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Ever since virtual worlds reached a suggestive point of popularity, brands have been hoping to use them as marketing vehicles for reaching a wide range of people with a lot less money than their current advertising tactics. While Second Life didn't become as large of a billboard as some had hoped it would be, it did help set the virtual world track onto one that would prove beneficial to brands in some form or another.
Some large brands have even discovered that marketing on another virtual network is cool, but could potentially be bigger if they owned the virtual networks themselves. Free advertising, really, with the added benefit of endless verticals depending on the brand.
[img src="" caption="" credit="" alt=""]Disney figured it out with Club Penguin, as did Viacom with Nicktropolis. The virtual worlds feature spin-offs from popular Nickelodeon shows, which now includes a virtual world for "Sponge Bob Square Pants," according to WebProNews. There will also be networks for Neopia, which is a spin off for its Neopets, as well as Monkey World, which is a new product all together.
The money-making opportunities of course come in to play when the users are encouraged to pay for the extras. All of these upcoming virtual worlds will have paid layers for purchasing peripheral items, which will become available to players in 2009.