In Playboy's Q1 2008 earnings call yesterday, chairman and CEO Christie Hefner discussed the company's new revenue opportunities and online plans, indicating an approach that sounds very similar to either an expansion of its current virtual world presence or building its own virtual world based on the media brand

"The playboy brand is what creates the unique connection we have with consumers and gives us a vital competitive edge," said Hefner. "It is the strength and appeal of the brand that will drive the company's future success, and we intend to leverage that in both immersive real world and in the virtual environment to increase shareholder value. "

Playboy already has a strong virtual presence in Second Life, where its "Playboy Island" is one of the most popular company-sponsored sites in the community. Just recently, the company ran a promotion in which it invited designers to create exclusive Playboy-branded merchandise to sell along with its real world goods on the island.

Hefner continued in the earnings call: "We believe that the potential of online is much greater than the performance we've seen in the last several years. And to realize that potential we have to catch up in terms of technological infrastructure and breadth of content and interconnectedness between what we do in the virtual world and what we're doing in other businesses in terms of e-commerce, in terms of events, in terms of advertising, in terms of social networking, etc."