Earlier this week, we took a look at a research report published by market researcher eMarketer about kids, teens, 'tweens and virtual worlds that found that 34.3 million US child and teen Internet users will visit virtual worlds once a month in 2007 -- and eMarketer expects that number to rise to 34 percent in 2008, and to 53 percent by 2011.

Worlds in Motion spoke to eMarketer's Debra Aho Williamson about her findings. "I think what’s attractive about virtual worlds for kids and teens is that they exist at a 'sweet spot' between online games, which are very popular with younger kids, 'tweens and boys, and social networks, which are very popular with teens, particularly girls," she explains. "I think that virtual worlds combine aspects of both of those things."

Zeroing in on major factors in online social worlds, she elaborated. "There are a lot of games, there's the opportunity to meet friends, interact socially, learn about other people and express your interests. So I think those are the two driving factors." Real-time interaction also plays a big role, she says. "[It's a] very immersive experience. You don’t just 'poke' somebody like on Facebook -- you can actually, physically, poke somebody. What that means is that there’s that much more real-time interaction, no latency, no making a post on someone’s wall and waiting for them to respond. It’s all occurring in real time."

What Makes Kids' Worlds Special?

So what does this mean for marketers? "First, a lot of marketers went into Second Life, and now we're seeing a backlash these days- -- it's maybe not working out as well as they hoped," Williamson says, but cautions against marketers being turned off completely from virtual worlds by anti-Second Life hype. "They need to take a second look," she advises, "Especially if they're in the market of targeting kids and teens."

Moreover, Williamson sees some key differences in kids' worlds specifically that separate them from Second Life or other generally-focused environments. "Several of them have years of experience being ad supported and developing ad campaigns within virtual worlds, she notes, highlighting Neopets, Whyville and Habbo -- all of which began their experience in the late '90s and early '00s and have been ad-supported since then. "The second thing," Williamson adds, "is that there’s a strong focus within virtual worlds for kids and teens on engaging users and coming up with a marketing campaign fully integrated with an environment. It's not an island you have to go visit, but something part of the fabric of the virtual world.

The Real-World Tie-Ins

Companies like Whyville do that very well, as Williamson says, with its educational campaigns on disease biology and environmental studies that are integrated within the Whyville world, as we found on our visit there. As a side note, eMarketer's report indicates that Numedeon is looking to continue growing in the virtual worlds space on the heels of their success with the kids:

“In the coming months we will go from being a one-trick pony to having multiple virtual worlds under management,” Whyville’s Jim Goss told eMarketer. “We’re going to build our own and have a portfolio of virtual worlds operating on the same tech platform,but going after different demographics.”

But Williamson correctly adds that Whyville isn't the only virtual world for kids and teens that has a link to the real world. vMTV's virtual worlds are all built around their television shows, like Virtual Laguna Beach and Virtual Pimp My Ride. Disney's Toontown builds on the company's animated character brand equities, and Warner Bros. recently announced it soon will be taking the same route for its stable of 'toons. "There’s linkage between what you do in your real life and virtual life that happens in these virtual worlds," Williamson explains. "Second Life is the opposite – it’s about being somebody else, a fantasy of what you think you want to be. Kids are less likely to invent something about themselves. I think young kids want to be who they are."

Virtual Playing Becomes Real-World Paying?

But from the standpoint of marketers, does what kids and teens do in virtual worlds necessarily have any bearing on their real life behaviors? "In a lot of cases, I think it does," Williamson opines. "I believe that children and young teens particularly will be more apt to be like themselves in the virtual world. But overall, I think people who like something in real life will follow those interests in the virtual ones. If they like music and street culture, they might gravitate toward VSide. Fans of The Hills go to vMTV. If they own a Webkinz they go to the Webkinz world. So there are obvious interest correlations. I think that you express your interests by which virtual world you choose to interact with."

Moreover, the high focus in customizing and decorating in these kids' worlds can play an important role for advertisers. "People take a lot of pride in decorating," she says. "If there are real brands available, they might choose those real brands just as they might in real life. I think ultimately a brand impression is a brand impression, and there's still a real person behind the avatar that will be exposed to the brand regardless of whether that person in the virtual world is similar or dissimilar to how they are in real life."

A Question Of Security

One caveat -- a parent herself, Williamson was concerned when the results of her research revealed that these kids' worlds were not as safe in terms of kid security as they sometimes claim. "I think that ultimately some of these worlds could be targets for sex predators just as social networks have been," she says. "Actually, it's almost easier to hide behind an avatar than it is to hide behind a social networking profile. In my research I registered for a whole bunch, and signed up for BarbieGirls. You can select your age, and I signed up as a 7-year-old girl." Williamson explains that she was asked to provide a parent's email address to verify she had permission to be on the site. "So I just gave them my address without saying anything about who I was, and all I got was an email that [essentially] gave me a [verification link] that said, 'You affirm that you are the parent of this child.'

From there, I had this experience in the BarbieGirls world, and I wandered around, and within minutes I [was] approached by several avatars asking to be my friend. My only choice was to say 'yes' or 'no', and I have no way to figure out who they are, how old they are, or anything about them. So as a parent, it definitely raised some concerns. I wasn’t sure who these people were that were asking to be my friends."

A Brave New Frontier

And safety is definitely a growing concern, given the other result that surprised Williamson -- just how much traffic the kids' worlds get. She cites July 2007 comScore data that pegs Webkins and Club Penguin at more than five million unique visitors each in that month -- and not just kids and teens. Nicktropolis had 2.2 million, and Stardoll, which is avatar-based but has no actual virtual world at all, logged 2.3 million visitors. Contrast that with only 414,000 visits to the Second Life URL in the same time period. "Obviously, you don’t have to go to SecondLife.com to actually get into the site," Williamson says, "It runs on its own. What this captures is only visits to the URL -- but still, it’s a huge difference."

Why, then, all the continued attention to Second Life? "Right now, it’s really the only world out there for adults," she says, although There.com and Activeworlds, to name a few, also target the same base. "I think that the majority of marketers target adults," she continues. "They don’t target kids and teens. So I think that’s one reason. Honestly, I also think Second Life has a great PR team and they did a lot early on -- it’s kind of funny, but all of a sudden there were all these articles, and I remember thinking, 'I wonder who they hired to do PR!'"

"Marketers are looking at something new and interesting to latch onto," she adds. "We’re on the vanguard, the edge, doing something 'cool'. Maybe we will get some PR from it, and maybe a little bit of learning. Its not an adjunct; it's part of the world. And I think that says a lot."