You probably don't know,
but if you do know,
or if you don't know but would like to know,
and you still believe in BLOGROLLS,
if you wouldn't mind blogrolling this new blog,
well then I'd like to introduce you to The Pet Timez,
brainchild of two blogging offspring
from two of your favorite mommy bloggers: thee and madame levy.
Our daughters, Maeve (from france) and Jenna (from amerika) have started a blog about pets, animals, and all things hairy. It's like realtime blog penpals writing about the stuff they care about--generally with four legs.
Enjoy. Support. Giggle.
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Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts
Showing posts with label kids. Show all posts
November 04, 2007
August 26, 2007
the social networkizing of mechandising (or the webkinizing of retail)
"Did you HEAR??" Jenna gets excited about 24 times each day, but this was one of those 'urgent news' type of yelps that made me ask, "About what?"
She proceeded to tell me that she needed a pound puppy, not a real one (this week), but one of the stuffed kind from the toy store. I told her I thought they had pound puppies back when her cousin Nick (now 25) was young. She told me they're new now--they come with a code you can enter to play with them online, just like Webkinz. Investigating, the only functionality I could see on the pound puppies site was an input form that lets you generate an adoption certificate. But I smell a social network in the winds. The landing page for pound puppies looks like the future entryway to pound puppyville, another virtual pet-owning experience coming soon to a parent's credit card near you.
We owe the resurreciton of the stuffed animal to social computing. If not for social networks, Webkinz would be another cute fad with a $12 price tag and a place on your child's bed. But nooo. Thanks to social spaces vying for our kids' attention, that same stuffed animal can live on ad infinitum, with complementary purchases like webkinz trading cards, waiting for your john hancock too.
Some tween-based social networks skip the merchandising part and go right to the trading cards. Case in point Bella Sara. Right now, it's a virtual world, using packs of trading cards as the merchandising element. I can only figure that Bella Sara is doing a "reverse webkinz," putting the trading cards (which have codes to purchase online clothing and tack for your online horse) out first with the stuffed rendition to follow. I'm sure a stuffed bella sara stallion is coming soon. I think I hear his hoofbeats. More ways to my wallet. Thank you internets!
Watching tweens on Webkinz and Bella Sara, I started wondering how smart companies will find that same sweet spot with adult consumers--a place where real-world point-of-sale drives the online experience.
What would the characteristics of that experience have to be:
1) something we are compelled to purchase.
2) something we enjoy playing with or using in the real world.
3) a replica of something real that can also be experienced virtually.
Perhaps the condoms of the future will come with a special code you can enter to frolic in an online adult world. In turn, the sites could offer special features and access to those with codes, driving future brand preference in condoms.
Same with clothing. Your jeans should come with your DenimWorld code emblazened on your back pocket. You use the code to dress your virtual self and hope that some hottie has been looking at your ass long enough to look you up in Denim City. In Denim City you participate in activities that generate points toward special features or future purchases. Maybe movie tickets for your real-world date from your virtual connection based on your realworld jeans.
I'm thinking out loud here.
Blame the steroids.
------
She proceeded to tell me that she needed a pound puppy, not a real one (this week), but one of the stuffed kind from the toy store. I told her I thought they had pound puppies back when her cousin Nick (now 25) was young. She told me they're new now--they come with a code you can enter to play with them online, just like Webkinz. Investigating, the only functionality I could see on the pound puppies site was an input form that lets you generate an adoption certificate. But I smell a social network in the winds. The landing page for pound puppies looks like the future entryway to pound puppyville, another virtual pet-owning experience coming soon to a parent's credit card near you.
We owe the resurreciton of the stuffed animal to social computing. If not for social networks, Webkinz would be another cute fad with a $12 price tag and a place on your child's bed. But nooo. Thanks to social spaces vying for our kids' attention, that same stuffed animal can live on ad infinitum, with complementary purchases like webkinz trading cards, waiting for your john hancock too.
Some tween-based social networks skip the merchandising part and go right to the trading cards. Case in point Bella Sara. Right now, it's a virtual world, using packs of trading cards as the merchandising element. I can only figure that Bella Sara is doing a "reverse webkinz," putting the trading cards (which have codes to purchase online clothing and tack for your online horse) out first with the stuffed rendition to follow. I'm sure a stuffed bella sara stallion is coming soon. I think I hear his hoofbeats. More ways to my wallet. Thank you internets!
Watching tweens on Webkinz and Bella Sara, I started wondering how smart companies will find that same sweet spot with adult consumers--a place where real-world point-of-sale drives the online experience.
What would the characteristics of that experience have to be:
1) something we are compelled to purchase.
2) something we enjoy playing with or using in the real world.
3) a replica of something real that can also be experienced virtually.
Perhaps the condoms of the future will come with a special code you can enter to frolic in an online adult world. In turn, the sites could offer special features and access to those with codes, driving future brand preference in condoms.
Same with clothing. Your jeans should come with your DenimWorld code emblazened on your back pocket. You use the code to dress your virtual self and hope that some hottie has been looking at your ass long enough to look you up in Denim City. In Denim City you participate in activities that generate points toward special features or future purchases. Maybe movie tickets for your real-world date from your virtual connection based on your realworld jeans.
I'm thinking out loud here.
Blame the steroids.
------
August 04, 2007
sleepover
it's party time. it's webkinz time. it's club penguin time. it's making beaded necklaces time. it's popcorn time. it's polly pocket time. it's melatoin time.
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May 05, 2007
y blog?
ya'll may have readers and admirers and butts in conference seats. But I have brothers and sisters.
And in other news, the hamster's awake and eating. He is currently challenging Madame's hamster for the longest life award. He is the father hamster who saw his wife eat 13 babies, the father hamster i mistakenly thought was the mother hamster and put him in the cage with the babies for an entire day, which is why they never got nourishment and when I switched parents, the mother ate them. The second round of kids went better. No one got eaten that I know of. But the father and one of the son's did get into a pretty big fight one time and the old man kicked his son's ass. This hamster's lived so long (for hamsters that is) that I don't even remember his name. I think he's the original Marshmallow who became Max when we realized he was a he and not a she. That was after the 13-hamster-baby-parent-gender-mixup snafu.
Sometimes things don't turn out like you thought.
...
And in other news, the hamster's awake and eating. He is currently challenging Madame's hamster for the longest life award. He is the father hamster who saw his wife eat 13 babies, the father hamster i mistakenly thought was the mother hamster and put him in the cage with the babies for an entire day, which is why they never got nourishment and when I switched parents, the mother ate them. The second round of kids went better. No one got eaten that I know of. But the father and one of the son's did get into a pretty big fight one time and the old man kicked his son's ass. This hamster's lived so long (for hamsters that is) that I don't even remember his name. I think he's the original Marshmallow who became Max when we realized he was a he and not a she. That was after the 13-hamster-baby-parent-gender-mixup snafu.
Sometimes things don't turn out like you thought.
...
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