Humane Society Enters There for Younger Demographic

Today the Humane Society of the United States announced its presence in There.com. It will begin with simple t-shirt sales from a shop in the mall, but the animal protection group has bigger plans for the long haul. This first move is a way to test the waters and begin connecting with an audience it's never had the chance to before. "What really struck us was the demographic. The Humane So is usually speaking to people 45-55 and up through our direct communication in emails and magazines," said  Steven McVeigh. "I was stunned to see that the average user for There was just 22 years old."

"It was a whole new audience that we weren't even speaking with," McVeigh continued. "Instead of a fund raising goal, this is really just a communication play to let people know we're in there."

The Humane Society entered There.com with help from the Maya Foundation, a non-profit founded by Makena CEO Michael Wilson. After adopting a dog from the HSUS, he decided he needed to help bring them in world. One of the reasons the HSUS chose There over other virtual worlds came down to cost.

"When we looked at some of the investments that other non-profits were making, it didn't make sense," explained McVeigh. "Some of these people were paying monthly maintenance fees or rental to establish brands that may not be there. We''re working with There to make it grow. Our cost is minor. We're covering their cost to transfer our HSUS images onto their merchandise and the minor fees to develop some storefronts. Beyond that, we're sharing promotional expenses, and that's it. We're not buying an island or anything like that."

Eventually the HSUS may try to find a way to monetize its virtual world connections, and currently all the proceeds will go to HSUS. but the goal right now is branding. The Humane Society is tentatively planning deeper involvement through a large event in the first quarter of 2008, so it's aiming to be in There for the long term.

 

The HSUS has already looked into branding through social networking on Myspace and Facebook, typically a youth-oriented connection, and it's taken some action. But McVeigh said that the group was still mostly reaching its same older demographic. The younger demographic is there, but it doesn't move in the same circles as those people already connected to the Humane Society.

In There, though, the users are already focused on seeking out new connections, often, through fashion. The Humane Society will sell its t-shirts and hoodies--and give users the option to then purchase the real clothing from the Web store--as a way for the message to get out there. That's probably true to varying degrees of most virtual worlds, especially youth-oriented worlds--and McVeigh said he looked at 8 different worlds and spoke with five different representatives--but There's content protection and PG-13 environment attracted the non-profit group. It's also already provided a positive atmosphere for the group's representatives.

"I've spent hours in There, and I've lost count with the number of people that have just come up and started talking to me," said McVeigh. "I've communicated with people from 20 different countries so far. Imagine if I had my shirt on, and then we'd be talking about that."