Mobile service rates celebrity via nose photos (really)

Written by: Rebecca Milner on January 9, 2009 at 8:54 pm | In DIGITAL LIFE, MARKETING IDEAS | No Comments

If you read our recent post about the “face check” and “outfit check” mobile phone services, you’ll know that face recognition technology is the latest thing to hit the mobile internet and take advantage of the now ubiquitous phone camera. Now comes the part where competing content companies figure out all of the different (and often gimmicky) ways to use it.

The latest hit site we’ve come across is “Hana de Celeb-do Shindan,” (celebrity rating diagnosis by one’s nose) a service from System Service Co. that ranks your celebrity potential by comparing your nose to an “ideal” compiled from famous examples (like Ebi-chan).

You also get to learn who’s nose yours resembles and your “celebrity” horoscope based on your nose “type.” Like other content sites we’ve covered recently, Hana de Celeb is free for users in exchange for sponsor advertisement placement.

In other celebrity news, in an online survey conducted by Tanaka Precious Metal Industries, Edo Harumi was named the hardest working celebrity of 2008 (a few in the top 10 were medalists at the Beijing Olympics, hence the metal industries connection). The 44 year old comedian had commercial gigs for Lipton flavor tea, Sapporo Beer, P&G’s Herbal Essence, and travel company HIS (to name a few) in 2008. Here she is in an eye drop commercial for Rohto Pharmaceuticals doing a take on her signature “Guuuu” act (a silly way of saying “good”).

You see, what you really need for instant celebrity in Japan is a good catch phrase. We can’t wait for the cell phone application that rates some of the one’s we’ve been dreaming up.

Tags: celebrity, Marketing, Mobile
Category: DIGITAL LIFE, MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Meiji Melty Kiss rotating winter chocolates

Written by: Rebecca Milner on November 11, 2008 at 3:14 am | In MARKETING IDEAS | No Comments

In a country where FMGC are already ultra-seasonal, Meiji’s Melty Kiss chocolates don’t just arrive with the cooler weather, they actually announce it. Like the changing of vending machine canned coffee from cold to hot, the presence of Melty Kiss on the convenience store shelves is an indicator that sweater season has officially arrived.

You see, Melty Kiss just wouldn’t work in the summer, because the melt-in-your-mouth soft chocolates would become a melty mess in the hotter months. Each year Meiji issues exactly three flavors, rotating old favorites and introducing new ones. This time around will include Creamy Chocolate, Fruity Strawberry, and Dark Rum.

Though the product, which debuted in1993, is enjoyed by adults and kids alike, the Dark Rum flavor is meant to appeal to grown up tastes. Case in point, the commercial features popular Classy magazine model Sayo Aizawa (who has actually starred in previous ones as well) and would probably gross kids out.

Tags: celebrity, chocolate, Convenience Stores, FMGC, Meiji, Seasonal goods
Category: MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Celebrities personalize your digital toys

Written by: Rebecca Milner on May 16, 2008 at 10:53 am | In DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION | 3 Comments

It isn’t enough these days for your mobile phone or MP3 player to use the latest technology, they should also be designed by your favorite actor or pop singer. Or at least one of the ones who have signed on to design products marketed to the growing number of consumers who are looking to express their personality through their digital toys.

Sony has released an MP3 player in collaboration with J-Pop icons Puffy Amiyumi. Both of the two designs have a retro pop look that also happens to be very fashionable among teens and young women this season.

Softbank, Japan’s fastest growing mobile phone service provider, has announced that pop star Koda Kumi is the latest celebrity to lend her name and questionable design talent to a series of handsets as part of the Fan Fun series.

The bright pink phone comes in three designs “strawberry,” “cherry,” and “candy&pumps” and is obviously targeted at the lucrative cute-obsessed teen and tween market that make up Koda’s fan base. The celebrity-designer element extends to the menus, wallpaper, call and mail indicators, and phone pouch.

Other celebrity collaborations in the 29 design strong series include Bae Yong Joon, the Korean heartthrob popular with middle-aged women, and Riyoko Ikeda, creator of the popular 1970s manga series La Rose de Versailles featuring the cross-dressing heroine Lady Oscar. Both of these examples show that those consumer wishing to express their fandom are not limited to impressionable teens.

Not only do these designer phones allow a degree of personalization, they virtually ensure that customers will need to replace their handsets often.

After all, how much longer can it be cool to carry around the DJ Ozma phone?

Tags: celebrity, design, Mobile
Category: DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Gluttony noodle shop from competitive eater “The Giant” Shirota

Written by: Rebecca Milner on April 4, 2008 at 1:31 am | In LIFESTYLE / FASHION | 1 Comment

For Japan’s top face-stuffer Nobuyuki “the Giant” Shirota, its not just about who can eat the most plates of curry, fried chicken, or natto rice, its also about sharing one’s love of gluttony with fans and followers. “The King of Gluttony” plans to open a limited time noodle shop in Osaka, Shirotaya, specializing in the competitive eater’s favorite udon noodles in a rich, salty-sweet meat broth.

The standard size bowl comes with 16 portions of noodles, costs 4,000 yen ($40) and if finished in under 30 minutes earns the eater a special present. The grand size, double the noodles and the price, is free if finished in under an hour. For the weak at stomach, partial portions will be available down to 1/16 the standard size, or just one serving of noodles, for 600 (about the price of a bowl of noodles at a typical shop).

Shirotaya is scheduled to open on April 25, at the start of Japan’s Golden Week holiday, and will run until August 31. Shirota himself will make an appearance in the restaurant on the 4th Saturday of every month.

This is not the first move to brand himself by Shirota, who has been flirting with retirement. He has in the past endorsed snack foods from FritoLay in their Food Battle Stadiums series, also featuring Tomoko Miyake.

Tags: celebrity, food
Category: LIFESTYLE / FASHION
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, DIGITAL LIFE, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Kitty Chan gets coquettish, courtesy of Aki Hoshino

Written by: Rebecca Milner on March 23, 2008 at 8:05 pm | In LIFESTYLE / FASHION | 1 Comment

Busty former swimsuit model turned TV personality Aki Hoshino, a well-known Hello Kitty devotee, has teamed up with Sanrio to produce this limited series of cheeky T-shirts that throw Kitty chan’s cat next door image into question.

If you’ve ever wondered what Kitty might look like if she got a little more playful, here you are. The first in the “Hoshino Akitty” line is available from this month for ¥5,800.

Subsequent additions, pictured below, will be available from May (left) and July (right).

With this new sexy-lite look, Kitty is looking a little bit more grown up to match her grown up fans. Does this mean that we can look forward to the chameleon-like cat eventually getting married and settling down to write children’s books?

Tags: celebrity, Fashion, Hello Kitty, television
Category: LIFESTYLE / FASHION
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, DIGITAL LIFE, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS