Jewel Pet SNS for school girls mixes real world items

Written by: Rebecca Milner on October 16, 2008 at 4:32 am | In DIGITAL LIFE | 2 Comments

Tamagotchi aren’t the only toys to link to SNS specifically created for character loving school kids. Jewel Pet, a collaboration between Sanrio and Sega Toys, now has its own web community called Web Gurumi, launched on October 2nd.

Each Jewel Pet, a stuffed animal designed for young girls, comes with a unique serial number that serves as a login code to the site. Here pet owners have access to their own virtual room where they appear as young witches and can play with animated versions of their pets.

Of course the more real toys you buy, the cuter your virtual room becomes.

Web Gurumi also has SNS functions such as chat and email and is set in a larger “magical world” where users can go shopping and play games.

While anything pink and cuddly for school girls hardly seems an obvious topic for a blog with a tech trend bent, we can’t help but notice the number of these things that are becoming more and more tech-oriented—paving the way for a generation of girls who can move seamlessly between cuddly and digital worlds.

Tags: Children, Sanrio, Sega, SNS, Toys, Web 2.0
Category: DIGITAL LIFE
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Sugar Minuet, new characters from Sanrio

Written by: Rebecca Milner on August 19, 2008 at 11:37 am | In LIFESTYLE / FASHION | 4 Comments

Do not think that Sanrio is content to rest on the success of Hello Kitty, the powerhouse of cute is hard at work inventing new characters for the adoring hearts and minds of Japan’s youngest consumers (and their parents).

Sugarminuet, a pair of ballerina bunny sisters is the newest addition to the Sanrio family.

The older of the two is Ballet Usa (usa is short of usagi, or rabbit in Japanese), a make-up loving ballerina with a swan’s grace and pink fur. The younger is Prima Usa, a dreamy and romantic white bunny; both sport sparkly tiaras.

Debuting on August 8th, the pair have already established a line of goods that includes plush toys, stationary, and bags—all in a ballerina-esque blend of white and sugar pink and trimmed with ruffles, ribbons, and roses.

Sanrio’s other recent characters include Cherinacherine, two little bears who live in a cherry forest (born on June 16), and My Sweet Piano, an affectionate lamb with a strawberry cap and friend of My Melody (introduced on April 21).

Both line-ups of character goods featured fruit—cherries for Cherinacherine and strawberries for My Sweet Piano—a theme which coincided very nicely with the recent trend of sweet edibles as decorations for accessories.

Meanwhile, established Sanrio characters, the popular Sugar Bunnies, have been making recent appearances on Takara Tomy’s top-selling line up of kids’ kitchen toys, part of the cute cooking boom we covered here.

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

Sanrio’s Kuromi “Maid in Black”: Akihabara Maid Café Collaboration

Written by: Michael Keferl on December 18, 2006 at 11:30 am | In DIGITAL LIFE, MARKETING IDEAS | 8 Comments

In another move to show that maid cafes are respectable, mainstream establishments, Sanrio (of Hello Kitty fame), Banpresto, and four of the top maid cafes in Akihabara have collaborated on the “Maid in Black” campaign.

Featuring Sanrio’s Kuromi, a gothic-yet-cutesy character, the maid cafés are selling character merchandise and even dressing their maids with caps just like Kuromi’s. This includes in-café promotions featuring character appearances, as well as promotion from Banpresto on their Kuromi “Maid in Black” website for the four cafés.

Promotions like this have given much more credibility to the maid café movement, and have brought in tons of customers from the non-otaku group…mainly, attractive women. In our last visit to Akihabara there was an hour wait at one of these cafés, and about 75% of the customers seemed to be young, attractive women looking for fun and a show along with their coffee or tea.

Product integration involves everything from plush dolls, to keychains, to the ever-present plastic maid models available all over Akihabara. No word as to whether the presence of female customers has been scaring off the reliable male Otaku clientele, but the collaboration has made the idea of maid cafes a normal entertainment option for anyone who likes cute.

Pictures via Banpresto

Tags: Characters, Hello Kitty, Kuromi, Sanrio
Category: DIGITAL LIFE, MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

$164,000 Platinum Hello Kitty Pendant

Written by: Michael Keferl on December 5, 2006 at 11:48 pm | In LIFESTYLE / FASHION, MARKETING IDEAS | No Comments

Today was the debut of the most expensive Hello Kitty pendant since…well…whatever the last jewel-encrusted Kitty-chan pendant was. On display at the Mitsukoshi department store in Tokyo, the “Platinum Hello Kitty (PT950) Koo-fu Special 7” doesn’t have that great name just because it’s easy to say: It’s made of high purity PT950 platinum, is a licensed Sanrio “Hello Kitty” item, and comes with seven different bejeweled hair ribbons from Koo-fu to mix things up.

Hello Kitty herself is W3.8xH5.6cm, weighs 590g, and is limited edition in the ultra-limited sense that they only made one. If you have an extra JPY18,900,000 lying around (about $164k), feel free to stop by Mitsukoshi until Christmas, when the display will be over. Don’t worry, tax is included in the price!

At the same time, they’ll also be selling the Hello Kitty themed jewelry featured above. Ranging from JPY 21,000-315,000 ($181 - $2,700), there’s something for the lower price range shoppers as well. This aspect makes more sense than anything, since people will come in to see the super-expensive platinum Kitty-chan, but purchase the lower-priced items that have the same general theme. Smart move, Kitty, smart move.

Via Sanrio

Tags: Hello Kitty, Luxury, Sanrio
Category: LIFESTYLE / FASHION, MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: DIGITAL LIFE, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS