Method and system for viral marketing within a virtual world

1. A method comprising:

providing a computer infrastructure operable to:

monitor and gather first real-time information from a virtual universe (VU) by listening and observing a surrounding VU environment including avatars and attributes of the avatars by concept matching to detect topics of conversations of potential customer avatars;

placing one or more ad-avatars in a location of the virtual universe (VU);

monitoring and gathering, by the one or more ad-avatars, second real-time information using a crowdedness indicator that detects changes in the crowdedness of the location;

directing one or more ad-avatars to perform one or more customized viral advertisements in the VU by modifying behaviors and scripts run by the one or more ad-avatars based on the first real-time information by analyzing the real-time information against a database of target customers, locations, products, ad-avatar data, historical incidents, interactions between ad-avatars and a potential customer avatar and historical viral marketing results;

after a predetermined period of time, detecting, using the second real-time information, that the location of the one or more ad-avatars has become less populated and none of the potential customer avatars have interacted with the one or more ad-avatars;

teleporting the one or more ad-avatars to a more populated location;

dynamically change a strategy by modifying the behaviors and the scripts of the one or more ad-avatars based on the first real-time information associated with the more populated location;

determining a real-time change in environment information within the VU;

changing an ad-avatar context based on a determination of the real-time change in the environmental information within the VU and the potential customer avatar;

determining whether a discussion topic is beyond a knowledge base of the one or more ad-avatars; and

sending another ad-avatar with a requisite knowledge base to a new location in response to a determination that the discussion topic is beyond the knowledge base of the one or more ad-avatars.

2. The method of claim 1 , further comprising notifying a customer service representative (CSR) when a response from the potential customer avatar is detected.

3. The method of claim 2 , further comprising allowing the CSR to take over control of the one or more ad-avatars to manage a dialog between the one or more ad-avatars and the potential customer avatar.

4. The method of claim 3 , further comprising providing the CSR with associated scripts to further carry on the dialog with the potential customer avatar.

5. The method of claim 1 , further comprising configuring the one or more ad-avatars as one or more proactive ad-avatars, wherein the one or more proactive ad-avatars initiate a dialog with one or more potential customer avatars using a script.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising configuring the one or more ad-avatars as one or more reactive ad-avatars, wherein the one or more reactive ad-avatars perform a script among themselves without initiating a dialog with one or more of the potential customer avatars.

7. The method of claim 6 , further comprising detecting a response from the one or more potential customer avatars in response to the one or more ad-avatars.

8. The method of claim 7 , further comprising notifying a customer service representative (CSR) when a response is detected.

9. The method of claim 8 , further comprising disengaging a script of the one or more ad-avatars and allowing the CSR to take over control of the one or more ad-avatars to manage a dialog between the one or more ad-avatars and the one or more potential customer avatars.

10. The method of claim 9 , further comprising preventing a detecting of the one or more ad-avatars by the one or more potential customer avatars.

11. The method of claim 10 , further comprising at least one of ending the one or more customized viral advertisements and reevaluating a current location of the one or more ad-avatars in the VU when no response is received.

12. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

detecting one or more topics related to conversations of one or more potential customer avatars;

determining one or more scripts related to the one or more topics; and

performing the one or more scripts by the one or more ad-avatars nearby the one or more potential customer avatars.

13. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

detecting one or more topics related to conversations of one or more potential customer avatars;

determining one or more relevant ad-avatars having one or more scripts related to the one or more topics; and

inserting the one or more relevant ad-avatars nearby the one or more potential customer avatars to perform the one or more scripts.

14. The method of claim 1 , further comprising querying the database of target customers for information about a topic in response to the topic not being included in the knowledge base of the one or more ad-avatars.

15. The method of claim 14 , further comprising setting the crowdedness indicator measured by a number of avatars per a defined size of area by placing the one or more ad-avatars in at least one location.

16. The method of claim 15 , further comprising dynamically updating the database of the target customers in real-time by updating at least one of an ad-avatar location, a script of the scripts, a profile, and a product for sale.