THOUGHT (aka Centric's Blog)

So, today we’re proud to announce a much deeper relationship between Centric, HiPiHi, and 3Di–a relationship that brings unparalleled marketing, story development, and technology development expertise to the Chinese virtual world of HiPiHi.

And we’re aiming straight at the heart of the entertainment market.

Why? Well, when people get into virtual worlds, they get really, really into them. As in, television viewing shrinks, conventional web browsing shortens, and other forms of media go by the wayside.

Long-time gamers aren’t surprised, but others are concerned: What does this mean for the future of entertainment? Is this another blow to theater attendance? Or is this a fringe effect that we shouldn’t worry too much about?

Actually, from our point of view, it’s a convergence of almost everything that’s happening today–from marketing to entertainment and beyond.

From the marketing point of view, we’re moving past the day when you could pound simple messages into someone’s head over and over, day after day, for 40 years, to create powerful brand icons. Marketing today is 2-way. It’s give-and-take. It’s a conversation. And what sparks conversation are powerful stories.

At the same time, entertainment today is rapidly moving past the "pack them into theaters" method of distribution. Today, people want to play in the same worlds as their entertainment. They want to see the stories they create make it out to the big screen. They want to talk with, interact with, and extend their favorite worlds, places, and characters.

And virtual worlds like China’s HiPiHi are the places where the most interesting interactions will take place–on both the marketing and entertainment side.

You can read the press release for the full scoop.

This entry was posted on Monday, November 19th, 2007 at 2:57 pm and is filed under Announcements, Press. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.