Retailers 'Sell' to Young, Virtually

Not only have Tampax developed a new campaign tapping into social network 'Stardoll' to kick-off its monthly gift club (see here) but now see how other big brands like Kohls, Sears and K-Swiss are setting up shop there to sell virtual versions of their products to girls.

Thanks again to NGT and The Wall Street Jounral for this alert.

Kohl's, Sears Build Brands As Children Clothe Their Avatars Online

Retailer Kohl's Corp. this month launched a new line of apparel, but the plaid skirts and printed T-shirts won't be sold in its 957 stores. Instead, it's selling them on Stardoll.com, a virtual community for teens and tweens where kids can fork over "Stardollars" -- purchased online at a nominal sum -- to buy apparel for their online characters.

With back-to-school sales off to a slow start, more old-line retailers and clothing labels are reaching out to kids online, enticing them to try virtual versions of their togs in hopes of making actual sales later. Kohl's first virtual line features pieces from its new Abbey Dawn collection, designed by singer Avril Lavigne. In its first 16 days, Kohl's Stardoll boutique logged some 2.2 million visits and sold 1.8 million items. Kohls.com lured 97,000 visitors who clicked through from the boutique site.

This month, casual-wear maker K-Swiss Inc. and lingerie and swimwear designer Eberjey rolled out virtual clothes on There.com. And in late July, retail pioneer Sears Holdings Corp. opened its first online boutique featuring back-to-school apparel and dorm-room furniture on teen site Zwinky.com. Sears said the boutiques logged 750,000 visitors and sold 850,000 virtual items during their first 16 days through mid-August.

These mainline retailers hope the virtual showrooms will be more effective than traditional ads in hooking tweens and teens. Users of the sites already can spend virtual dollars on virtual clothes designed by the sites, or by early adopters such as American Apparel Inc. that went virtual two years ago. The sites are places to fashion digital personalities, called "avatars," that participants use to explore new styles, relationships and behaviors. Typically, these sites now offer a click through to buy the real products.

"When you look at an ad, it's pretty quick," said Jennifer Weiderman, vice president of global marketing for K-Swiss. "But when they're in this virtual world, this gets them to spend more time [viewing] your product. It's a little bit more sticky."

Ms. Weiderman said she is dialing back her spending on TV ads this year and expects to allocate 15% of her marketing budget to online initiatives, up from 5% last year. Sears and J.C. Penney Co., which last month made virtual versions of its teen and young-adult clothing available to users of Yahoo's instant messenger service, say they've increased online ad spending this year. Kohl's also said it is allocating more of its online ad dollars this year to targeting teens. None would detail the scale of the budget shift.

Details of the arrangements vary, but a retailer or brand typically pays a fee to have a virtual community host and develop its store and products. At There.com, the fee ranges from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand, depending on how elaborate the store is and how many items will be sold. The brand and the Web site sometimes split revenue from the virtual purchases. But since virtual clothes cost from under $1 to $5 -- brands regard this revenue as negligible.

"It's really a way to get shoppers to test-drive your product," said Carlos Mejia, chief financial officer of Eberjey, a maker of lingerie, swimwear and sleepwear. The brand, which largely sells to women ages 20 to 45, hopes to attract teenagers with its virtual line.

Penney decided this year to put back-to-school outfits on Yahoo after learning that, during a seven-week experiment last summer, 1.5 million avatars wore its clothing on Yahoo and 5 million Penney outfits were tried on. "It casts a very modern, current light on the brand with teens," says Mike Boylson, Penney's chief marketing officer. Before Penney's presence on Yahoo, "perhaps J.C. Penney wasn't on their radar before," he says.

Sears is marketing its virtual boutiques on billboards in the virtual world, and is hosting daily fashion shows on the site promoting its products through the end of August.

Not everyone is pleased. Patti Miller, vice president of Children Now, an Oakland, Calif.-based national children's advocacy group, expressed concern over marketing to youngsters via these virtual shops. The Federal Communications Commission in 1990 established rules governing the hourly amount of advertising directed at children. But the newer, Web-based virtual communities that have replaced TV viewing for some kids have no similar restrictions.

"Some of these younger kids, those younger than 8 and even kids up to 12, can't make the distinction between what's advertising and what's not," says Ms. Miller. She says children may not grasp that the virtual stores function as a brand advertisement.

Dave Bazant, Sears' marketing manager for online and emerging media, argues that children who frequent the virtual sites are savvy enough to know that the stores also function as a branding tool.

"It's fairly transparent -- kids are not very naïve these days," says Mr. Bazant. He notes that Sears is careful to not aggressively push its wares in these sites because teens and tweens are "turned off by direct advertising. We're not giving away our product for free. Most of these items, they have to purchase."

The online pitches are striking a chord with Jen Rediger's daughters, 13-year-old Tyler and 9-year-old Kenzie. In the first week that the Kohl's store opened on Stardoll, they spent about 70 Star Dollars, or $7, on virtual skirts and shoes. Ms. Rediger, 32, an interior designer who lives in Hoschton, Ga., says she doesn't mind her daughters being exposed to such marketing because "it's not worse than what they see on television."

Tyler has already asked her mom to take her to Kohl's to buy the real versions. "They look really cool on my doll," she says. "It's my style so I think I'll wear it a lot."

Using QR codes to check food safety in store

Ever wonder how where your Dairy Farmers milk really comes from? In Japan, QR codes affixed to produce allow the curious shopper to check everything from a fruit or vegetable’s farm of origin to the soil composition it was grown in. Thanks to NGT and psfk for this post.

Homegrown Evolution points us to an interesting adaptation of QR bar codes in Japan. Bar codes are being affixed to produce that give a detailed history of the item’s origin. When scanned with a QR enabled cell phone, the code will tell the story of the fruits and veggies - where they came from, and how they were grown.

Wireless Watch Japan reports:

“Prefectural authorities and the JA Ibaraki Prefecture Central Union of Agricultural Cooperative cooperating with other farming and agricultural associations are adding QR code labels right at the point of origin. In the supermarket, consumers use camera equipped cell phones to scan the QR code on the label. The code links to a mobile website detailing origin, soil composition, organic fertilizer content percentage (as opposed to chemical), use of pesticides and herbicides and even the name of the farm it was grown on. Consumers can also access the same information over the Ibaraki Agricultural Produce Net website by inputting a numbered code on each label.”

Sharing stuff via mobile phone and I don't just mean blue tooth

Sharemo: How Japanese people share used stuff using their cell phones

Thanks again to TechCrunch.
Swapping sites are nothing new (see Dig N’ Swap), but in Japan we like to trade our junk via our mobile phones. That is what the Japanese social sharing service Sharemo is all about. The site’s ambitious idea is to contribute to overcoming Japan’s throwaway society.
This is how it works: Users can offer any item they don’t need anymore (DVDs, comics and clothes are especially popular) on Sharemo. If the item is useful to another member, it can be rented, used and then relisted. This procedure is repeated until one Sharemo user decides to keep the item. The system keeps track of all actions and allocates points to active members, which can be donated or redeemed to rent items.

Sharemo’s crucial point is the complete absence of money and the reliance on trust among the members. In Japan at least, the concept pans out as expected: Although the mobile site isn’’t actively being promoted yet, Sharemo it already racks up 400,000 page views monthly.

Sharemo is operated by Enigmo, a company setting itself apart from other Japanese web companies by an international mindset. Their promotion networks rollmio and pressblog are successful outside Japan already, and Sharemo is set to follow suit in the mobile space. Will this concept work outside of Japan?

Rent your playlist

I personally love this idea and would like to see it available for your iPod too (think of those house party mixes, road trips, 80's themed parties, ad music references, etc). Thanks to Mobile Marketer: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/music/1560.html

Virgin Mobile USA renting playlists for ringback mix
LiveWire Mobile and Virgin Mobile USA have launched Ringback Playlist, letting the mobile virtual network operator's subscribers access pre-selected content channels of music.

Ringback Playlist lets Virgin Mobile USA customers personalize their mobile phones by choosing their favorite music genre and setting their ringback tones to a collection of songs in that category. Each time a call comes into a Virgin Mobile USA customer’s handset, a different tune from the Ringback Playlist’s selected station is heard by the caller.

“We’ve been working with Virgin Mobile USA on our ringback tones service since late last year, and Ringback Playlist is a new industry-first service,” said John Orlando, vice president of marketing for LiveWire Mobile, Littleton, MA.

“This takes the heavy lifting off subscribers’ shoulders, since the playlist constantly updated based on the genre they select,” he said.
Mr. Orlando said that this represents a business model translation for Virgin Mobile USA’s partners in the music industry.
“Music is changing from a buying experience to a rental experience, so instead of requiring consumers to buy the songs, someone can actually rent the playlist for that month,” Mr. Orlando said.

“The industry is moving from the à la carte model to a subscription model,” he said.

LiveWire is working with Virgin Mobile USA’s marketing team, which will handle the marketing to the MVNO’s subscriber base.

“Their marketing efforts will focus on their user interface, their mobile storefronts, Web stores and WAP stores,” Mr. Orlando said. “They’ll be launching various marketing campaigns to promote this service.”

Ringback Playlists will be available by music genre or trend with additional personalization options that can be set based on the caller, the day of the week and the time of day.
Ringback Playlist is offered to Virgin Mobile USA customers for $3.49 per month, plus a $1.49 monthly ringback subscription fee. If consumers choose to buy individual songs, they can do so for $1.99 per track.

Virgin Mobile USA customers are now able to choose from 10 different channels that feature five ringback selections each, such as pop, hip-hop, alternative, country and television and movie classics.
Virgin Mobile USA will continue to add other Ringback Playlists. Also, a special Virgin Mobile Festival channel is available, pulling from artists who appeared at the recent Virgin Mobile Festival Aug. 9-10 in Baltimore.

Available tracks include "Mercy" by Duffy, "Let the Drummer Kick" by Citizen Cope, "A Milli" by Lil Wayne, "Flashing Lights" by Kanye West and "Real Wild Child" by Iggy Pop.

Virgin Mobile USA's Ringback Playlist is supported by LiveWire Mobile's Achieve Marketing Team, which will regularly update track selections within the Ringback Playlist and provide specialized campaign support based on continuously collected metrics.

LiveWire Mobile, a subsidiary of NMS Communications Corp., has plans to launch advertising ringbacks, an ad-sponsored model allowing wireless subscribers to get compensated when they allow advertising to be hosted on their handset.

Earlier this summer the company launched its ringtone service on 3 UK, a British carrier. Virgin Mobile USA's full slate of handsets, including the Wild Card, Slash and Flare, are available at approximately 40,000 retailers nationwide, with Top-Up cards available at more than 140,000 locations.

Virgin Mobile USA lets customers earn free minutes in exchange for viewing advertising content online through the Sugar Mama program and contributes a portion of profits from downloadable content to The RE*Generation, its pro-social initiative to help homeless youth.

Virgin Mobile USA debuted the Ringback Playlist Aug. 1. “Virgin Mobile has always been at the forefront of innovative services that are fun for people to use,” Mr. Orlando said. “They believe in the Ringback Playlist service, which has already become very popular, and they’re making it easier for their subscriber base to enjoy them.

“This is a premium service will help Virgin Mobile and its partners, the record labels, sell more content in a different way,” he said. “This is a very different business model, and it’s an exciting one for all of us.”

Staff Reporter Dan Butcher covers banking and payments, carrier networks, commerce, database/CRM, manufacturers, music and software and technology. Reach him at dan@mobilemarketer.com.

E-learning at school?

E-learning is finally taking off in the U.S. Perhaps m-learning is up next, wherein mobile devices let learning continue even after the bell rings? 

Will this provide an opportunity for online advertising to wriggle its way in and reach this highly lucrative market?

Thanks to NGT and the NY Times for this great article.

At School, Technology Starts to Turn a Corner

COUNT me a technological optimist, but I have always thought that the people who advocate putting computers in classrooms as a way to transform education were well intentioned but wide of the mark. It’s not the problem, and it’s not the answer.

Yet as a new school year begins, the time may have come to reconsider how large a role technology can play in changing education. There are promising examples, both in the United States and abroad, and they share some characteristics. The ratio of computers to pupils is one to one. Technology isn’t off in a computer lab. Computing is an integral tool in all disciplines, always at the ready.

Web-based education software has matured in the last few years, so that students, teachers and families can be linked through networks. Until recently, computing in the classroom amounted to students doing Internet searches, sending e-mail and mastering word processing, presentation programs and spreadsheets. That’s useful stuff, to be sure, but not something that alters how schools work.

The new Web education networks can open the door to broader changes. Parents become more engaged because they can monitor their children’s attendance, punctuality, homework and performance, and can get tips for helping them at home. Teachers can share methods, lesson plans and online curriculum materials.

In the classroom, the emphasis can shift to project-based learning, a real break with the textbook-and-lecture model of education. In a high school class, a project might begin with a hypothetical letter from the White House that says oil prices are spiking, the economy is faltering and the president’s poll numbers are falling. The assignment would be to devise a new energy policy in two weeks. The shared Web space for the project, for example, would include the White House letter, the sources the students must consult, their work plan and timetable, assignments for each student, the assessment criteria for their grades and, eventually, the paper the team delivers. Oral presentations would be required.

The project-based approach, some educators say, encourages active learning and produces better performance in class and on standardized tests.

The educational bottom line, it seems, is that while computer technology has matured and become more affordable, the most significant development has been a deeper understanding of how to use the technology.

“Unless you change how you teach and how kids work, new technology is not really going to make a difference,” said Bob Pearlman, a former teacher who is the director of strategic planning for the New Technology Foundation, a nonprofit organization.

The foundation, based in Napa, Calif., has developed a model for project-based teaching and is at the forefront of the drive for technology-enabled reform of education. Forty-two schools in nine states are trying the foundation’s model, and their numbers are growing rapidly.

Behind the efforts, of course, are concerns that K-12 public schools are falling short in preparing students for the twin challenges of globalization and technological change. Worries about the nation’s future competitiveness led to the creation in 2002 of the Partnership for 21st Century Skills, a coalition whose members include the Department of Education and technology companies like Apple, Cisco Systems, Dell and Microsoft.

The government-industry partnership identifies a set of skills that mirror those that the New Technology Foundation model is meant to nurture. Those skills include collaboration, systems thinking, self-direction and communication, both online and in person.

State officials in Indiana took a look at the foundation’s model and offered travel grants for local teachers and administrators to visit its schools in California. Sally Nichols, an English teacher, came away impressed and signed up for the new project-based teaching program at her school, Decatur Central High School in Indianapolis.

Last year, Ms. Nichols and another teacher taught a biology and literature class for freshmen. (Cross-disciplinary courses are common in the New Technology model.) Typically, half of freshmen fail biology, but under the project-based model the failure rate was cut in half.

“There’s a lot of ownership by the kids in their work instead of teachers lecturing and being the givers of all knowledge,” Ms. Nichols explained. “The classes are just much more alive. They don’t sleep in class.”

IN Indiana, the number of schools using the foundation model will increase to six this year, and an additional dozen communities have signed up for the next year, said David Shane, a member of the state board of education. “It’s caught fire in Indiana, and we’ve got to have this kind of education to prepare our young people for the future in a global economy that is immersed in technology.”

The extra cost for schools that have adopted the New Technology model is about $1,000 per student a year, once a school is set up, says Mr. Pearlman of the foundation.

In England, where the government has promoted technology in schools for a decade, the experiment with technology-driven change in education is further along.

Five years ago, the government gave computers to students at two schools in high-crime neighborhoods in Birmingham. For the students, a Web-based portal is the virtual doorway for assignments, school social activities, online mentoring, discussion groups and e-mail. Even students who are suspended from school for a few days beg not to lose their access to the portal, says Sir Mark Grundy, 49, the executive principal of Shireland Collegiate Academy and the George Salter Collegiate Academy. Today, the schools are among the top in the nation in yearly improvements in students’ performance in reading and math tests.

Sir Mark says he is convinced that advances in computing, combined with improved understanding of how to tailor the technology to different students, can help transform education.

“This is the best Trojan horse for causing change in schools that I have ever seen,” he said.

Social media goes mobile

Thanks again techcrunch for this from japan:

There is a lot of hype and hope in the U.S. around taking social networks mobile, but mobile social networking is still in the fledgling stages in the West. In Japan, it is already a reality. One company in particular, DeNA, has taken Japan by storm with its mobile SNS/virtual world/gaming platform Mobage-town. DeNA opened a US office in San Mateo earlier this year, with plans to offer an English version of Mobage-town this fall.

Subscribers can exchange messages, chat in communities, share music, read pocket novels, and blog, among other things. The site’s “killer feature”, however, is the vast selection of free games that makes most users register in the first place.

Each of the 11 million Mobage-town members is represented by an avatar “living” in a virtual room. Both the characters and rooms can be pimped out with new clothes and wallpaper, for example. In order to do that, users must acquire “Moba Gold”, a virtual currency established by DeNA, by clicking on ads, signing up for affiliate services and inviting new members.

The circular business model has paid off for the company, which is listed on the Tokyo stock exchange (market cap: $2.3 billion). Mobage-town alone raked in $46 million in sales in the first quarter of this year and saw nearly 15 billion page views in June. And yes, this is Japan- and mobile-only.

Andriod - the OS for everything?

Thanks Eric from Techcrunch for this interesting perspective on android and what it could become

As the world waits for the first Android phone to appear in the wild (from T-Mobile), questions are being raised again about whether Google’s Android ambitions will stop at cell phones. In a speculative, but well-thought-out piece, VentureBeat’s Eric Eldon reports:

Industry sources tell us that although Android will indeed start as a mobile OS, Google intends to expand it to be a sort of universal operating system that will span set-top boxes for televisions, mp3 players and other communication and media devices and services.

If what Eldon is hearing is true, that means that Android could one day spread beyond mobile phones and set-top boxes to a multiplicity of devices. After all, if we are moving towards an Internet of things, those things will need an operating system. In this case, however, the operating system will reside partially in the cloud, and applications written on Google’s App Engine, for instance, will work across devices and the Web.

That is easier said than done, and Android will have a hard enough time simply establishing itself on mobile phones. But the more devices Android apps can work across, the more appealing it will be to developers and startups.

And for at least one other device, it does make sense. In fact, I’ve been hearing similar rumors in regards to a Google set-top-box project that I first caught wind of last year. As far as I know, that project is still alive and is very Android-like in its aspirations. As I wrote in my post in November, 2007:

If creating applications for set-top boxes was more like creating applications for the Web, we’d be able to do a lot more things with our TVs—especially if those set-top boxes were also connected to the Web. Want instant messaging and caller ID on your TV? No problem. Want customized information widgets for the TV that scroll breaking news, weather, sports scores or stock quotes from sources you choose in your own ticker at the bottom of the screen? No problem. Want to turn that annoying ticker off? No problem. Want to control the camera angles on that basketball game? No problem. Want to add the live video stream from your friend’s cell phone who is at the game? No problem. Want to create your own video mashup of fight scenes from various movies that you can edit right on your TV and share with others on their TVs? No problem.

What other devices could Android conquer?

Here's another techcrunch post on T-Mobile in Germany being the first to market with an android handset