Tokyo Tours from CScout on BBC Fast:Track

Written by: Michael Keferl on July 2, 2009 at 7:06 pm | In DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, MARKETING IDEAS, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS | 1 Comment

Earlier this month we had the pleasure of spending the day with Rajan Datar and the crew of the BBC World business/travel show fast:track during their visit to Tokyo with Richard Branson.

Since the show expressed an interest in our Tokyo Trend Tours, a service we’ve been doing here since 2002, we planned a full day of locations and meetings that give a well-rounded view of what we do. We do tours and market immersions for professionals and globe-trotters alike, this time with a focus on a few of our favorites: The KDDI Designing Studio, Beams CULTuART, HP France, and Toppan. The idea was to show the power of mobile culture, fashion, and where they converge in the retail space.

It was also nice to find out that our friend Danny Choo was going to be featured in the same segment, which I believe we had once before on Attack of the Show. Funny how these things work out.

Many thanks to the BBC for a successful day, though I think I’m going to change my last name to “Keferi” since it seems to be the default misspelling/mispronunciation every time I do television!

Check out the video here on Yahoo. If you’re interested in inspiring yourself or your team with some time in Tokyo, from street-level trends, to nightlife, to boardrooms, feel free to contact us anytime.

Tags: Mobile, Press coverage, Retail
Category: DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, MARKETING IDEAS, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS
Other categories: No categories

Louis Vuitton x Mobage Town Make Branded Mobile Game

Written by: Rebecca Milner on June 27, 2009 at 1:27 am | In DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, MARKETING IDEAS | No Comments

Louis Vuitton Japan has created an original game for mobile web SNS and game portal site Mobage Town by DeNA. The free game, called Precious Cargo, will have a limited run from June 25th to July 7th. The simple puzzle game features a backdrop of the brand’s iconic monogram. Players try to line up the boxes with matching designs to clear the boxes, score points, and reveal images of Louis Vuitton products. The debut of the game is timed to follow up the opening of the Louis Vuitton “/underground/” concept shop that opened last month in Ikebukuro’s Seibu department store.

Trend Potential
Young potential consumers are given an opportunity to literally play around with the brand’s classic monogram. For many, the Precious Cargo game may be their first interaction with the brand—and Louis Vuitton endeavors to make it a positive and fun one.

Tags: Brands, gaming, Louis Vuitton, Luxury, Marketing, Mobile
Category: DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Mugen Idea - Infinite Crowdsourcing

Written by: Michael Keferl on June 25, 2009 at 9:43 pm | In MARKETING IDEAS, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS | No Comments

Crowdsourcing has been one of the more relevant trends for innovation in recent years, helping companies create and improve products by engaging the public. From cosmetics to Calpis, Japanese consumers have been engaged through social networks to give their own ideas to the innovation process.

Anyone who has a Japanese gadget fetish is surely aware of the “Mugen” (infinite) series of toys by Bandai Asovision that all started with the PuchiPuchi Infinite Bubblewrap. After going through various incarnations from soybeans to beer, they decided to enlist the help of the infinite imaginations of consumers with Mugen Idea.

The result, as you can see, is Mugen Chocolate. Not quite sure what form this will take, but I think it’s a pretty good guess that it will involve infinitely cracking off a block of chocolate that you can’t actually eat. Kind of sounds like torture actually.

Tags: Bandai, gadgets
Category: MARKETING IDEAS, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS
Other categories: DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION

New Media: Wii-no-Ma from Nintendo

Written by: Michael Keferl on June 15, 2009 at 4:28 pm | In DIGITAL LIFE, MARKETING IDEAS | No Comments

Our friends over at CyberMedia have written up a great post on Nintendo’s new Wii-no-Ma service, which looks like it has a pretty good chance of revolutionizing content delivery in Japan.

As it is right now, most Japanese are basically watching the same handful of terrestrial stations, but the proliferation of Wii consoles in Japanese homes combined with its intuitive family-friendliness make them ripe as platform for selling traditional media content other than games.

Each family member (up to 8, which is a lot) can create their own avatar in the system, which also allows the service to better target individual users for ads and development issues. Wii-no-Ma was created along with advertising giant Dentsu which is surely looking for a new way to reach folks who are in front of their screens but not watching television.

‘Wii no ma’ is free-of-charge but has an implemented advertisement system. In order not to bother watchers with colorful, blinking pop-up ads like on PC or mobile sites Nintendo created a new form of advertisement. No advertisement is shown on the screen unless the user actively chooses so. After watching video programs on ‘Wii-no-Ma’, users are guided to ‘会社の間’ (’Kaisha no Ma’ - ‘The Companies’ Room’) an advertising platform from sponsor companies. There are twelve screens in ‘Kaisha no ma’, Each of them can be utilized by companies to communicate with the customers in ways like casting videos, asking questionnaires, giving out vouchers or delivering free samples to the household.

For the whole skinny on Wii-no-Ma and what Nintendo’s up to, check out the full post at Cybermedia.

Tags: gaming, Media, Nintendo
Category: DIGITAL LIFE, MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Bara-Iro T-Shirt Pop-Up Shop from McDonalds in Shibuya

Written by: Michael Keferl on June 14, 2009 at 5:20 pm | In LIFESTYLE / FASHION, MARKETING IDEAS | 1 Comment

McDonalds seems to have much more creative leeway in Japan than elsewhere, perhaps due to the comfort level consumers have with marketing campaigns. The Quarter Pounder Shop is a great example…what would be seen as a cynical marketing ploy by many in the U.S. gets great press as an innovative new concept in Japan.

The Quarter Pounder campaign has evolved into another pop-up shop concept for a very limited time. The Bara-Iro (rose color) T-Shirt shop is a pop-up shop within a McDonalds, lasting only from June 11-16.

The Shibuya Center-Gai McDonalds has completely remodeled its second-floor eating area into a super-pink, t-shirt-selling wonderland. Customers who order Quarter Pounders receive metal “bara-iro” pins, but those who are a bit more bold can venture into the Bara-Iro T-Shirt Shop to purchase one of fifty different designs, all printed on rose-colored shirts.

Each shirt costs about $10 and is quite limited, as can be seen below. When we visited yesterday nearly half of the shirts were all gone already, and with a surprisingly large number of customers inside.

As mentioned previously, this seems like the type of campaign that wouldn’t get nearly the same reception in a major U.S. city. The cool factor would only arise twenty years later when hipsters started wearing them ironically, and by then it’s a bit late.

UPDATE: Our pal Andrew Shuttleworth snagged some video from another McDonalds t-shirt campaign in April, this time giving out free “Love & Beer” shirts (?).

Tags: Limited Edition, mcdonalds, Pop-Up Shops, Retail
Category: LIFESTYLE / FASHION, MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: DIGITAL LIFE, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS