Numedeon's chief operating officer provides a strategy that lets consumers grow up with a brand, in a fun and educational virtual environment.

Increasingly, the auto industry is developing marketing strategies that specifically aim to create a real bond between the consumer and the brand. You see evidence of this with marketing programs ranging from events for brand owners to film/TV product placement.

Yet, there is a relatively new medium that is particularly well suited for this type of "bond" marketing-- the virtual world medium. Every day, millions of people assume new lives through vibrant, immersive, video-game-like virtual worlds. Make no mistake, this medium is not the web as we've come to know it. Rather, in virtual worlds, users create avatars (their virtual personas) and typically become citizens inside the virtual world motif. The emphasis is social-- players interact with each other, while they interact with the technology.

But this medium should not be entirely thought of as a video game either. It's more of an organic digital experience where users generate content and come to play, but do not necessarily engage in, the win-lose scenario that generally characterizes the video game domain.

Ultimately, it is the social dimension of the virtual world medium that is tantalizing for marketers. It gives them an opportunity to insert their brand into a tool that leverages the anthropological truism that humans are social animals. Virtually any advertising campaign will be more productive if it is being experienced by groups of consumers together, as compared to one-on-media techniques.

A common question when considering these virtual worlds as a marketing vehicle is, "Aren't they mostly for kids?" Though the answer is, "not entirely," there certainly are a lot of teens and pre-teens who have adopted this medium. And even though these youths are not yet in-market for vehicle purchases themselves, they still warrant the automotive industry's attention -- and a share of the marketing budget -- for three basic reasons:

• Gaining practice with this new medium. As advergaming, alternate reality gaming and virtual world games evolve and gain popularity, auto marketers need a testing ground for their early strategies. Now is a good time to prepare for the gaming industry's eventual takeoff, and that probably means leveraging a game program that at least is partially targeted to kids. The faster you get hands-on experience with how the medium works, the better. It is not any different than those making the first investment in banner ads presented on websites. It took the advertising industry a good ten years to really understand that medium and advertising solution. But if you wait for others to innovate and own the space, you run the risk of getting passed up.
• There is growing evidence (and not just in the auto industry) of just how much kids influence their parents' purchases. By way of example, the travel industry got its wake up call in 2000 when research came out in the Journal of Vacation Marketing that indicated how influential sons and daughters were on the decision of where and how to spend vacation time. Mom might be indifferent between minivan X and minivan Y, and all it takes is a nudge by the child to sway her one way.
• While these kids aren't your customers yet, they will be soon. Kids eventually grow up, and forging a relationship with them now -- when the landscape for gaining their attention is less cluttered -- enables you to get much more bang-for-your-buck. Consider Scion's program with Whyville.net, which targets boys and girls ages 8-15. Scion is making a calculated decision that starting early will pay off. Their interactive (and importantly, educational) Scion advergame sits inside Whyville - a virtual world-social interaction platform -- and provides tens of thousands of kids with the opportunity to really learn about the Scion brand.

Virtual worlds are rapidly transitioning from not understood to misunderstood to well understood by marketers. This medium requires "practice," no different than the advertising media that came before it. But for a variety of important reasons, the ROI related to advertising with this media is unusually high. Better to get this practice now, before the transition is complete and your competition has a competitive advantage.

Jay Goss is COO at Numedeon Inc. Read full bio.