A Virtual World - The New Black

3pointD points us to the launch of the Tyra Banks Virtual Studio last night as her virtual Grammy party. 

Tyra’s Virtual Studio appears to be a lot about Tyra - but for fans of her show, it is the hottest new hang out spot to listen to music, chat with other fans and get the inside scoop on the Warner Brothers television property.  I don’t recommend you download the Mac version, by the way – it’s in “alpha.”  It crashed my Finder and I spent half an hour cleaning up the mess.

The move falls on the heels of Nickelodeon’s, Nicktroplis, MTV’s latest virtual-world-TV-show tie-in, the L Word, CBS’s upcoming Second Life Star Trek virtual mashup experience, and Disney’s PiratesOnline.com (launching this Spring in conjunction with the movie release).

While each of these web properties is built on different platforms, for different reasons and different audiences, the thing they have in common – and that is the hallmark of all modern media - is that they are connecting people to each other. 

Marketers and communicators have struggled with this concept in the flat 2D web, but the spatial qualities of these virtual spaces – and the success of social network sites in general - seems to be driving home that this is the element that holds the “magic juice” of "new media.”

This Spring be watching for the launch of several new virtual worlds.  It is the new black, dahling.

February 13, 2007