Thursday, July 31st, 2008
I’m keen to know more about Manchester in Second Life. I have now visited three times since it was built last year and it has been fairly empty on each occasion. Apparently the aim of the project was to promote the Manchester brand and raise awareness of the city. I wonder if URBIS and the MDDA consider it to be a success.
There’s been a lot of talk about 3D virtual worlds being the future of the internet and I think there’s some truth in that although I’m not sure it’s quite that clear cut. Also, just because 3D virtual worlds are the future, I’m not convinced the virtual world in question is Second Life in its current state.
When I log in to Second Life I am always disappointed by the chunkiness of the experience, it’s frustrating at best and computer crashing at worst. I have been told I need a better computer to experience Second Life properly but my computer meets all the SL recommended system requirements and I have a healthy 8mb broadband connection so there must be plenty of people who have a similar experience to me. (more…)
Tags: 3d, 3d manchester, Advertising, digital, Digital Marketing, interactive, Interactive 3D, interactive media, July, manchester, second life, virtual, virtual environments, Virtual Worlds
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Friday, July 4th, 2008
“By 2011, 80% of active internet users will have a virtual world account.”
Gartner Research, April 2007.
This quotation was identified by one of the presenters at HYPHEN on Wednesday evening. The event focussed on the opportunities new technologies bring with specific reference to Second Life and online gaming. There was quite a lot of discussion about the business opportunities these playful, often entertainment-focussed spaces deliver. Apparently BP identified virtual worlds as the “breakthrough technologies for 2008”.
I don’t think any of us need to be told about the serious business opportunity online gaming brings. The image to the left is Miniclip’s growth chart and although you might not be able to make out the text on the graph, all you really need to know is that the units on the horizontal axis are years and the units on the vertical axis are users (in increments of 5 million).
So what about Second Life’s business opportunities? A few years ago, any business which had a presence in Second Life was guaranteed some publicity out of it but these days that’s not the case. The last Second Life story I heard reported with any gusto was that of Ailin Graef, the Chinese businesswoman who built a business by buying and selling virtual land and made rather a lot of money in doing so. Perhaps that’s the business opportunity Second Life presents…but then, most of us don’t want to build a business in Second Life. We’re busy enough trying run the business we have created in our first lives. (more…)
Tags: interactive, Interactive 3D, interactive media, July, online, online gaming, second life, virtual, virtual environments, Virtual Worlds
Posted in Digital Marketing, Interactive 3D, Virtual Worlds | 2 Comments »
Tuesday, May 27th, 2008
You’re probably familiar with architectural visualisation. Most property marketing teams know that they can use their architect’s CAD drawings and a specialist 3D visualiser to make some nice marketing images. They also know that having still images or animations which show the property development complete and in its best light, before the builder has even lifted a brick, vastly increases their chances of selling off plan.
But now that architectural visualisation is used by most property marketing teams, how do you ensure yours is the one potential buyers are looking at and talking about?
In my experience, it takes a combination of animation, stills and web-based, interactive media to make a visualisation really stand out. Combining web-based, interactive visualisations with stills and animation is much more effective than stills or animation alone. The stills can be used in print campaigns to drive traffic to the developer’s website where users will find the interactive visualisations. We have found that users spend longer browsing websites with interactive visualisations and are more likely to follow a call to action.
Interactive visualisations enable potential buyers to immerse themselves the property; they can watch the development evolve over time while exploring the space and room layout options. This heightened level of engagement means potential buyers are more likely to make an enquiry.
The interactivity also helps you to communicate the property’s features. So if the development boasts the best, most energy-saving insulation on the market, let the potential buyer click the walls and see inside them. If all the wood used in the property comes from a sustainable resource, give the potential buyer that information while they enjoy a seamless interaction.
Using an interactive visualisation also means you get double the value from the 3D design process. Your 3D artist can render stills and animation from the model they produce for the interactive visualisation, so you get three types of media from one process and engage with your potential buyers on a whole new level.
When you go interactive, architectural visualisation transforms from luxury to necessity; from a tool which is nice to have, to an indispensable means of meeting sales targets.
Tags: 3d, animation, architect, Architectural Visualisation, CAD, interactive, marketing, May, property, stills, virtual, visualisation, web
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