Hip hop band Gorillaz are set to invade virtual community Habbo Hotels in 11 countries. The hour-long VIP visits began in Japan yesterday and will end in the U.K. on Sept. 22. Fans across the globe will get an opportunity to meet the band members, who appear as animated characters in their videos, in a live, exclusive interview/session. According to Allan Best, country manager at interactive entertainment company Sulake (the owner of Habbo Hotel), this is the first time that EMI Music and Habbo have hooked up on this large a scale. The event will be promoted by Sulake’s Canuck marketing partner MuchMusic via banner ads online and on-air promos. ‘The main objective is to attract new users to Habbo, while at the same time, EMI is raising awareness of the Gorillaz’ new album,’ says Best. The deal was done direct. Habbo’s target demo is 13- to 20-year-olds (of whom 55% are female) with a core audience of 13-16s. The Gorillaz’ Canadian visit takes place on Friday, Aug. 26 at 4 p.m. at www.habbohotel.ca. According to Nielsen/Netratings, average unique monthly traffic count to Habbo Hotel Canada is roughly 300,000 (in July it was 292,565), with users’ time spent averaging 32 minutes per visit.
Plans are also in place to bring Habbo to mobile phones in the fall. Habbo Island, the mobile version of Habbo, does not yet have a North American release date. In Finland, says Best, the animated series Habbo 2.0 is now in pre-production, with a DVD release slated after 2006.
