• Reuters.com, Monday, May 22, 2006 11:30 AM

Online virtual worlds are small places made up of concentrated, captive groups of people; many of them tend to spend most of their free time there. That's enough for certain advertisers to take a keen interest in being seen there, as Reuters.com reports. Interscope, a record label, noticed a cheap but effective marketing opportunity in the form of a nightclub appearing in the virtual community Doppelganger. It recently opened the Pussycat Dolls Lounge, named after one of its principal acts. Doppelganger's users bring their digital personalities, called avatars, to the nightclub as a place "to go out" at night as they would in the real world. There's even a DJ, and he takes requests. Interscope, of course, uses the nightclub to plaster images of its other acts, like Beck, Gwen Stefani and Keane, along the walls. Actual members of the Pussycat Dolls have been known to log on with their own avatars to chat with fans in the VIP room. MySpace is obviously the online community benchmark, but Doppelganger, and virtual "chat rooms" like the Pussycat Dolls Lounge, likely represent the next generation of social networking. Interscope execs point out that they would love to one day sell products at these online community centers, and they say that they plan to. The lounge already features a storefront, and users will one day be able to buy artist T-shirts to outfit their avatars. Doppelganger says it plans to sell property to other brands who wish to use its real estate for promotions in the future.

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