Rilakkuma purikura for office ladies

Written by: Michael Keferl on February 6, 2009 at 6:28 pm | In DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION | No Comments

Rebecca posted before on Rilakkuma character-themed hotel rooms, so we shouldn’t be too surprised to see the lovable little bear make his way into the print-club booth.

While normal purikura (print-club) photo booths are all about making high school girls look gorgeous, this incarnation seems to be targeted towards women out of school and working. Rilakkuma is popular with this group (as are many characters), but since they’ve grown up with purikura it just makes sense to combine the two, no?

After taking photos in the booth, users can customize them along with the characters, write notes, add graphics, and even have digital copies sent to an email address to share with others or post online like these lovely ladies and general character fanatic Hamyblue did.

Tags: Purikura, Rilakkuma, Women
Category: DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

DecoChoco, custom chocolate straight from the game center

Written by: Rebecca Milner on December 27, 2008 at 1:59 am | In DIGITAL LIFE | 1 Comment

At the beginning of the year, we covered Tirol’s DecoChoco service, which encourages consumers to customize the packaging of these popular little chocolates with photos uploaded onto their PCs. Since the interface allows for decorating the photos with stamps and borders a la print club, we likened the service to the popular schoolgirl pastime of “purikura.” Now, however, Tirol has teamed up with innovative maker of print club machines Furyu, to offer the service directly from the arcade using actual print club photos.

Furyu print club machines offering the DecoChoco service have a function for users to input their mobile phone address (after the finishing decorative touches have been added). A text message is then sent to the indicated phone that contains a unique access link for a site where users can choose which of their prints to turn into candy wrappers and place an order. A set of 45 costs ¥2,362 and takes 2-3 weeks for delivery (no, delivery doesn’t usually take that long in Japan, these things are just really popular.)

Decorative print club stickers were emblematic of a whole generation of pre-mobile phone camera gyaru, but these days the clunky, stationary photo booths have a lot of competition as mobile phones allow users the same functions of print club and then some—meaning purikura needs to modernize or face extinction.

However what is perhaps more telling by this DecoChoco meets print club innovation is how it cuts out the PC, as the idea of going home and uploading the photos interrupts the immediate and social aspect of the experience. Since September, Tirol has offered its original PC-based DecoChoco service on mobile phones and with the print club element filling in for what the mobile is lacking (larger interface, increased decorating options, room for more than one user), the service is now finely tuned to meet the needs of the current generation of picture posing, chocolate chomping school girls (for whom, given their propensity for mobile phones, are just as likely to view the PC as clunky and stationary) .

Tags: FMCG, Purikura, Tirol, UGC
Category: DIGITAL LIFE
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

(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