virtual World?

Following a tip-off from Jessica Greenwood at the recent Verge event, I went to do some online sleuthing to find out more about China's ambitious plans to create the world's largest virtual world.

In case you do not know, the number of internet users in China has already eclipsed that of the United States, and blogging has taken the huge country by storm. More and more Chinese are relying on online sources of information, opinions and news. E-commerce has also taken off with predictions that more than a million internet entrepreneurs may be born.

Another trend which is causing the huge growth in China's online forays is its one-child policy. Without siblings at home to interact with, more are spending time online and participating actively in social networks. People do need people after all.

This idea to create the largest virtual world ever is created through a partnership between Entropia Universe, online company Cyber Recreation Development Corp (CRD) and the Beijing Municipal Government. Some of the numbers generated by this colossal collaboration are staggering:

• Up to 7 million concurrent users logged in, with a target of 150 million users around theworld
• Over $1 billion in revenue generated annually
• Creation of 10,000 qualified jobs (ie close to the scale generated by our Integrated Resorts in Singapore)
• About 100 square km just for server farms alone!
  

Called the Beijing Cyber Recreation District (CRD), this ambitious undertaking looks at creating a three-dimensional universe on the Internet entertainment, work, commerce, community building, culture, and much more. It will transform China from a "manufacturing superpower into an "e-commerce juggernaut".

One of the major premises behind this idea is that China is already the world's factory. By eliminating all middlemen - brokers, shippers, suppliers, distributors, dealers, retailers, licensees - costs could be kept extremely low and attractive for all users in the virtual space. Need a new pair of pants? Just click on, explore, purchase and voila! its at your doorstep.

Will the CRD take over eBay as the numero uno e-commerce site in the world? Only time will tell apparently.

First, they need to fix the issue of tweaking their factories to manufacture for niche markets in an efficient manner. Next is the challenge of delivering goods and services around the world in a quick enough fashion to make the business proposition viable. Most importantly though is the issue of service standards and warranties, which is almost a given in an internet-enabled e-commerce world.

I think what takes the cake is that the look, feel and user experience for their all-in-one portal must cater to a global audience. If you look at their existing website now, it will probably be quite a long shot if you ask me.

The Future of Marketing in the Age of Social Media

I was invited yesterday to be a panellist in Verge (OgilvyOne's Digital Summit), along with Vanessa Tan, Nicholas Aaron Khoo and Professor Michael Netzley. It was quite refreshing to be back on the conference circuit after a hiatus over the last few months due to work reasons.

The speaker who impressed me the most was Jessica Greenwood, Deputy Editor of Contagious magazine in UK, who is all of 28 years of age I believe. She gave a great presentation on Digital Marketing Innovation, and generated a lot of case studies and ideas that I believe anybody can use. Here are some points which I managed to jot down.

Advertising is OK - If It Comes with a Useful Freebie

blyk is a service for 16 to 24 year olds in the UK, which gives away free mobile and SMS services. In return, it sends some four to six advertising messages to its subscribers, who number more than 100,000 in the UK. Apparently, interviews with the kids on this service show that they aren't even aware that the advertisements are marketing messages since they also offer something of value that is targeted specifically at them.

Another example is bebo, which is kind of like a one-stop entertainment/networking social media hub with subtle advertising and product placement.

In Your Face is Dead - Long Live Guerrilla Marketing!

As often cited, interruption marketing is no longer "IT", especially when consumers have a gazillion channels to choose from. In place of this is ambient or guerrilla branding, where product placement helps to engender positive awareness and perception. An example is the Toyota Yaris in the US, which offered a free radio station and used its cars free to ferry delegates to and from the SXSW (South by South West) event at Austin, Texas, earning a groundswell of goodwill.

There is no Business that isn't Show Business (aka Branded Entertainment)

This borrows from an idea that is also popularised by Bernd Schmitt which states that marketing is really all about entertaining your audiences. Also termed "Create Time" by Greenwood (because you don't feel like you are spending valuable time while being entertained), this concept has many examples out there. Some of the key ones cited include the famous Cadbury Gorilla (below):



As well as Ford Company's Where are the Joneses. This was a massive online/offline campaign by Ford which includes a whimsical and engaging storyline where a girl looks for all her lost siblings courtesy of her serial sperm-donating dad. Episode one is below for your viewing pleasure.



Of course, Coca Cola, the biggest brand on planet Earth, isn't far from the act with their Happiness Factory, as well as branding icon Nike with their Nike Football website. Another great example cited was Kate Modern, an online drama by Bebo which has apparently gone into Season Two (and note this - it costs only 6,000 pounds to produce per episode!).

The Power of the Panopticon (or Being Transparent 24 by 7)

The rise and rise of Facebook (and the earlier Myspace) points to an interesting phenomenon exemplified by the idea of Foucault's Panopticon where you can gain omniscience (sounds a little 1984) into a person's lives. There is an increasing merging of the online and offline selves, and people are increasingly open to sharing more of themselves everywhere. Social networking platforms like flock.com which integrates your twitter, facebook, hotmail, gmail and other accounts help make it all simpler.

Blurring the Lines between the Virtual and Real

I liked the example of how The Dark Knight was advertised with a "I Believe in Harvey Dent" campaign. What happened was that posters were put up everywhere prior to the movie launch, which called for the public to "vote" for Harvey (a fictitious character) to become a District Attorney. The campaign also had a website, an ongoing series of videos, and a developing blog that slowly unfurls as the day approaches. Reminds me of another online/offline campaign approach called The Art of the Heist by Audi/Mckinney.



Another case study was Wi-Fi Army, a cellphone camera zapping game with a real world gaming component which was so successful that it garnered a million participants in just two weeks!

Interactive World - Physical and Not Just Online

This concept veered a little into futuristic ideas like skinnable buildings, Camp Nou (by renowned architect Norman Foster), and Emotional Cities. The key idea is to customise and tailor-make your physical environments and buildings to suit a particular mood or preference. Mini's personalised billboards which can show a personal message on a public board (based on an RFID chip in your car) is another such innovation.


The new Camp Nou at Barcelona

Branded Utility and the World of Widgets

Some of us may have heard Newsweek declaring that 2007 was the year of the widget. To ride on this growth, one should create something useful, like Volkswagen's Rabbit, UPS's package tracker, and Nike Plus. Other connected products include the O2 Cocoon which functions as an alarm clock and is GPS trackable, Dole's Bananas, and the buy-a-drink-plant-a-tree social marketing model of Innocent Drinks.


O2 Cocoon is a truly connected product (Courtesy of Route79)

I think what takes the cake for me is the idea of user-generated utility, and this example of how the Nintendo Wii and its remote could be used for something like virtual reality 3D . Now this is a case of building believers and innovators amongst your customers.



The long and short of marketing in the future is that it should no longer just be a "One Night Stand" (ie Mass media advertising) but a "Long-Term Relationship" (ie Online, offline, continuous). In other words, it isn't just a one-way thing but an engagement, a dialogue and high levels of participation and interactivity. Personally, I question if I ever wanted to be married to my shampoo or ceiling fan but I guess there may be a greater role for marketing to weave itself into various parts of my life in a less intrusive manner.

We Are Still Living in a 1.0 or 0.0 World

Got clued in to this brilliant revelation by Steve Rubel on how most of us are still living in the Jurassic Age when it comes to staying constantly connected via a myriad of digital tools and networks. Yep, that's right, according to the chart below (courtesy of Nortel), only 16% of us are truly hyperconnected and about 48% are either passively online or hardly at all.


Source: IDC/Nortel White Paper - The Hyperconnected: Here They Come!

This shows that despite what some of the pundits say, we are still living largely in an old-fashioned, traditional media oriented, physically based world.

One needs to still do some good ol' "First Life" marketing over and above creating all those snazzy social media marketing strategies, hopping from platform to platform, podcast to podcast, network to network.

In the words of Steve Rubel himself:

"The takeaway for marketers is to utilize all of the relevant venues/tactics as part of a comprehensive marketing strategy (the same goes for PR). Ignoring something because it's old school doesn't always make sense."

That certainly rings oh so true.