Millions of Us LLC, an agency specializing in virtual worlds, today announced that it is spearheading an industry-wide group commissioning Forrester Consulting to conduct a study on marketing and engagement measurement in virtual worlds. The agency is collaborating with several leading virtual platform operators to facilitate the study, addressing a broad need to provide advertisers with objective third-party assessments of marketing ROI in this fast-growing new medium. Millions of Us' partners in this endeavor include Sulake, Gaia Interactive, Metaplace, SceneCaster, Doppelganger, Vivaty, and WeeWorld, with others expected to join.

"As we expanded our business to offer clients campaigns in the industry's top virtual worlds, it became increasingly apparent that large advertisers require clarity regarding user demographics and definitions of success," said Reuben Steiger, CEO of Millions of Us. "We've moved beyond the banner and need to work together to create a unified set of practices to quantify the value of engagement."

Companies in the virtual worlds industry have been able to provide advertising clients with sophisticated internal measurements of consumer response to virtual world marketing campaigns. However, with budgets for such campaigns rapidly expanding, such clients need to see standardized, credibly objective ROI assessments in order to justify growing expenditures. As the leading agency specializing in the space, Millions of Us is particularly well-placed to lead the industry in facilitating this study, which will be of ongoing use to the agency's platform partners and clients. The intended audience for this study will include Chief Marketing Officers and brand managers, advertising agencies, media buyers, and journalists covering the marketing and advertising industries.

The study will explore the thesis that the virtual worlds industry is beginning to mature and is no longer in the "experimental" phase of the marketing bell curve, and the need to quantify and measure the quality of "engagement" rather than CPMs (or cost per thousand "impressions").

"Habbo has provided over 200 advertisers and numerous celebrity visitors significant brand exposure in our growing global teen community, and we understand the need to set standards that clearly measure our influence," said Teemu Huuhtanen, executive VP, marketing, ad sales and business development, and president, North America, Sulake Inc, the parent company for Habbo. "Our deeply integrated in-game campaigns are the future of digital media advertising, marketing and promotion to the valuable teen demographic. We design our campaigns so the results are transparent and demonstrate effective ROI. We know what advertisers are looking for and what they qualify as success."

"With more than five million unique users a month, Gaia Online provides advertisers with powerful and innovative branding opportunities through unparalleled reach and engagement with the teen and young adult audience," said Scott Kinzie, vice president, creative and user experience, Gaia Interactive. "As this new marketing medium continues to grow and mature, we recognize the significance of providing a third party standardized framework to measure the power and influence of virtual worlds."

"Virtual worlds provide a completely new and deeply engaging way for brands to interact with consumers. For example, the ads themselves can become content that users interact with," said Lauren Bigelow, GM and SVP of Marketing, WeeWorld, Inc. "Brands and consumers are flocking to virtual worlds so the industry needs to take leadership in developing metrics that reflect the activity taking place. As a leader in the space, we are very excited to partner with Millions of Us on this landmark study."

"We're excited to engage with Forrester Consulting, Millions of Us and other virtual world platforms in this study", said Tim Stevens, CEO of Doppelganger, the creators of the award winning vSide virtual world. "This research effort will provide marketers with valuable new information to gauge the importance of consumer engagement in designing their campaigns."

"Virtual worlds are changing and the market is opening up to mainstream consumers and advertisers at an increasing rate. We're happy to participate in this study which provides much-needed real-world metrics for virtual worlds. Rich content like this will help potential advertisers better understand this market, unlock hidden value, and engage consumers in increasingly more meaningful ways," commented Raph Koster, founder and CEO of Metaplace.

The study is expected to be available to interested clients and media in June 2008.

About Millions of Us LLC
Millions of Us LLC is an agency specializing in virtual worlds and large online communities. The company offers clients the ability to combine the high engagement of virtual worlds with global reach through its partnerships with the world's leading virtual world platforms. Millions of Us also builds worlds from the ground up and creates alternate reality games. Founded in 2006 and based in San Francisco, the agency's clients include 20th Century Fox, Warner Bros., Toyota, Microsoft and Intel. For more information, visit www.millionsofus.com.