Brands Inspiring Creativity and Transpiring Meaning: An Ethnographic Exploration of Virtual World Play

This study uses participant observation to undertake an ethnographic exploration of the meanings of brands and objects in an online virtual world.

Brands Inspiring Creativity and Transpiring Meaning: An Ethnographic Exploration of Virtual World Play

Sara Steffes HansenUniversity of Wisconsin Oshkosh

INTRODUCTION

Media companies and advertisers increasingly enrich consumer engagement through online virtual worlds or social videogames, a form of massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs). These games offer expanded platforms to reach consumers as avatars-or digital representations of the self-who can interact with the virtual world and other players online. Virtual worlds include Second Life, as well as brand-specific versions launched by MTV and Disney (Wilson 2008).

By 2011, 80% of active Internet users (Gartner 2007) and 53% of child and...

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