Why Skylanders Matters to Children
Skylanders is a video game that combines physical toys with a traditional video game experience. Part of the Spyro series of games, the Activision series has the potential to become a $1bn franchise!
But what’s the secret to its success and why do kids love it so much? To answer this Dubit spoke to family gaming expert Andy Robertson. You can read Andy’s article on our Dubit Platform blog.
More than half of children own a toy based on a virtual world
Children’s virtual worlds – like Moshi Monsters and Club Penguin – aren’t just popular online; they’re also proving a big hit as toys with new research showing over half of UK children own a toy based on a virtual world with some as popular as Dr Who.
Dubit recently studied the popularity of toys based on online worlds, looking at Disney’s Club Penguin, Mind Candy’s Moshi Monsters, as well as Build-a-BearVille, Poptropica and Webkinz.
The study of 500 kids showed that an amazing 55 per cent of children owned a toy from at least one of these games. The most popular was Disney’s Club Penguin, with 32 per cent of children owning a branded toy from the online world. Club Penguin, which has 150 million registered users (globally) launched in 2005 and has spawned a series of books and video games. Each toy is connected to the virtual world as they’re packaged with a code that allows items to be unlocked in the virtual world.
Moshi Monsters, whose plush toys and Mini Moshling Treehouse are expected to be among the most popular toys for Christmas this year, was a close second. The study showed that even before Christmas a quarter of UK children already own a Moshi Monster or a Moshling (a Moshi pet). Since launching in 2008 Moshi Monsters has gone on to accumulate 50m registered users, with one in three British children believed to be a member. Even with the publishing industry struggling The Moshi Magazine, launched in February, has accumulated the largest circulation of any UK children’s magazine.
As a comparison with toys related to kid’s TV shows, the research shows that just as many children own Club Penguin toys as they do toys based on Dr Who. Furthermore, Moshi Monster toys are more popular (25%) than toys based on the cartoon Ben 10 (20%), and only marginally less than popular than Spongebob Square Pants (29 per cent).*
Interestingly, toys from virtual worlds are gender-neutral, with equal popularity across boys and girls.
73 per cent of the children questioned had played at least one of these online games, with half having played Club Penguin and 47 per cent stating that they’d played Moshi Monsters.
Dubit’s head of research, Peter Robinson, commented: “Children are spending more time playing in virtual worlds and now those worlds are becoming part of their offline playtime.
“Today’s kids are platform agnostic and don’t care where their favourite stories and characters come from. It used to be the case that books or TV shows launched characters and toys, but now online entertainment is proving just as important.”
*Research into children’s TV shows was carried out in October for Toy News.
Children’s Online Video Consumption
In November Dubit’s head of research, Peter Robinson, presented at Ofcom’s UK children and parents – media use and attitudes seminar.
Dubit’s research focused on children’s online video consumption answering questions such as where do they do it, for how long, and what’s popular?
You can View the whole presentation below. Visit our contact page to get in touch if you have any questions about the study.
Why one teenager wishes Facebook didn’t exist
Guest post by Stephanie Whitley.
I’m 19, and I genuinely wish Facebook hadn’t even been started.
Yes, I use it daily; I have it synced to my phone so I don’t miss a wall post, a status update, or a photo tag. As much as it hurts me to say it, I probably couldn’t live without it, but for me, teenage life would have undoubtedly been easier without it.
Next time you’re on Google, type in your name, see what comes up. When I type in my 13-year-old sister’s name I see her Facebook profile, her address, and even her phone number. Privacy settings? I Doubt she even knows what they are.
How many Facebook ‘Friends’ do you have? 100? 500? 1,000? My 13 year old sister bragged to me she had “nearly 600 friends!” When I asked her how she knew that many people, she just rolled the eyes, and replied with “I don’t, but it’s a big number isn’t it?”
Schools need to start educating their students by updating their own knowledge on social networks, and then educating 13-year-old girls (and others) on the dangers of having a public profile or accepting people that they have never met before. If I asked my sister who Ashleigh Hall was, and how she died, I wouldn’t get the answer that was all over the media last year.
There is also the stress and pressure of being entertaining, and getting Likes. My sister uploaded a profile picture and it only got two Likes in the space of about an hour, so she changed it. Isn’t this the opposite of what was drummed into us all at school? That you shouldn’t care what people think about you, as long as you’re happy? Of course this causes insecurities, jealousy, and unhappiness. But that’s another issue altogether.
Of course, this isn’t specific to girls in their early teens. I have friends who do it too. They will post pictures of themselves in their prom dress and be genuinely upset if their picture receives less likes than their friends. Hurtful comments are nothing new, it’s just Facebook makes them more visual.
We’ve all seen the stats, heard the reports, and most likely experienced cyber bullying. For me, Facebook makes it easy. It removes the face-to-face, personal element of bullying, and makes it even easier for those insecure bullies by simply putting a screen between them and the victim. It’s almost as if Facebook removes the consequences from the act, as bullies think that they can just, get away with it.
I understand that there are many advantages to Facebook, but I’d struggle to say the good outweighs the bad. Sure, it allows me to manage parties and share photos but teens have been doing this for years, without Facebook or even the internet.
I’m still using Facebook; the company knows being connected to our friends is more important to teenagers than another demographic and takes a brave teen to step away from this, I just hope more can be done to protect and educate those just starting out on the social network.
Youth Trends – Hauling
Teenage girls talking about their High Street bargains? No it isn’t the latest show to come to MTV, it’s a new youth trend taking over YouTube!
Definition - haul: In short: a shopping spree a vlog titled “Makeup Haul” or “(Store Name) Haul” is a video showing a shopping spree in that given area, showing products or clothing that will usually be featured in future How To, or tutorial videos. (Source Urban Dictionary)
Who’s doing it? –Teenage girls. It’s big in America and is a gaining momentum in the UK.
What is it? – The trend for teenage girls to show off their latest purchases through the medium of YouTube. Sometimes it’s bragging about bargains, reviewing clothes, or just showing the store bags they have and what’s inside.
So it’s an American thing? The biggest Haulers are American but it’s by no means unique to the US with UK teens getting involved too.
Are we talking about designer products? As most of the products are bought by the Haulers, it’s usually restricted to the High Street. Brands such as H&M and Forever 21 seem to attract most of the attention.
They’re being paid for this? No, not often: most just like to talk about their shopping. The fact that the girls are spending their own money adds to the charm.
Are brands involved at all? Some brands (mostly US ones) have started to see the benefit of targeting Haulers: these include Urban Outfitters , Forever 21 and cosmetics brand ELF. Some simply send the Haulers free products, others host Hauling competitions.
Does this sound familiar? It does. They are the female equivalent of the men unboxing videos they record themselves opening their latest gear or gadget.
Who should I watch? The Queen of the Haulers is Blair Fowler, otherwise known as JuicyStar07. Her videos attract over half a million views and she has been nominated for a Teen Choice Award, which she explains at a frantic pace in this video. Most Haulers don’t get close to this level of fame but you might want to check out UK based Dollybowbow and HollyYMBB who have 35,986 and 8,822 subscribers respectively.
Will it last? As long as there are teenage girls who enjoy shopping and making videos then this trend has legs.
Carry on the debate on Twitter with the #dubittrends hashtag.
Dubit CEO appointed to Advertising Association’s Children’s Panel
Dubit CEO, Ian Douthwaite, has been appointed by the Advertising Association (AA) to its new youth advertising industry panel.
The panel will provide industry leadership on the way in which advertising and marketing communications engage with children and young people. Its first task will be to address the specific concerns outlined in the Bailey Review including ‘sexual imagery’ on billboards, the use of brand ambassadors and peer-to-peer techniques, the harmonisation of the age of a child and improving industry and regulatory understanding of parental concerns.
Ian’s appointment follows Dubit’s work with the Advertising Association on the development of the Check website – a toolkit for anyone whose business involves marketing and communication with children.
Following his appointment Ian said: “As highlighted in the Bailey Review, the digital age presents new challenges for the marketing industry and rightly places greater responsibility on the shoulders of those communicating with children. As ethical marketers we must ensure that we meet these challenges and face the responsibilities. I’m looking forward to continuing Dubit’s work with the Advertising Association and advancing ethical practices.”
The panel will comprise of a small number of senior practitioners drawn from relevant companies across advertisers, social media, mobile, internet, youth marketing agencies and the internet. Advice will also be sought from independent academics and children’s and parenting groups. Douthwaite will join Andria Vilder of EMI on the panel, which is being chaired by Mark Lund, former Chief Executive of the COI and co-founder of the Now agency.
Location services failing to grab teens’ attention
Research carried out by Dubit shows that location based social networks such as Foursquare and Facebook’s Places have failed to engage young people, with many seeing little point in the applications and almost half worried about sharing their location.
The research was carried out using our Direct to Youth Omnibus which surveyed 1,000 teens aged between 11-18 years of age with an equal balance between gender and age. The Dubit Youth Informer panel is the largest of its kind in the UK.
Awareness
Awareness of location applications was low throughout the sample, with 48 per cent of those surveyed claiming to have never heard of Places, Foursquare or the less popular Gowalla and SCVNGR. Unsurprisingly Facebook’s Places was recognised more than any other service with 44 per cent being aware of it compared to 27 per cent having heard of Foursquare. Despite losing out to Facebook, it’s an impressive result for Foursquare when it’s considered that the service hasn’t benefited from the initial install base that aided the launch of Facebook’s product. Awareness of Gowalla and SCVNGR is at 3 per cent and 2 per cent respectively.
Awareness of all services increased with age with Foursquare seeing the biggest difference. 20 per cent of 11-14 year olds were aware of Foursquare compared to 38% of 17-18 year olds. Places saw an increase of 12 per cent across the same age ranges.
Usage
Despite Foursquare’s relatively high awareness, its usage is poor. Of the teens that are aware of the products, five per cent use Foursquare, compared to 30 per cent who use Places. Once again, Gowalla and SCVNGR both barely registered with only 1 per cent and 0 per cent of the teens using either.
A significant 67 per cent of the sample didn’t use any of the services with girls being less interested than boys with 76 per cent not using any location application. This is compared to 60 per cent of boys who despite being aware of location services didn’t use them.
Reasons against
Over half (58 per cent) of respondents said they don’t use location services, citing that they ‘didn’t see the point’. Despite teens being seen as careless with their online privacy, 45 per cent are avoiding location services as they consider them unsafe. Other reasons given included 28 per cent believing their phones couldn’t run the software and 16 per cent saying they don’t use them as their friends don’t either.
Indifference
Young people’s indifference to location services was highlighted when asked to score the services they are aware of out of five (‘one’ being pointless and’ five’ attributed to them loving it). Across all four services a score of three was the most frequent, indicating that they neither loved nor hated the products.
At the lower end of the spectrum a score of one or two was awarded by 40 per cent of respondents to Places, 47 per cent to Foursquare, 33 per cent to Gowalla, and 48 per cent to SCVNGR. These scores were only given by respondents who were aware of the named service.
Reasons for adoption
The most popular reasons for the adoption of location services were that users found them fun (48 per cent) and like their friends to know where they are (45 per cent).
For teens, boasting about their location and social standing is much more important than the other benefits of the services, with special offers (14 per cent), getting tips (12 per cent), and points and mayorships (12 per cent) coming far down users list of priorities.
Peter Robinson, head of research at Dubit says: “When Places launched much of the criticism was focused at its lack of gamification – it just didn’t look fun. As we can now see, this doesn’t matter to teens who would rather boast about where they are and who they are with; all benefits that come from being on the largest social network.
“Ultimately teens just don’t see the point of these offerings. Perhaps when Facebook’s Deals product gains momentum this will change things and young people may be driven by discounts but at the moment the brands who are using these platforms, and the platform owners need to be telling teens why they should be using them and how they can do so safely.”
QR Codes – The winners and the losers
When we released the results of our survey in to what young people think and know about QR codes, awareness proved to be the biggest barrier to their success. This was closely followed by poor application.
Since then we have been trawling streets, internet and television to find the five best and worst examples of QR codes in the wild. If you’ve got any examples then please post them in the comments section.
The Best
Gravestones
Japan really sets the benchmark for QR codes. One of the most bizarre is their addition to grave stones, as seen in this video. Having more than the deceased’s basic details on stone can look crass and that’s even before you look at the cost of extra text. But a simple and discreet QR code means that visitors can see photos, videos and text on those who have passed away.
The World Park
This campaign by Magma pretty much ticks all the QR code boxes. As well as being well sign-posted with plenty of instructions for QR virgins it manages to incorporate video, quizzes, maps and a host of content that really improves on the experiences of people at New York’s city parks. We’ve seen museums and galleries do similar applications but this really does make the parks come to life in the way a only a smart phone and QR code can.
Nutritional Info
Another cracking example from Japan, this time McDonalds are using them to present nutritional information on the food. It might not be as flashy as other examples but it provides relevant additional content where it may otherwise get lost.
Gumball dispensers
Don’t have change to buy sweets? This tweeting gumball machine lets you use the QR code to pay for your food. While we wait for Near Field Communication to gain momentum QR codes for payment might be the perfect stop-gap. Oh, it also tweets your purchase!
Speaking adverts
Instead of using their print adverts to send readers elsewhere, Reporters Without Borders used QR codes to make them more engaging. Further Brownie points are awarded for clear instructions on how to make them work
The Worst
Lynx
In game advertising has great potential but we have to question Lynx’s decision to place adverts with QR
codes in EA games, such as Fight Night Champion. The advert on the ring looks great but nobody who is playing the game is going to stop so they can pull out their phone and take a picture. Marketers need to consider the competition for consumers attention, which in this case will always be won by the boxing game.
Labrinth
Simon Cowell’s Syco Music decided to add QR codes to material promoting their new act, Labrinth (horrible spelling, we know). With a new music act the opportunities for QR codes are vast with rich media such as video and audio being perfect for fans smart phones and favoured by the youth. Instead, they used the QR code to send fans to the artist’s website – a missed opportunity.
Sky
Despite the ironic “But lo, what is this? A QR code?” recognising that people are still a bit confused by QR codes, Sky’s advert still doesn’t tell readers what to do with it. Top marks for letting them know what the benefits are (online movie demos, it would appear) but being told to ‘follow it’ seems to confuse matters. If they wanted to retain the medieval language a simple ‘point your magical smartphone at this cryptic image’ would have sufficed.
SIDI Crossfire
We’re all too familiar with the feeling that a QR code was just slapped on to an advert but in this mess of an advert it’s probably true. As well as having little information on what to do, apart from ‘Scan Me’, it’s also too small and gets lost amongst the boots and bike. When it is scanned it then links through to a full version of the website, hardly mobile friendly and something that could be achieved by the URL.
Maynards
Maynards launched a treasure hunt using QR codes through the Toronto and Montreal subway with a $25,000 prize. A nice ide
a, if only the competition wasn’t hosted in the underground with no mobile internet and no way for the phone to link up to the custom Facebook page. There are some rather technical ways to get around this but they weren’t employed by Maynards. Our research showed that an obstacle preventing mass use of QR codes
was teens having a bad experience with them in the past, meaning promotions such as this can do more harm than good.
QR Codes could be a winner with teens – if only they knew what to do with them
Research conducted using our monthly Direct to Youth Digital Omnibus suggests that a lack of awareness is preventing Quick Response (QR) codes from achieving their full potential as brands look to engage teens through their phones.
The special barcode allows smartphone users to get access to information by photographing the image using free software. As they have gained in popularity, QR codes’ use in marketing campaigns has become commonplace as brands look for new ways to engage their audiences through their mobile phone. However, with 72 per cent of 11-18 year olds either not having or not being aware that they have the software to read QR codes, these brands may be missing out on a significant proportion of their audience.
Our research questioned 1,000 teens aged between 11-18 years of age with an equal balance between gender and age. When shown an image of a QR code only 43 per cent correctly identified that it could be read by a mobile phone while 19 per cent admitted they didn’t know what it was. Eight per cent of girls suspected it might be a magic-eye picture.
Although QR codes have become part of marketing lexicon – the same can’t be said for the playground. Only 33 per cent of those questioned correctly identified the image as a QR code, with 22 per cent believing it was called an RFID tag and 12 per cent labelling it as an infograph.
A positive note for marketers is that despite only 19 per cent of teens having used software to read QR codes, 74 per cent of those who have used say it was worth doing so.
Paula Cubley, head of marketing at Dubit said: “Although this research highlights a lack of awareness with teens, it goes to show that when the technology is being used it is being done affectively. What’s missing is the messaging alerting teens to the opportunities. Marketers can’t just stick a QR code on a poster or in an advert, teens need to be told what to do with them. It might even be advisable to suggest places to download QR code readers. Considering teens are very much attached to their mobile phone this lack of awareness is surprising.”
The benefits and various applications for QR Codes have been widely promoted through the marketing press, with 2011 being seen as the year QR codes go mainstream. However, Dubit’s research shows that the most desired application for teens is to receive vouchers or exclusive content to their phone. Automatically ‘liking’ the brand on Facebook was the least attractive option closely followed by being taken to a brand’s web presence or Facebook page. Both of these examples appeared below the relatively mundane option of receiving directions to the brand or store.
The opportunity to receive a ringtone or wallpaper, or view an advert or make the current advert interactive all ranked joint third for desired application.
Ms Cubley added: “It might not be rocket science that teens like discounts and exclusive content but what is interesting is that they are prepared to receive such content through the use of QR codes.
“Historically, when compared to Americans, Britons have been adverse to using coupons and vouchers. However, the popularity of Groupon and the promotion of Facebook Deals and Foursquare have made the practice more acceptable. What our research shows is that QR codes may be the way to get these vouchers into the hands of teens.”
The survey was undertaken using Dubit’s monthly Direct to Youth Digital Omnibus. The survey offers brands the opportunity to quiz the agency’s panel of over 40,000 children, young people and families.
Youth not convinced of Foursquare app
Methodology
An on-line line focus group using Dubit clickroom technology with 7 participants (mix of genders) ranging from 16 to 19 years old
Key findings
Facebook loved for its simple layout
All of the participants in the group were frequent users of facebook and were drawn to it by the “large percentage of friends using it and a wide range of functionality”; with the majority saying it was good for keeping up to date with “events, photos and updates into friends’ lives”. They were also keen on the simplicity of the layout, which meant the site overall was easier to navigate and engage with. Most had accounts with other social networking sites (twitter, myspace, foursquare, bebo, et al) but have a lesser interest in using them regularly to connect with their friends.
Blogging is like marmite: They either love it or hate it!
On the subject of blogs, the participants seemed to fall into two distinct groups: those who use blogs regularly and intensely, and those who didn’t use them at all; there appeared to be no middle ground of casual users. However those who didn’t use them, did hold the opinion that they are a good way of voicing and accessing opinion.
Phone and computers serve different needs for Social Networking
The trend for accessing social networking sites seems to be to use a phone for fast and convenient updates, and to use a computer when spending longer amounts of time posting information and organising social events with friends. The main deterrent from using a phone for a wider range of tasks being: the speed at which pages load and the inferior appearance of the mobile versions of the main social network sites.
Foursquare pushes the level of openness too much?
On a related topic, one participant mentioned how sites such as foursquare “compromise safety” through the speed at which your current location is made available.
No real negative feelings towards adverting on social networking as long as the brand is relevant……with brands appealing more than actual products
All the participants were aware of the rise in companies using social networks as a space for advertising, and had contrasting views on their usage. Some argued that the ‘personalisation’ and ‘targeting’ of ads was intrusive, whereas others held the opinion that this style of advertising was a convenience, as it aimed at their specific interests. On the whole the group were more tolerant of brand ads as opposed to product specific ads, as they felt a brand was more likely to appeal to them than a certain product. However the users said they would only ever click on an ad 5-10% of the time. One user also mentioned that they regarded ads for “fake” or ‘imitation’ goods with suspicion, as they didn’t feel they could trust the site it linked to.
