Filed under: Research by Digado

New World Notes reports of ‘Adult Lifestyle brand’ Playboy adding their branding to a number of well-known metabrands of clothing designers. A metabrand is a brand which only exist within the Virtual Worlds. The picture above is taken on the Playboy Sim in Second Life - it shows one of the 4 corners in their main building. The actual products have ben created by the designers (Alphamale) in the picture, but are being sold under the Playboy label (and the sublabel ‘blacklace’ for this collection it seems).

What interested me is Playboy didn’t seem to engage in this partnership with in-world content creators for just their brand, but seems to be seriously experimenting with Micro Payments. This has apparently always been the strategy of Playboy - sell their virtual shirts, jeans, and lingerie with their logo for about a dollar a set, and make a profit. However being an established brand is not necessarily a plus in the metaverse. The sales where ‘disappointing’ according to the developers of Green Grotto Studios:

“The initial concept behind retail was to utilize the virtual versions of real goods to drive sales of those goods online, but those sales weren’t as high as expected. …it made perfect sense to create exclusive goods for the SL community independent of any real world goods.”

“Honestly the sales strategy is ‘How do we get one person to spend one dollar? Which probably raises a few eyebrows, but I think sometimes we forget that we’re dealing in a world of micropayments and that requires mass consumption to create significant revenue.”

It’s an interesting move because apparently Playboy thinks they can fill a gap the Metabrands have - a recognizable, A-brand that separates the quality from the B products for people who haven’t spend months in Second Life. On the other hand, the metabrands bring ‘good will’ of the existing community to the table, a recognised and appreciated brand amongst people who have spend some time in Second Life and are well rooted into the community.

Whether this will create significant revenue for Playboy- I doubt it. Then again, its easy to be sceptical at times like this of in-world economic ventures (Sign ups stabilized in SL, and the general consensus is the in-world economy in retail is somewhat declining). The Playboy presence has been anything but remarkable so far but it’s a smart move none the less. They’ve done what Mercedes never did, learn and get involved with the actual community to strengthen their off-line brand. Worst Playboy gets out of this is another few links, some more attention and a continuation of disappointing sales. In return they get an opportunity to really position the Playboy brand as more than just the magazine, and project this A-class lifestyle experience Hugh and his crew have been trying to make you think they are.

Posted on: April 1, 2008 | Share on: