MTV Busts a Move

Virtual World News offers this tidbit: MTV has named Christina Glorioso to be VP of sales and marketing partnerships for program enterprises. This is a newly created position whose duties include "maximizing opportunities for the various projects developed under the program enterprises group, including virtual worlds, 'Rock Band' and other videogames" (via Billboard). In other words, part of her duties will be to promote the MTV brand in virtual worlds, presumably by purchasing ad space and sponsoring virtual events. It wouldn't surprise me if she were also to sell ad space in the gamut of virtual worlds run by MTV Networks.

This is an interesting development, as it is another piece of evidence that shows that corporate America takes the profit potential of virtual worlds seriously. Granted, the user base for virtual worlds is pretty similar to the target audience for MTV. Still, someone is thinking that enough eyeballs pass through virtual worlds to warrant a new VP position.

It will be interesting to see which, if any, other corporations follow MTV's path. There are certainly a number of Fortune 1000 firms that would seem to benefit from more aggressive marketing in virtual worlds.