Virtual reality in B2B

But what is a virtual world? According to the Virtual Worlds Review, it is an interactive, simulated environment accessed by multiple users through an online interface. They all have six features in common: shared space; a graphical user interface; immediacy; interactivity; persistence – their existence continues regardless of whether users are logged in; and socialisation – they encourage the formation of in-world social groups.

It may sound like a marketer’s dream: a potential audience of millions and seemingly unlimited opportunities to expose them to your brand. But the last few years have proved it’s not that simple. Dom Raban, managing director of Corporation Pop, which supplies virtual world solutions to businesses, says that 2006 and 2007 saw marketing experiments in virtual worlds, ‘pretty much fail spectacularly.’

Early signs of market maturity
Fast-forward three years and he says we are just beginning to understand the value in virtual worlds – particularly in B2B. Raban suggests following Gartner’s Hype Cycle (a graph which represents what typically happens when any piece of technology is launched) as a good way to describe the evolution of virtual worlds.

There are five phases to the cycle, the first being the ‘Technology trigger’, which is the launch of the technology; next comes the ‘Peak of inflated expectations’ – a frenzy of publicity, which generates unrealistic expectations. At this stage, there are many more failures than successes.

Then there is the ‘Trough of disillusionment’, which is where the technology fails to meet expectations and becomes unfashionable. This is the stage he says virtual worlds were at in 2008. However, the next stage, the ‘Slope of enlightenment’ – which is where businesses continue to experiment in order to understand the benefits and practical application of the technology – is pretty much where virtual worlds are now, according to Raban. “Eventually, we’ll reach the ‘Plateau of productivity’, which is when companies will totally understand the benefits of the technology,” he adds.

The business benefits
So what are virtual worlds useful for in B2B marketing? Raban says that the key is to think about how brands can offer added value to clients and improve relations. With this in mind, conferences, events, meetings, new product launches, tradeshows and training programmes – with networking a key offshoot benefit – seem to be its key uses. Cisco for example, held its first virtual Strategic Leadership Offsite (SLO) in the spring of 2009. Usually, this annual meeting physically gathers 3000 executives from around the world for two days. However, it is a logistically demanding, time-consuming event – and not cheap to manage or attend.

The visual environment was designed to establish the Cisco brand experience and integrated features to facilitate business networking such as polling on mobile devices, discussion forums and a video blog system. Users were able to watch presentations, download content and chat with colleagues. The biggest difference between the physical and virtual versions of SLO was the amount of content. The virtual version contained over 150 executive hosted sessions, eight guest speakers and twice the amount of leadership content. At previous events, few questions had been asked during sessions, but at Virtual SLO, 420 questions were submitted during a 30-minute moderated chat. The answers were then posted to the discussion forums so attendees could revisit at their own leisure.

Joerg Rathenberg, senior director of marketing at Unisfair, a virtual events platform, points out that one of the main benefits is that brands are able to increase their geographical reach. He says, “High-level executives sometimes don’t come to events because they are too busy – they just can’t afford to take two days out. With a virtual event, they can choose to just go to one session.” He is keen to add that the kind of event Unisfair produces is different to those held in worlds such as Second Life. “When I first tried to use Second Life, it took me the whole weekend to download the software,” he says. “You don’t need to download software to access us – high-level executives don’t have the time to do that.” He adds that this type of virtual world also allows more people to be in one space – up to 20,000 attendees. This is because although it looks 3D, it isn’t, he explains.

Other benefits of attending virtual events are networking. “At a physical trade show, there are probably hundreds of people that I know there – but I’d never find them,” adds Rathenberg. “But at a virtual one, I just need to use the search function.”

Analysing behaviour is another plus, adds Helen Beveridge, director at Big Ideas, which markets the 6Connex virtual Experience platform – one element of the technology which was used to create Cisco’s virtual environment. “We can track where people go, what they do, what they download, who they talk to and what about.”

Identifying cost efficiencies
However, it’s not cheap to run a good virtual event or to hold a truly effective virtual meeting. The real cost-savings are down to the fact that, done well, double the amount of people may come, so the cost per attendee comes down dramatically, explains Rathenberg.

So how quickly will virtual worlds become mainstream? Phil Dearson, digital director at 23red, says that the user interface itself may be slowing progress, although he believes that virtual worlds are becoming more mainstream. “Once the customer experience gets a bit easier, say with voice commands, this may increase its popularity,” he says.

Raban agrees that the future will see increased use of virtual worlds as the population begins to see them as a normal part of everyday life. “Around 40 per cent of registered virtual world users are under 16 – the statistics reckon that’s about 600 million people. They don’t think it’s weird to enter virtual worlds – to them it’s no different from watching a video on YouTube,” he says. “So, as soon as they become adults in the business world, we will have a population that is used to interacting in 3D environments.”

“Interacting in a virtual world, as opposed to just talking in a chat room, gives you a real sense that the barriers of geographical distance have been removed – it’s difficult to communicate just how powerful that is,” he adds.

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