Virtual Worlds - eHealth Marketing
Introduction
A virtual world is an online environment where users can create a virtual persona, or avatar, and interact with other avatars. In recent years, virtual worlds have become increasingly popular. To explore how these immersive experiences can help encourage the adoption of healthy behaviors, CDC currently participates in several virtual worlds.
Selected Projects
Whyville
Whyville, a virtual world targeted to tweens otherwise known as children aged 8 to 15 years of age, reaches millions of youth. In Whyville, users can create avatars that interact with other users and participate in engaging educational activities and games.
For two consecutive years, CDC has worked with Whyville to promote virtual vaccinations for seasonal influenza. While teens are not a high-risk audience for influenza-related complications, reaching children at this stage allows for an understanding of influenza and how the disease can be effectively prevented. In addition, educating teens empowers them to pass along vaccine-related information to others in their households who would benefit from being vaccinated.
During the 2006-2007 campaign, Whyville citizens had the opportunity to be virtually vaccinated, preventing them from catching the “Why-Flu”, which involved red spots on an avatar’s face and sneezes while chatting. During the six week activity, almost 20,000 unique Whyvillians were vaccinated.
For the 2007-2008 seasonal influenza campaign, Whyvillians participated in a similar activity, however this year when they were vaccinated each member could send invitations to his or her grandparents inviting them in-world to be virtually vaccinated. To commemorate the grandparents’ participation and provide engaging health information to Whyvillians, an in-world party was held in November, 2007, giving users a chance to interact with an in-world CDC representative who delivered information about flu prevention. More than 40,000 unique Whyville users were virtually vaccinated during this six-week campaign. With 7,500 invitations being sent to grandparents, 1800 participating grandparents, and more than 380 questions asked during the one-hour party, this year’s campaign tapped into the immersive experience of virtual worlds to engage a large number of people in disease prevention and health promotion.
Second Life
Second Life is a virtual world in which users, or “residents”, interact with one another through avatars. CDC currently occupies a small space in Second Life that demonstrates the breadth of CDC’s mission and goals and displays a number of primary CDC products. The space features streaming video, historical public health posters and numerous links to information on CDC.gov. CDC’s current space on Second Life averages about 200 visitors a month.
Currently, CDC is in the process of expanding CDC’s space in Second Life in order to include more ‘in-world’ interactive content. In the near future CDC will have its own island with a virtual lab, conference center, and engaging activities. The island in Second Life will be open to the public in the spring of 2008.
Public Health Impact
Virtual worlds provide an immersive experience where users can get health information and practice healthy behaviors. Research in health communication and marketing demonstrates the connection between the ‘modeling’ of health behaviors and the real-world belief that one can turn those activities into actual behaviors. CDC is carefully researching the medium of virtual worlds and plans to continue these activities in ways that support the agency’s mission and demonstrate real-world health impact.
Public Health Partners
Whyville
Second Life
Page last modified on April 14, 2008