Xellular Identity - All About Mobile Content & Marketing

Focus on Mobile Avatars - Mobagetown Japan

After answering a few readers queries through email, I realized that there is a growing reader's interest in mobile offering of avatars. Therefore, I decided to reply in a series of posts for the benefit of others who might be interested as well.

One of my favorite examples of a smart business model and a VERY successful avatar service is Mobile Game Town (Mobagetown) from Japan. It is the largest and fastest growing mobile Social Networking Service (SNS), available only on mobile. The site is a blend of casual games and social networking, multiplayer and singleplayer games coupled with chat, blogs and avatars.

An interesting fact is that Mobile Game Town is offered by DeNA, a Tokyo-based e-commerce company that runs virtual auction sites and shopping malls. This fact leaves a notable footmark on the business model (and makes a differentiator from other SNS sites). DeNA hooks the users with free mobile games with over 30 titles to choose from, supported by advertisement. Users buy from mobile e-commerce sites and get “mobile gold” which is then used to dress their avatars; by spending in the real world users get virtual money to dress their virtual alter ego, their avatar.

[via DeNA]

Mobile Game Town’s success is overwhelming: 5 million users with over 400 million daily page views back in May in less than a year from its official launch. Just to put the numbers in perspective, Mobile Game Town’s stats are four times larger than that of Yahoo's mobile portal! 

And to give you a sense of latest (brilliant) marketing activities:

In June, DeNA announced "an interesting summer Yukata campaign. In co-operation with Aeon  dept. store the companies have set-up a virtual avatar catalogue from which members can build, for a modest fee, their outfit based on actual products complete with best dressed contest prizes. This would seem to be a rather slick ad campaign ultimately designed to drive purchases of the real thing just in time for the summer matsuri (festival) season. The company ran a similar campaign for Nike where customers who bought physical goods were rewarded with virtual prizes."

[via Wireless World Japan]

And a special treat from the Wireless Watch Japan - a video demo of both "Mobile Game Town" and Disney's "Wonder Days" (which will be reviewed here on its own in one of my next posts).

Levi's Goes Mobile

Levi’s, best known for jeans, was known for getting into the mobile phone business with a couple new hand sets. Yesterday came more details about the phones themselves. Levi’s says that their phone embraces mobile technology and enables young people to connect, enjoy music, images and video.

The adults might not understand the fuss around a Levis mobile phone and would say to their teenaged kid "who needs it?!", however mobile phones offer far more than simply a means of voice communication. They can provide entertainment, convey social status, and express one's individuality. It is known that "trendiness" is of high importance when selecting a mobile phone.

The Levi’s look brings a riveted looking case to the phone and a detachable chain that can hold the phone to your pants like those biker style wallets. ”Technology is at the heart of today’s youth culture and mobile phones are the ultimate accessory. Adding a mobile phone to our collection is a natural progression for Levi's®, a brand that is driven to meet the desires of young people”, says You Nguyen, Senior Vice President of Levi's® Product.

The phone will be offered in metallic silver, black and brown copper. Editions aimed more at the ladies will be shiny silver and shiny sand. The phone is made under license from the ModelLabs Group and will be available in stores in Europe in September of 2007. No word on when it will come state side, or any specs other that what colors the thing will come in.

[Via Levi's]

The Making of Klonies - the Design and Draw

Last week, Ronen Ventura and Tali Perel shared some insights about research, styling and analyzing usage as preliminary stages of creating the Klonies content. Today, continuing with 'The Making of Klonies', I want to review the process of (actually) making Klonies content - the design and draw.

Deciding on a subject, theme or style (events, seasons, local culture, age group), was the first stage described in the previous post. Then, the Design and Graphics Team, which includes Ronen Ventura, Oryan Ventura and Al Toiber, take the lead. First, the team gets together for some brainstorming. After throwing ideas to the air and discussing them, each one takes a few items and hits the designing board.

To better explain the process, I’ll demonstrate using some Klonster sketches made by Al.

A. Theme - Klonies special for Halloween.

B. Item - an outfit (entire body and not only a shirt or only bottoms) of a Dracula costume.      

C. Al begins with a Klonster skeleton that looks like this (see figure 1a):

[Figure 1a]

D. First, Al makes a preliminary sketch for approval of concept (see figure 1b):

[Figure 1b]

D.1. After getting an approval, the next step is drawing a preliminary design (see figure 2a):

[Figure 2a]

D.2. The preliminary design receives more detailed comments (see figure 2b]

[figure 2b]

E. Last step is the implementation of the given comments, some corrections and final touches (see figure 3):

[Figure 3]

And here's the Klonster, all dressed up and ready to go (see figure 4):

[Figure 4]

And that's how a Klonies outfit is being made! Next time you'll browse the Klonies collection at Skype you will be able to evaluate the process that lies behind each item! :)

Content Is King - The making of Klonies

Lately, I keep getting readers emails saying that I haven’t written about the Klonies for a while now… So I decided to give you a peak of the Klonies backstage. I’ll start with the Klonies content and continue with the making of in my next post.

We all know that when it comes to mobile, content is the king. You can have a cool sharing app or community but if you don’t have attractive or compelling enough content - you’re doomed.

Just a quick note - Klonies, for those who don’t know, are a new service of personalized Avatars by the mobile solutions provider Comverse, that enables the creation of Avatars from a big content library of body types, eyes, hairstyles, hats, glasses, moods, clothes, branded accessories, etc., which can be used in traditional Web forums, as well as to extend this experience to the mobile arena. Comverse has created a mobile Caller ID service, by which a user can create his Klonie either on the Web or on his mobile handset. Klonies let youth segment do something they could never even dream of doing before: create expressive avatars that represent them on other people’s phones. Klonies give the users extended means for self expression: they define how they are seen by their friends, on their phones.

To be able to cover the Klonies content I met Ronen Ventura, the Klonies Chief Graphic Designer and Tali Perel, the Klonies Styling Adviser. Here’s what they told me:

Usually we start with a meeting of the designers, Styling Adviser and Marketing for a brain storming, to raise upcoming events (Valentines, Halloween, spring break etc’), topics, characters and that sort of leads. For example, when we launched the Klonies on Skype last year, we offered a wide collection of Football Mania clothing as it was only a few days before the world cup.

Other lead is analyzing users downloads; we can share with you that we were amazed to find out that men and women are very different in their preferences:

Most women want to be either bad or cool:

We see a lot of laid-back men:

As for dressing up:

Also, sport is the strongest theme amongst males, which nonexistent with the ladies. So, by analyzing downloads we get to learn a lot about tastes and trends. Also this is a great pointer of which areas to need to be broadened.

Apart form events, locals fashion also inspires the Klonies content. Our styling adviser explores fashion and teen magazines to get the sense and taste of specific audiences. Klonies sales people usually buy local magazines as part of their tasks when flying on business trips.

And you'll have to tune in later on for the second part of 'The Making of Klonies' :)

What Motivates Mobile Phone Buyers? Self-expression

Once again, self expression is one of the main motivations when buying a new mobile phone. According to NPD,

“What motivates buyers when they choose a new mobile phone? Many factors come into play, of course, but having the desired capabilities and a flip-phone form factor rise to the top most often.

With a couple of exceptions, buyers have ranked these two criteria highest (roughly 40 percent) over the past seven quarters. That’s testament to the fact that experienced phone buyers know what they want in a phone and make purchases based on these factors.
The third most often cited reason for choosing a particular phone is that it is a “good brand,” which again reflects a mature market. Buyers have obviously come to trust certain handset makers over others.”

Also, when drilling down, we see that self expression is rated the highest among the youth age group:

“Age can play a role as well in the purchase of a handset. Among the various age groups, different profiles emerge based on the top purchase motivator. For example, buyers 18 to 24 chose “it’s a cool phone” as their top motivator for buying a handset during the last year. Those 25 to 44 most often chose “had the capabilities I wanted.” And consumers 45 and older chose “flip phone / can be closed” as their top criterion for purchase.

Based on age and the top purchase motivator, three distinct target groups emerge:

• The youngest buyers seek a desirable device that reeks of “cool” (design is key, but the phone has to deliver on functionality, too).
• Young to middle-aged buyers want a wide range of capabilities. Getting just the right combination is the trick, so the device must strike a balance between popular must-have features and those that might just be nice to have.
• For people just past middle age and the older crowd, a solid flip phone will suffice; however, it shouldn’t lack basic capabilities and the brand is still important, too.”

[via NPD]

Mobile Phones as Multi-Functional Accessories

Based on a survey of U.S. users who have a wireless phone, comScore Networks, released yesterday a study that analyzes differences in behavior and attitudes among the following key wireless consumer segments:

• The Cellular Generation - Ages 18 to 24, these young adults grew up with cell phone awareness, experiencing cell phones as a part of their everyday lives.
• Transitioners - Ages 25 to 34, these people fall in between two distinct groups: those who grew up with cell phone knowledge and those who did not. Cell phones began to infiltrate everyday life during their teen years and early adulthood.
• Adult Adopters - Age 35 or older, this group was not exposed to cell phone until adulthood. Adult Adopters tend to have the most functional view of cell phones, with many requiring just the basics and showing limited interest in emerging technologies.

""During the past decade, cell phones have dramatically changed the communication habits of American consumers," said Serge Matta, senior vice president of comScore Telecommunications Solutions. "While the youngest consumers grew up with the technology, those just a few years older did not, resulting in some pronounced differences in attitudes and behaviors towards cell phone usage across the various user segments. As cell phones continue to evolve in terms of design, functionality, and features, it is vital that cell phone providers and manufacturers understand the differing needs and desires of these distinct consumer segments.""

Cellular Generation Views Their Cell Phones as Accessories

"Cell phones offer far more than simply a means of voice communication. They can provide entertainment, convey social status, and express one's individuality. While consumers in both the Cellular Generation and Transitioners are likely to view their cell phones as multi-dimensional devices, adult adopters tend to have a more functional view. Approximately one-quarter of both the Cellular Generation (26 percent) and Transitioners (25 percent) said that "trendiness" was of high importance when selecting a cell phone, as compared to just 10 percent of Adult Adopters. Additionally, 41 percent of Cellular Generation consumers strongly agree with the statement "I like my cell phone to be personalized" with options such as color schemes and ring tones, while only 19 percent of Adult Adopters feel the same."

[via Cellular News]

Interviewing Savka Andic on Mobile Marketing & Youth

Welcome to the third part of the mobile youth trends and behavior coverage. Today, Savka Andic, Research Associate at the Wireless World Forum, who is also the co-author of the mobileYouth 2006 report will be visiting here!

For those of you who missed the first 2 part of the mobile youth trends coverage here are the links: Nick Wright talked about mobile youth trends and Jan Kuczynski talked about mobile music and youth.

And now, let me welcome Savka Andic!

Hi Xen and all my readers, I’m Savka Andic, colleague of Jan and Nick (who spoke with you previously on Xellular Identity) and co-author of the 2006 mobile Youth report. A relatively new arrival to both the UK and the world of mobile, I completed my BA in Political Science and French  in the mountainous city of Vancouver, Canada earlier this year and, degree in one hand and British passport in another, was lured to the urban bustle of London. Shortly thereafter, I joined Wireless World Forum as a researcher.

-How are you?
I’m great, Xen. Very busy, but I guess that’s not always a bad thing.

-What brought you into the world of mobile?
My job, essentially! Only a few months ago, I knew less about mobile than some of the youth I now interview for research. However, my background is in politics and the social sciences, so I find the social implications of mobile, marketing and social media very interesting.

-Other hobbies, fields of interest?
Politics and international relations remain two great passions of mine, along with skiing, traveling, world music and a rather taxing branch of yoga known as Hot Bikram. I also indulge in the occasional bout of cocktail mixing (and drinking), my favorite being the marvellous Mojito.

-Something interesting to share with the world about you?
This isn’t particularly interesting, but I can read words backwards in full sentences, as if it were forwards. Don’t ask :)

Mobile Marketing

-There are many successful marketing tools. What are the key elements for mobile marketing's appeal?

Good question Xen - you’ve gone to the heart of the matter. In fact, one thing we found over the course of our research is that many marketing tools that were previously very successful are not so effective with youth anymore. There are two reasons for this: the huge volume of advertising messages that youth are exposed to today, and the decreasing time which youth spend exposed to traditional media such as TV.

Youth are exposed to hundreds of advertising messages per day (up to three or four more than 40 years ago), with the result that day-after advertising recall rates have plummeted, from 26% in the 1960s to 7% in 2005.  Compounding this is the fact that youth today simply spend much less time exposed to traditional broadcast media such as TV and radio, and much more time online and on their mobiles. In the UK alone, there has been a 16% TV watching among 16-24 year olds constitutes a 16% drop since 2001. In sum, not only are youth less exposed to traditional media and therefore to the marketing messages which appear on these media, they are less likely to act on the messages they do receive if these messages are not directly relevant to their needs and lifestyles.

Basically, marketers today have a problem getting through to youth. This is where mobile comes in: We can identify three specific areas where mobile will prove invaluable to marketers. Firstly, its ability to deliver highly relevant and targeted advertising on a personal platform; secondly, its ability to build communities around brands, and thirdly, its ability to act as a linchpin between a variety of different advertising channels. More on this topic later – this answer is getting way too long!

-Mobile marketing so far has focused on SMS. Is there more to mobile marketing?

Xen, you’ve raised a great point and highlighted a major obstacle to creating successful mobile marketing.  In our report, we distinguish between two approaches to marketing, “reach” and relevance”. Reach is the traditional marketing approach, whereby the success of a campaign is basically judged by how many (potential) consumers it can reach. On the flip side is relevance marketing, where success is measured not by the scale of the campaign but rather how relevant the message is to specific consumers.

Many consumers today associate marketing on the mobile with a stereotypically reach approach, largely because of the SMS push campaigns of the “text-to-win” variety. In fact, mobile today is the perfect example of a reach approach being applied to a relevance platform – that is, a platform with great potential for delivering individualized and targeted relevance marketing.

This skewed approach to marketing on the mobile is basically the result of a temporary incongruence between the medium and the message. Messages will gradually adapt themselves to best suit the vehicle of their delivery, but like any adaptation, it takes a bit of time and a bit of trial and error. In the question above, I outlined three key advantages of mobile marketing: its ability to deliver highly relevant and targeted advertising on a personal platform; its ability to build communities around brands, and its ability to act as a linchpin between a variety of different advertising channels. For example, marketers can set up permission marketing schemes whereby youth divulge valuable information on their preferences to advertisers in exchange for targeted mobile ads – in fact such a service specifically for youth (the ad-supported mobile) will be launched next year by the Finnish company Blyk.

Mobile also allows brands to strengthen youth loyalty by building communities. A good example is Coca Cola’s “Coke Fridge” in Germany, where consumers collect codes from promotional Coke packs which can be redeemed on Coke Fridge - on either the internet site, or a mobile JAVA application version. Consumers can exchange the points obtained for ringtones, wallpapers and mobile games or music downloads via iTunes. Coke Fridge also features an instant messaging application, which offers youth social benefits of communication and allows youth to invite friends, which spreads awareness of the site virally.

Finally, the portability of the mobile phone means it can fuse together many disparate advertising channels to create interactive marketing campaigns. The “Warren” campaign launched in 2003 by Virgin Mobile Australia was a good example of a successful campaign integrating mobile into marketing, as it combined aspects of TV, online, print, radio and mobile advertising to create an interactive and engaging experience for the consumer.

-Are there different marketing strategies when it comes to the youth segment? How?
Absolutely. As I discussed above, young consumers don’t respond particularly well to traditional reach advertising.  To resonate with youth, marketers must craft relevant marketing messages that speak to their specific interests and preferences. Even more so, marketers must create advertising that involves young consumers in some way - interactivity is a key component of successfully attracting and building young consumer loyalty. This is simply because interactivity makes products more fun and more real. Mobile marketing has shown a great capacity for fun and interactive marketing, which makes it an ideal strategy for the youth segment - both the Coke Fridge and Virgin Mobile “Warren” examples. I also said it’s important that products be “real”, ie. authentic. What authenticity really means is that youth feel they have a certain emotional investment in the product, and that it reflects them in some way. A good dose of interactivity always increases the authenticity of a product. A great non-mobile example of this is Jones Soda, a soft drinks company. Jones Soda encourages consumers to send in their favorite photos, selects the best ones and publishes them on the labels of its soda bottles. Young consumers love this, as they gain status from being featured on the bottle and feel an emotional investment in the product and hence greater brand loyalty.

-What are the challenges mobile marketing faces today?
There are three main ones which we talk about in the report: First is that the marketing industry in general lacks confidence in mobile marketing, and a shift in mindset is needed before mobile marketing becomes more accepted. Marketers are holding back from the mobile platform due to a lack of traditional reach-oriented data to confirm the success of mobile marketing campaigns. Change must come from reassessing the metrics employed for measuring “old media” marketing techniques towards metrics that suit the mobile platform more specifically. We have to start focusing on “share of customer” rather than conventional market share, meaning focusing more on knowing your customers well and targeting them with relevant information than simply trying to grab as many customers as possible with generic, watered-down advertising.

Another problem is that Mobile marketing so far has focused on SMS push marketing campaigns which were initially successful because of their novelty value but have ultimately become annoying.

SMS marketing limits the potential of the mobile to engage consumers. Direct marketing may yield short-term results but there is no motivation for peer-to-peer marketing which limits the lifespan of any marketing campaign. When consumers are motivated to market the product to others, target segments become smaller and the result is more sustainable, leading to long-term yields through organically growing campaigns. Generic campaigns, such as mobile banner ads or TV style advertising, will see diminished returns over time as consumers become less receptive.

The third problem is that mobile marketing is frequently isolated from overall marketing campaigns. Mobile is treated as a separate marketing channel with a more technological bent than other platforms, meaning there is little integration with holistic marketing strategies. Mobile marketers are often more focused on one marketing technology rather than a larger solution and the high operator charges discourage the kind of experimentation needed to view the larger mobile picture. Mobile marketing also remains an anomaly amongst advertising platforms in that the consumer is expected to pay to interact, which is likely to disappoint consumers both in terms of the brand advertised and the advertising medium itself.

-Any interesting examples of mobile marketing best practice?
In the report we have pretty interesting case studies, such as the following McDonalds example, proving how effective mobile marketing can be.

McDonalds Japan used the mobile as the principle marketing channel to target young female consumers for the launch of its limited edition Prawn Fillet-o burger.

Aside from contents relating to fashion and teen idols, the mobile site’s main feature was a flash wallpaper heart motif which consumers could download for free. Consumers could customize the motif, changing the colors used to match their mood and share their customized version with friends, giving the site a viral dimension.

Average monthly page views of the mobile site hit 49,000 and sales of the limited edition burger were nearly four times that of previous limited edition menu items.

Thank you Savka! :)

* *** * *** * *** *

Next week there will be a new guest visiting here and talking about mobile services and youth. Wanna know who??? - Don't forget to tune in next Thursday to find out! Have a great weekend!

Korean Avatars Market Review - Part IV (Mobile Avatars Offerings)

Recently I was asked to give a presentation about the Korean avatars market, trying to understand the craze and predict other mobile markets’ behavior. Knowing it might interest some of you, I’ll be publishing the content of the presentation at this blog. Due to the length, I’ve been posting it in a few parts every Thursday. If you missed the opening, here’s the link to the first part, second part and third part.

               ****

Mobile Avatars Offerings

The medium of avatars is naturally focused on community, since users need an audience to present their character. As such, avatars can increase operator's attractiveness using its viral affect to mobile operators. Also, operators can use avatars in order to utilize the loyalty established by online communities.

However, the mobile industry had stumbled upon barriers to provide a mobile avatars offering: the mobile internet hasn’t reached the web’s speed, latency, and user interface. Also there’s a big difficulty in implementation.

Having said that, there are already some players in the Korean mobile avatars arena. The first player was NEOWIZ which began supplying mobile avatars to KTF in August 2001, to LG Telecom in April 2002, and SK Telecom in August 2002. According to company’s reports, mobile avatar sales grew to over 2 billion won per month in 2004 (which are about $1.5 B).

The second player was NATE. SK Telecom's Nate launched its avatar service in October 2002 and provides avatar service similar to those provided by web portals. This move was the result of the wired-wireless convergence with SK Telecom’s acquisition of a Korean web portal. Nate offers clothing brands for avatars, providing its users with replicas of the genuine clothing lines. The fashion and consumer brands companies enjoy the advertising by increasing actual product sales, while NATE profits from avatar sales.

What avatars demonstrated to the mobile industry is that mobile phones are a strong extension of self for many users. By personalizing the mobile with avatars, the mobile becomes much more than a communication tool. It has become an extension of either how the user views himself\herself, or would like to.

To summarize, avatars should be linked with other services and not just be a cute application to play with. Avatar service has been generating sales related to community-based services like gaming, forums, chats, IM, and minihomepies. Integrating the web and mobile increases the usage of avatars provide the ability to use the digital identity created practically everywhere.

Korean Avatars Market Review - Part III (Avatars Offerings)

Recently I was asked to give a presentation about the Korean avatars market, trying to understand the craze and predict other mobile markets’ behavior. Knowing it might interest some of you, I’ll be publishing the content of the presentation at this blog. Due to the length, I’ve been posting it in a few parts every Thursday. If you missed the opening, here’s the link to the first part and second part

                                ***

Avatars Offerings

Consumption of all kinds of online content has extremely grown in Korea ever since broadband internet service became popular. I’ll also add here a little piece of valuable info I got last week (Thanks Melanie) to get the idea of “heavy connectivity” that was discussed last week: on average, Korean Internet users spend 12.2 hours online per week and participate in 3-4 community websites!

South Korean users were the first to adopt avatars as their web representation. Respectively, the demand for avatars has grown with the fast adoption of online social interactions in a bodiless, ageless and sexless sphere. This amorphous presence has evoked the need to establish a visual presence by nominating a visual representant.

Most of the avatar providers are portal companies which entered the avatar market to upgrade their web offerings. This companies recognized that avatars can increase revenues by promoting more frequent and longer visits and by serving as a bridge to additional services. Only later down the road service providers realized that avatars are a consumer goods which should have a business model of their own. The avatar service evolved to a pay service which increased the quality of the offerings.

What makes the avatar phenomenon so interesting for many, is the fact that so many users are willing to pay to dress their avatar with clothing and accessories. Understanding that the avatar has a major role in self-representation in the social world over the web, service providers offer only a basic avatar. Many times the basic avatar doesn’t wear more than pajamas or a fig leaf. Service providers understood that users want to have an avatar that resembles them as much as possible, so they offered premium content for extra charge.

The major avatar providers in Korea are NEOWIZ (SayClub), Cyworld, Daum, MSN Korea and Yahoo! Korea.

NEOWIZ operates one of the most popular avatar sites - SayClub. SayClub has over 20 million subscribers which are equivalent to nearly 50% the population of Korea! Neowiz launched the first avatar service in 2000 and has occupied one of the leading positions among Korean internet companies offering avatars and games ever since. According to the company’s reports, Q1 2006 avatar revenues reached $2.4 M!

NEOWIZ was the first provider to employ an “avatars distributed for free, clothes and accessories sold for small amounts” business model. According to this model, users can buy designer avatar clothing and other premium content, with licensing fees being paid to actual consumer brand. This has led to the reality where Korean avatar owners spend more money on clothing for their avatar than they do for themselves. In a society where most of interactions happen over the web – this makes sense.

MSN Korea launched its MSN messenger in 2003 which includes “dynamic avatars”. Dynamic avatar changes according to the typed emoticons or certain words like ‘happy’, ‘angry’, etc’ in the chat window. Dynamic avatars require server capacity which is equal to the online games; which makes it harder for small portals to provide similar services. MSN Korea offers users a “multi avatar feature” which enables the user to employ up to 4 avatars. The displayed avatar depends on the chat partner. To initiate the service, users need to pay cyber money.

The last major avatar provider, which got a lot of coverage after its entrance to the U.S. market, is Cyworld. Cyworld is a social networking leader in Asia with localized sites in China, Japan, South Korea and Taiwan, owned by a subsidiary of SK Telecom, the country's largest wireless provider. The Cyworld service is a combination of minihompies, online communities, music downloads, picture sharing, messenger and eBay. Cyworld’s users have avatars that visit (by linking) each other's "minihompy" [= a miniature homepage that looks like a 3D room which contains user’s blog, photos, and virtual items for sale]. Cyworld users also buy and sell music, ringtones, and clothes for their avatar. They can also buy skins to furnish their virtual minihompy. The service is free yet a big part of the content is available only for a fee, paid in virtual currency. Cyworld has astonishing penetration rates with 90% of the 20-year-old Koreans.

Daum, another major avatar provider is one of Korea's largest portals. Currently it has more than 35 million subscribers.

Next week - I’ll be talking about the next big thing... avatars entering into the mobile arena! So don’t forget to tune in on Thursday.

Jump Higher (and Reach the Virtual Reality)

The encounter of reality with the virtual has led to a very interesting and creative implementation of consumer brand offering in a virtual world:

Adidas is now selling its "a3 Microride" shoes for L$50 to Second Lifers. “Like the real-life shoe, the Second Life counterpart provides “the ultimate blend of bounce and flexibility with minimum weight.” In fact, it’s a great virtual-world product, acting like a kind of pogo stick for your feet, and with the option to keep bouncing you around as long as you’re walking over open ground”, says Mark Wallace.
[via 3pointD.com]

So these “a3 Microride” shoes leverage the power and attractiveness of the consumer brand Adidas in reality while also benefiting from being a virtual product that can have fantasy features\powers. Come to think of it, these Adidas shoes are better than the real ones!

This makes me think what more can be done when brands get extra fantasy benefits at the virtual arena... awesome! :)

Dolls' Peronalization

Idan sent me these pics from “Boyds Personalization Center” in NY (correct me if I'm wrong about the store, dear). As you can see, girls are now offered to personalize their dolls and choose from a wide selection of color and hairstyles (no need to make improvised haircuts that end up in tears), color of skin tone, color of eyes, and of course many clothes etc’… (If I was given this task of choosing as a little girl it would have taken me ages to decide which items to buy or even worse, all of my spending money; because a girl needs a wide wardrobe to select from...) ;)

I don’t know if this is influenced by the wide world of personalization that rules the world of virtual identities (MMOGs, IMs, chats, forums and even mobiles) or vice versa. Yet in both, “the user” identifies with the doll\avatar during “the playing time” and is willing to invest money in the looks of the subject of identification.

[Thanks dear! :) ]

     

Girls, Throw Away Your Diamonds (and Get A Plasma)

Girls, if you haven't already done so, throw away your designers shoes, diamonds and romantic vacations in favor of plasma TVs, digital cameras and personal gadgets...! Cuz these days, tech replaces diamonds as girl's best friend. Also, according to a new U.S. study, commissioned by cable television's Oxygen Network,

"the next five years women see themselves increasing their activities in six tech areas: digital cameras, cell phones, e-mail, camera phones, text messaging and instant messaging."

[via Reuters, InformationWeek]

I say this tech mania is a replacement, to a certain extension, of the fashion mania. Both are a personal statement of skills, knowledge and status; And both function as a language of signs, symbols and iconography that visually communicate meanings about their users/ owners. However, since at the internet era our communications is more mediated and less direct/ F2F, we need new  and reliable signs which would indicate (to others) our skills, knowledge and status, as fashion always has been doing.

Gender & Self-expression - Burning Questions

According to survey results presented by Sprint:

"Ringtones are more popular among women - 54 percent compared to 42 percent of men. Personalized ringtones also are more appealing to women."

"Women have unique needs and preferences when it comes to the features and look of their wireless phones and accessories," says Alana Muller, Sprint's director of marketing."

[via Wireless Week]

• How come women use the mobile phone as a utility for self expressing more than men do (ringtones as well as mobile accessries)?
• Do women have a stronger need to express their uniqeness than men? If so, why?

Technorati Tags: women, gender, self-expression, personalization, ringtones, mobile accessries, user survey, sprint

Stardoll: An Avatar Or A Doll?

Successful consumer brands allow customers to assign their own meaning to a product or service. This gives them the opportunity to project themselves to others, to get a feeling of self-expression. To provide greater added-value, consumer brands usually use celebrities to promote themselves.

Stardoll has taken the power of celebrities being brands themselves. Instead of dressing your avatar or paperdoll - the way it's called there - with brands you can choose Brad Pitt, Halle Berry or any other celebrity out of a list of 400, and get them dressed from a very limited collection. [I don’t know how they got the approval of all these celebrities to use their faces... Anyhow, copyrights and royalties aren’t my issue here].

The celebrities are a sure attraction no arguing here. Yet, instead of using the power of consumer brands and engage it with the need for expressing the personal identity on the web, these avatars are taken to the childish world of play and fantasy. I’m offered to play with my favorite celebrity’s paperdoll, dress it up, identify with it and become the celebrity during the playing time, just like when girls play with their Barbie dolls or boys play with their action figures. This is why they’re called “dolls” rather than “avatars”: you can play with it for certain time and that’s about it(!). There's no other outlet for your paperdoll, like different messengers, web communities and in the future - the mobile… Having this restricted outlet, this service can only be targeting the segment of 5-13 yrs girls, during the dolls' period of glory, and therefor the sweet pinkish tones of the website.

Anyhow, it is an interesting example of combining web identities and consumer brands.

Technorati Tags: stardoll, avatars, paperdolls, celebrities, consumer brands, self expression, marketing, web identities

Homemade Self Expression

Motorola has a new self-expression outlet for you - stickers!

"Phone Tattoos for the Motorola RAZR V3 and Motorola SLVR line-up, allowing customers to  change the look of their handsets to reflect their mood, style, and interests. Additionally, customers can create their own designs with Phone Tattoos By You! Offering blank tattoos and complete instructions on how to design and print customized tattoos, Phone Tattoos By You! allows users to show off family photos, other favorite images, or just create a unique design. To create tattoos."

[via MOpocket]

This reminds me that a few years ago there was the stickers fashion in Israel: everyone had a cool sticker on the back of the mobile shell. I also liked the "do it yourself" thing, why should Motorola invest time and money in creating content, if users can do it on their own? Plus, that is being truely artistic (=self expressing). Nice.

Technorati Tags: Motorola, phone tattoo, mobile, personalization, self-expression

Apple's Smart Move

A few days ago Apple and Nike have announced their collaboration with a new sports kit which includes Nike's Air Zoom Moire shoes and a device that collects and presents shoe-data (pace, expended calories, time and distance) on the ipod nano.

two thoughts here:

• from consumer's perspective - this is a great example of integration of lifestyle brands and electronic gadgets to bring added value to consumers.
• from industry's perspective - the ipod becomes so much more... it's turning into a platform for other apps, and therefore a competitor to the mobile industry.

Technorati Tags: ipod nano, apple, nike, brands, mobile industry

Teen BuzzTones

we all agree that the mobile is more than just a mobile... it's also a personal statement about us, about our tastes, fashion, lifestyle etc… and not just the mobile itself; ringtones have played a major role in this trend as well. If you think about it, music is actually a fashion and personality statement as well, so the combination of mobile and music as means of conveying a message - turns the ringtone into a powerful tool for self expression purposes.

Having said all that, how can the latest teenage trend of using a high-pitched sound which can’t be heard by adults as a ringtones* (so they can use phones during classes) fits in this equation?

This high-pitched ringtone, a.k.a. TeenBuzz, is a personal statement as well. A teenager who uses it conveys the following message:

• I’m cool
• I’m tech savvy
• I’m very in - I’m familiar with all the latest trends
• I’m part of a social group - the group of teens who use the mobile in class (= I’m not a geek)
• I’m reinforcing my belonging to that social group
• I’m more interested in my friends than in the class/teacher
• I’m willing to take risks in class, but in a smart/sophisticated way

All that in a single action of changing the polyphonic ringtone to the high-pitched ringtone during class!

I wish that in my school days I had a cool toy like that! :)

*Mosquito

Technorati Tags: mosquito, teen buzz, youth, mobile trend, mobile behaviour, ringtones, self expression

Bug Found - Mobile Operators As Brand

For quite sometime, my mom’s mobile battery was sending its last vital signs… realizing there’s no other option but going to Orange’s service center to get it fixed/replaced after spending hours of waiting for her turn and later – spending hours for the repair… armed with a heavy book and assertiveness she did it. She planned to spend time but she didn’t have an intention of spending money on a new HS. And yet, Nokia has its own magic on people, *including* on my mom, and she went home with a new one.

But there was another thing she didn’t plan… After opening the box and starting to play with her new toy, she saw that it has an Orange icon on the top right corner of the HS. Unwillingly, she was turned into an Orange walking ad. Yay! I’m not talking about the money issue of buying something for your own use and self expression while in return you become an ad - because in other areas of life we’re actually WILLING to pay more for the visibility of the brand name (on cars, clothing, fashion accessories, personal electronic gadgets, etc); While having your Gucci or Nike brand name visible is a totally wanted thing by many people, being a walking ad for Orange (or any other operator for this matter) is not.

What troubles my mind about this issue is  - why? what’s the difference between clothing/ car manufacturer and mobile operator brands? Why fashion/car brands provide an added-value for self expressing human needs while mobile brands don't? There's probably something operators are doing wrong when it comes to their existence as a brand...

Thoughts are very welcomed! :)

Technorati Tags: brands, mobile brands, orange, nokia, mobile operators, self expression

A Klonies Model

I want to welcome a dear friend and a very well-known blogger - Stowe Boyd (a.k.a. Stowe Klowe) - who's wearing the new spring collection of the working model fashion house, a Klonies T-shirt!

Technorati Tags: stowe boyd, clothe stowe 2006, klonies, klonies t-shirt

Good Old Consumer Marketing

Hi everyone,
As you probably know, these days we’re working on our upcoming Klonies Blog. Part of this effort was to look for blogging talents in our group and get them blogging.

Let me introduce you to my first guest, which I hope you’ll get to read more at the Klonies’ Blog. Welcome to Tal Dagan, the General Manager of the Avatars Group. Well, enough talkin’, rock on Tal!

                                            ******

One of the recent success stories in the device market was Motorola's success with its sleek RAZR devices. Motorola guys were lately quoted saying that in some regions, close to 40% of their total sold devices last year were of this particular model. Now that's an amazingly high number for a company that produces over 50 models a year.

Indeed, everywhere you’ve seen a Motorola phone in the last year, most chances it was a RAZR device. I have seen this taken to the next level in 3GSM in Barcelona; after wandering around the conference, the RAZR effect was evidently seen not only in the Motorola stand. Every single one of the large handset vendors showed at least 1-2 devices which were very nice replicas of the sleek RAZR design. No shame in the industry...

This is all very nice, but what's so special about it? Just a successful handset model?

But there's much more to it.
Although at the beginning of the RAZR, over two plus years ago, it started as just another cool device, its incredible success actually caused Motorola to shift its strategic marketing focus. No more focus on winning the technology/spec battle but rather having "just as good features", and puting the entire weight on design design and design; giving the users a new and exciting form factor, a unique design which is targeted at precise segments of the market. We all know that the handsets have become a user's "statement about themselves" a tool to express one's self... let’s give the user just that.

This may sound trivial, but remember that these industry players have been focusing, and throwing away, billions of $$$ on a technological battle, fighting vigorously on who will be the first to come out with 5,6,7,8...mega pixels cameras, first with double, triple or quadruple packet bandwidth, XHTML and not HTML and so on.

Not only that, but notice another small but significant shift...think about the 'device name': no longer Motorola A900, A1000, V980 or E550 but...RAZR! This makes so much sense. Why should a user remember, or care, if his phone is N-90, or P990 or E750??? I bet 99% of users do not remember the device’s name one month after they bought it. However, go check this with RAZR owners...The opposite will be true. Now that's creating brand attachment.

Following the worldwide RAZR success, Motorola has gone out with its PEBL, ROKR and SLVR models. All follow the same path of the RAZR - a new exciting form factor, no focus on technical firsts, and a cool self expressive name (guess what the PEBL looks like...).

This, in my mind, is good old marketing genius.

 

Technorati Tags: tal dagan, motorola, razr, mobile device, consumer marketing

A Virtual Face Lift

Just saw this one on Yahoo Answers:

Q: Why do you like avatars?

A: “To tell you the truth, I'm just not that great to look at. I'm not the ugliest, but I am getting older and I would rather avoid the signs of aging. An avatar suits me for this purpose.” (Brigid_01)

Avatars - cheaper than a face lift and a lot more effective in our digital era...

Technorati Tags: avatars, yahoo + avatars, virtual identity

MobFashion

Well guys, you probably remember the last post on men and their mobiles... I know that some of you were a bit mad (and even pinged me about it).So to be fair, I'm gonna write about women's mobile fashion from as well… :)

What you can see here is C'Élégance (pronounced cell-egance), a jewelry for your cell phone. With  this cute thing we can all personalize our mobile to better express who we are... (and you now the rest...) :)

[via the Mobile Diva - Darla Mack]

***

People gather information when deciding with whom to pair up to prevent investing time and genes with a bad-genes partner; or in Darwin's words - sexual selection. I know I know… people don't present to the public our health charts and medical prescriptions, so how do we do that? Health condition and fitness are demonstrated by visual cues and behavior (remember the men and their luxury gadgets?).

I'll get to the mobiles in a sec, don't worry, but before that let me say another word... To complicate things a bit, there are fake signals which we all use, like make up, push-up bras, wigs... I'm sure you can come up with dozens of exapmles. So the natural tendency, when selecting, would be to rely on hard to fake signals. Genuine signals are signals which ONLY fittest women could communicate. And here's where FASHION comes in the picture.

How a woman dresses and what mobile she owns are more than a successful self representation. Fashion forces a woman to look good while sending signals of her knowledge of the rules of fashion. That is a real signal because being always in fashion requires qualifications that are much harder to fake: being alert to social conventions and being well equipped with financial resourced to achieve it. [If she makes money or comes from a rich family means she is has good genes for survival in the modern era.]

Fashion is changing rapidly while introducing so many new accessories in so many fields. We don't only have cosmetics, hair style, clothes and shoes, we also have jewelary, bags and all kind of mobiles and personal gadgets as well. This makes it even harder to be always up-to-date. Harder means a sincere cue for sexual selection, and it causes a wide scale of accomplishments: from a fashion pro with the latest mobile to the fashion beginner without it.

So fashionable girls, this is the new mobile fashion... go and grab some! Present it to the guys... hopefully it'll make wonders! :)

Theatre, Peacocks and Mobiles

Yesterday the spring semester has started and I spent the entire day at university. It was so great! The huge library (always gives me perspective…), the classes, the cafeteria and the so WEIRD people of the faculty of arts (especially the eccentric acting students)…

While changing classes and buying coffee I was talking with a new class mate. Naturally, conversations always reach topics like fields of interest and career. And you probably guessed right - I found myself talking about (mobiles and) the need for self-expression, which btw I thought is a basic term in the field of arts…

My classmate argued that the need to externalize one’s identity is only a male need. The purpose is to get mating partners. And it can be examined in theatrical terms. The spectacle is the display of male strength and quality, i.e. his manhood, i.e. his financial power and status. The audience is mixed and contains both genders - potential female mates and rival males. The stage is the stage of his life. The actor is a male playing himself on the role of his life. Instead of walking around with his bank account balance, the male has the best props to convey the same message: he carries (and displays to the audience) as often as possible (without loosing credibility and looking ridiculous) his electronic consumer goods (you name them…), expensive watches, tie pins, lucrative fountain pens or mobile phones. All of these are elements in a coherent message about himself, about who he is and about his male qualities. But this act isn’t put up together for the sake of art. There is no fashion statement either. It is merely a good ol’ animal like behavior, like the peacock displays his feathers to communicate, to declare his male quality.

A little note before continuing - even though the mobile is a mean of audio communication, its visual appearance is what communicates in the example here. Carrying a Nokia N-90, a Mobile ESPN or a Nokia 3100 says different things about the character on stage.

Nice observations, yet I argued… we all use different props to say something about our nature, taste, character, life-style and economic status. Yet we don’t need to treat this visual communication as “primitive”. That is the essence of visual communication, and it can be used to gather information and\ or to convey a message to a potential mate but not only; Think of all those circumstances in life where we gather visual information regarding the counterpart (selling\buying, job interviews…). And these “props” aren’t any different than other means of visual communication, like body language, or fashion statements etc. So, next time you're shopping for a mobile - think what it says about you! :)