StyleWalker SNS x UNIQLO Collaboration

Written by: Michael Keferl on April 17, 2009 at 5:27 pm | In LIFESTYLE / FASHION, MARKETING IDEAS | No Comments

We’ve touched on some collaborations that Branding (the agency behind the Tokyo Girl’s Collection) is taking on with its various platforms to market new products and services through the event. Back in 2007 we did a full report on the digital side of Branding’s (then called Xavel) empire, especially the Stylewalker SNS where they’ve been mixing the tangible with the intangible to both market and monetize fashion online.

DeNA has done very well selling digital goods to customers within its Mobage Town mobile SNS service, but Stylewalker uses the platform to sell digital versions of actual products. Members can dress their avatars in fashions from the Doll Store that are simultaneously available online as real products. The latest Tokyo Girls Collection x UNIQLO collaboration jacket is one such item.

This new jacket, made for the TGC and modeled there during the event, is available from UNIQLO stores in several different colors, all of which are available now in the Doll Store. In fact, the UNIQLO section of the Doll Store features the latest styles to come out by the brand for Spring.

Trend Potential
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Tags: Collaborations, Fashion, SNS
Category: LIFESTYLE / FASHION, MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: DIGITAL LIFE, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Calpis and Mixi collaborate on crowdsourced beverage

Written by: Rebecca Milner on November 25, 2008 at 3:42 am | In DIGITAL LIFE, MARKETING IDEAS | No Comments

Now you can have a tasty beverage to wash down your crowdsourced ramen!

When Calpis set about creating the fourth flavor in the Fruits Calpis line-up they asked users of Mixi, Japan’s largest social networking service, for their ideas. The resulting flavor is Mixed Fruit, a blend of apple, pear, mandarin orange, and banana.

The collaboration, which began back in May, included all steps of the decision process—from flavor to ad copy to package design.

This certainly isn’t the first beverage-media tie-in product we’ve seen; however, the Calpis-Mixi collaboration also makes good use of the potential power of social networking sites to build customer loyalty. Like the publishing sites that mine SNS mobile novel sites for content, confident that online fans will turn into paying offline customers, Calpis can expect those participating Mixi users to feel a personal attachment to the product through their involvement.

Tags: beverages, Collaborations, Crowdsourcing, FMCG, Mixi, SNS
Category: DIGITAL LIFE, MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

Crowdsourced cup ramen via Mixi SNS

Written by: Michael Keferl on November 20, 2008 at 10:45 am | In MARKETING IDEAS | 2 Comments

Cup ramen maker Acecook has been collaborating with Japanese SNS giant Mixi to create new flavors along with the community (login required) there. Since geeks are online alot, and are known for consuming vast quantities of instant noodles, this is a match made in heaven complete with blog parts (below).

Users in the community (over 4000 now) could vote on flavor variations and even marketing slogans to promote the products that they help to design. Now that the innovation process is over, on November 28th there will be a special party for group members in Osaka to celebrate the new flavors that are being released in a few weeks. December 8th brings “Collagen noodles” and “Milk Tantanmen“, while December 15th is the debut of “Bacon, egg, and vegetables” and “Ginseng Chicken”.

Above are some variations from the previous campaign with Mixi.

Like we said, within Mixi this is a great match because of all the niche groups that can be tapped for their expertise (read: fanaticism) about certain subjects. It’s also a pretty controlled environment, so users are helping the process along with the company, not creating their own open-source cup noodle. With the chaos that is 2-channel, one can only imagine what kind of cup noodle they would invent in there.

Thanks to our friend Marco at CyberMedia for the tip!

Tags: Crowdsourcing, FMCG, food, Mixi, SNS
Category: MARKETING IDEAS
Other categories: DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS

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

2D love for PC savvy girls at Web Kare

Written by: Rebecca Milner on September 29, 2008 at 8:40 am | In DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION | 2 Comments

Considering the not-so marginalized male population who openly admit online to preferring “2D” girls over the real, live thing there has got to be a proportionate number of lonely 3D girls out there fed up with competing for the remaining eligible segment of the population.

Or perhaps it is another example of the current trend of taking digital world success stories and tweaking them to suit the growing tech-savvy female population. Either way we are seeing a continued number of new “love simulation” role playing games for romance-hungry school girls (and admittedly probably some older ones too).

The latest, launched this month from contents creator Link Think, certainly doesn’t try to candy coat the concept—its called Web Kare (“kare” means “boyfriend”).

Set on a campus, Web Kare is a PC based game that also incorporates a profile page, facebook wall style “minilog,” blog parts, and BBS. Like other SNS that encourage user-generated content, the BBS is called “Oekaki” (“draw a picture”) and is a space for members to upload their original Web Kare inspired illustrations.

After registering, members can choose from four preset boyfriends (representing the usual types: sporty, bad boy, intellectual, and the older man) although the potential for making the acquaintance of new love interests exists as the game unfolds.

Changing between any of the four can be done by the simple clicking of a button. There are also events that can be attended together and users can maintain animated photo albums to record these “shared” memories. Perhaps the most impressive function is that voice actors provide voices for the characters, making this replacement for the real thing that much more convincing.

Tags: Romance, RPGs, SNS, Web 2.0
Category: DIGITAL LIFE, LIFESTYLE / FASHION
Other categories: MARKETING IDEAS, PRODUCT INNOVATIONS