(ビデクラ) Videkura has the next dance with the Love & Berry Digital Stage

Written by: Michael Keferl on March 29, 2007 at 1:39 am | In DIGITAL LIFE, MARKETING IDEAS | 6 Comments

OK, so last summer we captured your imagination with the prospect of millions of kawaii schoolgirls dancing along to the latest craze, Videkura(ビデクラ). During our trip to the Tokyo International Anime Fair (TIAF) we stumbled upon something that many may have easily looked over unless they were dragging along an eight-year-old girl. Trends in Japan is now proud to introduce the first real example of Videkura…the Love and Berry Digital Stage! （ラブandベリデジタルステージ）

Developed by Sega and Teruten Inc. (whose Mr. Ureshibara was more than gracious), the Love and Berry Digital Stage is merely the beginning of what we see as the next big thing in our new Brave Cute World. Not only is this a worthy predecessor to full-on Videkura, but it’s also the first purikura to be aimed specifically at young girls (most likely under 10).

Behind the curtains, the Digital Stage looks like any other purikura, except that it’s much more simple in design, and the interface is kid-friendly. After depositing ¥300, we chose which characters we wanted to attend and also the location of the big fiesta. The next step was to choose what the ladies were going to wear to the dance, and we were presented with a huge range of options. Finally, after hiding our dignity (yet again), we struck some cute (you decide) poses for the camera as Love and Berry themselves came out with us! It was an orgy of cute to delight even the most hardened of men.

After the celebrity shoot we pulled out the pen and went to work on the touchscreen decorating our four pictures with lots of little hearts and other such sugar n’ spice. I put a little damper on the action when I accidentally pushed the finish button, but we were just in time for the dance party to start! Love and Berry came back out, the music started to play, and we did the only thing it seemed we were supposed to do: Dance like we’d never danced before.

After our sweaty minute (the booth gets quite hot) we received our photo sheet with the results. Because of the way they overlay the digital graphics it’s important to stay away from Love and Berry or you’re apt to lose a limb. On the bottom of the photo sheet is a QR code that you scan with your mobile phone that allows you to access both photos and video. Unfortunately, you can only save or share the photos, but nothing for the video. We did our best to get some footage in with the video below.

The Love and Berry Digital Stage will be making its debut in from this April, but it’s only the beginning. We were told that there will be similar booths released featuring the likes of Mushi King and even Naruto! In the Naruto version you’ll be able to strike lots of fighting poses using a sword…but what do you do as a giant beetle? Will boys enjoy the experience like the girls already do, or even as much as I secretly did? This is just a taste of what’s to come with the future schoolgirl manifestations of Videkura, ready to knock their loose socks off.

Click the thumbnail below to see our highly embarrassing photos, and access them yourself with the QR code if you’re in Japan. Enjoy!

Hat tip to Teruten Inc.

Tags: gaming, Love and Berry, Purikura, Videkura
Category: DIGITAL LIFE, MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Love and Berry: Merchandise and Fashion Integration

Written by: Michael Keferl on October 13, 2006 at 9:55 pm | In DIGITAL LIFE | 20 Comments

As we discussed earlier this week, Love and Berry （ラブ and ベリ）is an arcade/collectibles game that has been a major hit for young girls for the past year and half. The game itself is quite simple, so today we’ll talk about where the real money comes from: Merchandise!

Sure, Love and Berry costs about one dollar for a single play, which gives the player one card for future games, but it doesn’t stop there. Love and Berry has become an entire image for young girls. To begin with, Love and Berry is expensive to have as a hobby, so Love and Berry accessories and cards are a way for young kids to show off. We talked to several girls this week about whether they play the game or not, and nearly every single one complained about how expensive it is. Of course, our young friends are not the “girly girls” L&B targets, so we doubt they’d be playing the game anyway.

L&B has a large line of accessories, school gear, toys, and fashion which (in our game center at least) are sold in a toy shop only a few meters away from where the game consoles are. Earlier this year there was a big push on wristbands that illuminated when the game was being played. Of course, marketing products like this for a game is not a new thing, but the fashion concept works perfectly because it’s the basis for the game itself. You can sell Pokemon cards, toys, games, and clothing, but try dressing like a Pokemon and you’ll look a little weird.

L&B’s fashion line is divided into groups: Love and Berry “Elegance”, “Sport”, “Natural”, and “Lovely” are organized much like the clothes selection in the game are, and allow players to do in real life exactly what they do in the game. New fashion cards are released for each season, as are new real-world fashions modeled from the game. There’s perhaps no better integration of fashion and gaming out there, because fashion and gaming with Love and Berry go hand in hand at all times. After dressing up her characters in cute outfits, what young girl wouldn’t want to do the same thing herself?

Our final installment explores the ultimate in merchandising in Japan, the upcoming DS game of Love and Berry and what it will mean for the future of convergence between home-gaming and game center gaming.

Tags: Fashion, gaming, Love and Berry
Category: DIGITAL LIFE
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Love and Berry - Young girl culture reigns

Written by: Michael Keferl on October 10, 2006 at 9:41 am | In DIGITAL LIFE, MARKETING IDEAS | No Comments

Back at the beginning of last year we noticed an explosion of popularity among young girls for a game called Oshare Majo: Love and Berry (オシャレ魔女: ラブ and ベリ), which means “Fashionable Witches: Love and Berry). It seemed to happen overnight. After coming out in late 2004, by summer 2005 Love and Berry was huge, and nearly every young girl we talked to either knew about it or was infatuated with it.

Love and Berry was originally made by Sega as an arcade/card game, placed mostly in game centers or shopping centers frequented by young girls between six and twelve years old. The game is quite easy on its face. Using the cards that they already have, players swipe them in the machine to update fashion, hairstyles, etc for their players. By playing mini-games they can win more cards that they collect and can use in the future. Wearing better clothes and accessories gives the characters more power to win future games, and it goes on like this.

Often in game centers you’ll see whole banks of machines with lots of young girls (often with their parents) holding huge card books and playing the game. The “rhythm and dancing” part of the game involves rhythmic tapping on two big buttons on the machine as the character dances on the screen.

Here’s a video we took yesterday at the game center:

Much like Mushiking, a similar game developed for boys, the game carries over into everyday life as players trade cards with each other and discuss the game. During our many trips to game centers we find the consoles usually packed with players and young mothers watching nearby, often holding the massive card books for their daughters.

Tags: Fashion, gaming, Love and Berry
Category: DIGITAL LIFE, MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS