Output details

Virtual Flagships and Sociable Media

This publication stemmed from the major project 'Branded Meeting Spaces' funded by the cross Research Council AHRC/EPSRC 'Designing for the 21st Century' Research Cluster. We developed the methodology of 'Research by Design' . In this paper we looked at the relationship between physical flagships and the online social presence of brands. the function of the flagship is a social one. Spectacle gains its meanings in the context of the crowd. We tested the flagship concept through examples using digital social media. We drew on the concept of brand to link flagships to sociable digital media. We introduced concept of virtual reality and MMORPGs, massively multiplayer online role playing games. The flagship is to virtual reality as brand is to ubiquitous technologies. Brand is the portable, distributed, sensorily unassuming, stripped down manifestation of the flagship concept.

Impact: Tony Kent (editor of the book) is a leading expert in the concept of brand. To be included in an edited volume by Kent provided evidence that our work was of leading relevance to brand and its relationship to social media and digital technology.