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18 Aug

Age Profiles: All worlds

Kids/Tween Worlds, KZero Clients, Teenage+ Worlds

This is the final post in our series looking at age profiles of popular virtual worlds. Here’s the full presentation:

VW age profiles 2011
View more presentations from KZero Worldswide

 

Shown below is the summary chart containing all worlds in the analysis.

Post one looked at Bin Weevils and Moshi Monsters, post two featured Chimpoo, Stardoll and Poptropica and this chart now pulls in age profiles from Habbo and SmallWorlds.

For SmallWorlds the chart shows a fifth of the user base aged 13 then a flattening out at the 7% – 9% level from 15 t0 18.

Interestingly, Habbo shows nearly an exact opposite trend.

In the last post the topic of play profiles and visual appearance was highlighted as a key factor that determined the ages of users attracted to worlds. Shown below are the avatars of the worlds featured.

 

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18 Aug

Age profiles: Chimpoo, Poptropica and Stardoll

Kids/Tween Worlds, KZero Clients, Teenage+ Worlds, User Analysis, Virtual Research

This is the second post in this series looking at age profiles of popular virtual worlds (the full report is the next post). This post looks at two of the largest worlds, Poptropica and Stardoll, along with an ‘up and comer’ in the form of Chimpoo.

Stardoll has over 116m registered accounts with a user base pretty well distributed between North America and Europe. Poptropica has over 170m registered accounts and is strongest in the US. Chimpoo has 4m registered accounts with a user base largely from India. Here are the age profiles for these three worlds.

This chart highlights the impact that different play patterns and user experiences have on the ages of users inside virtual worlds.

For example, Stardoll is primarily dress-up, with users (predominantly females) customising their avatars with clothing. This is an evergreen play pattern, appealing to tweens just as much as teens.

As this post from 2008 shows, Stardoll even resonates with the Mothers of users, with over 60% playing Stardoll alongside their children and of this group, another 60% visit Stardoll without their children. Continue reading →

16 Aug

Age profiles: Moshi Monsters vs Bin Weevils

Kids/Tween Worlds, KZero Clients, User Analysis, Virtual Research

We’re a few days away from releasing our latest report on user age profiles in the Kids, Tweens and Teens virtual worlds market. So, in the meantime, here’s a look at two UK-based worlds gaining significant traction – Moshi Monsters and Bin Weevils.

Our age profile analysis visualises the ages of registered users in a simple to understand chart. First up – Moshi Monsters. The chart below compares 2011 data.

The sweetspot user age is 11 to 12, showing a one year increase from last year, indicating that Moshi is doing a great job with user retention – not surprising given the amount of brand-driven marketing they’ve been doing.

The profile has also widened slightly from last year into younger ages. As this brand continues to grow, the virtual world element becomes part of a larger brand framework and therefore kids are interacting with Moshi via multiple touch-points.

This ‘widening’ might also be as a result of increased efforts in the US. Year on year, the US element of their userbase has proportionately grown against the UK. The chart below shows the top eight countries for Moshi Monsters. Continue reading →

29 Jul

KZero Radar chart Q2 2011

Education, KZero Clients, Virtual Research, Virtual Worlds Radar Chart

Hot off the heels of our updated Universe chart, we’ve just released the updated Radar chart for the same period (you can order the Q2 Radar here). The Radar chart shows virtual worlds by category and stage of development. Here’s one of the segments showing Education,/Learning, Fashion/Lifestyle and Music.

 

 

Major developments this quarter (and year)….. Education and Brands/IP are leading the charge in terms of new worlds in development. Continue reading →

30 Jan

Q1 2011 Radar chart: Music, Fashion and Education

KZero Clients, Virtual Worlds Radar Chart

Here’s the next segment of the Q1 2011 virtual worlds Radar chart. This one shows live and in-development worlds in the education/learning, music and fashion categories. The first segment is here and includes existing IP’s/brands, sports and content creation.

In the educational space new platforms continue to come to market as companies are attempting to ‘crack the nut’ of learning in virtual environments. The balance trying to be achieved is between fun and learning. Of course, the last thing kids and tweens want to do once they’re out of school is be taught at so it’s all about creating engaging learning-based activities and games. Knowledge Adventure has actively pursued this strategy and are doing well with their first property – Jumpstart. And, their second world, Math Blaster has just entered the market. Another company, Baobab Planet from Spain are a new entrant to the sector and one to watch.

The music sector is also doing well with established properties continuing to grow and some interesting new concepts coming to market. This segment is explored and assessed in the new KZero report, Virtual Worlds: 2011 and Beyond. This report is currently being offered exclusively to attendees of the upcoming Engage! Expo and will be available for download from our report section in about a month. The full Radar chart can be ordered here.

KZero services:

Strategy

Business Planning

Marketing/Media

Product Development

28 Jan

Q1 2011 Radar chart: Existing brands, sports and content creation

Kids/Tween Worlds, KZero Clients, Virtual Worlds Radar Chart

After a short hiatus the Radar chart is back with a bang for 2011. The first segment is shown below and contain live and in-development virtual worlds. This part of the Radar shows worlds based on sports, existing brands/IP’s (books, movies and TV mainly) and content creation.

The sector for existing IP’s being turned into virtual worlds is the hot-spot for 2011. New entrants and in-development projects are mainly based on existing brands with a heritage, i.e. they are well-known established properties such as Dorothy of Oz, The Ministry of Silly Games (Monty Python), Star Trek, Tom and Jerry and Back to the Future. These are properties with existing fan-bases, therefore providing major opportunities to leverage the incumbent awareness into active users.

The full Radar chart can be ordered here.

KZero services:

Strategy

Business Planning

Marketing/Media

Product Development

18 Nov

Dorothy of Oz branded social gaming suite launches on Facebook

KZero Clients, Strategic Marketing

Our suite of branded social games for the forthcoming Dorothy of Oz movie and virtual world has recently launched on .

If you’re feeling creative then the China Princess Dress Designer is for you. Social game wise, you can let off some steam with the Marshall Mallow Gumball Cannon or pit your wits against the Bricks of Oz. Enjoy!

You can learn about the overall online strategy for the movie here.

KZero services:

Strategy

Business Planning

Marketing/Media

Product Development

7 Aug

Animal Jam continues the trend in Branded Virtual Worlds

Kids/Tween Worlds, KZero Clients, Strategic Marketing

Demonstrating the continuing trend for existing brands to create their own virtual worlds (Branded Virtual World), this week we’ve seen the launch of Animal Jam.

This property, from National Geographic also highlights another key trend in the sector, channel convergence.

NatGeo worked with Smart Bomb Interactive on development and Jadi Communications for the marketing strategy and execution.

We were tasked by Jadi to review the marketing strategy/messaging and provide a competitive analysis of the landscape in order to ensure correct positioning.

This is a kids and tween play with the benefit of rich NatGeo content.

With the launch of National Geographic Animal Jam, National Geographic for the first time is offering content from its extensive multimedia resources as an integrated component of a virtual world for young adventurers and their families. Players can access video features, photos and facts about animals, plants and insects in a game world that encourages them to move from the virtual to the natural world by exploring nature right in their own neighborhood or backyard. Continue reading →

9 Jul

Britain’s Next Top (Virtual) Model

Kids/Tween Worlds, KZero Clients, Teenage+ Worlds

Stardoll has signed a deal with Britain’s Next Top Model (shown on the Living channel) to promote the show and give away virtual clothes. Exclusive previews of the series are being shown in the Stardoll Cinema.

Taken from New Media Age:

Living has expanded the deal for the whole series following a teaser video that saw more than 100,000 plays. It earlier worked with Stardoll to promote America’s Next Top Model, which attracted 740,000 video views.

Stardoll has a wide user age spread so this partnership makes sense as it targets multiple ages. Two thirds of Stardoll members Mothers play the site without the daughters.

It’s also another good example of how virtual worlds are moving their brands into new channels.

Stardoll leads the pack in terms of registered users in the fashion space, but they have competition, as shown in the Radar segment below.

KZero services:

Strategy

Business Planning

Marketing/Media

Product Development

8 Jul

The Brand New Worlds

Kids/Tween Worlds, KZero Clients, Teenage+ Worlds, Virtual Research, Virtual World strategy

Here’s a presentation giving an overview of how real world brands are creating their own virtual worlds and MMOs.

For a pretty-much complete list of all brands inside virtual worlds, including third-party activity, click here.

Brands in Worlds

KZero services:

Strategy

Business Planning

Marketing/Media

Product Development

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