September 2007 Trends: Teens

websites to watch
Popfly
With Popfly, you can create your own mashups. For example, you can easily produce a mashup that grabs pictures from a site like Flickr and then displays them in a rotating cube.

PopURLs
PopURLs features massive lists of headlines, videos, blogs, and content from all of those sites, as well as plenty of others.

Yodio
Yodio lets you combine photos with sound files to create an audio postcard.

Fuser
Fuser is the coolest way to unify your mail from multiple accounts. View your mail and social networking messages in one convenient location.

 
blog trends
BlogBackupOnline
A site that diligently backs up your blog every day.

Zwinky
Teen-oriented virtual world Zwinky has expanded its e-commerce operations so that members can use real-world cash to pay for virtual goods. More info.

Ma.gnolia
Ma.gnolia is a social bookmarking site, like Del.i.cio.us, a place to share bookmarks, tags, and snapshots of your favorite pages.

 
technology news - teens
Ministry of Sound System
Designed for Junior Clubbers, the personal micro hi-fi setup is priced and sized for teenage clubber-in-training’s bedroom. More info

YouthNoice
Unlike MySpace, with its no-holds-barred banter and barebones aesthetics, YouthNoise is monitored for objectionable content and has a glossy homepage that feels like a scholastic magazine: Bright photos link to articles on "causes" for teens to claim, like "poverty," "environment," and "war, peace, and terrorism." More info

 
interesting articles - teens

MySpace.com to Host Nationwide Concert Tour
In a move that further shapes its image as an MTV-like pop-culture hub as well as a social network, News Corp.'s MySpace.com has announced that it will be sponsoring a concert tour this fall.

Cellphones Look to Gain a Greater Voice in an Internet World
New technologies, devices and consumer behavior finally chip away at the telephone's long legacy as a device used for talking.

Teen Rapper Soulja Boy Ready for Duty
The out-of-nowhere success of Soulja Boy's debut single, "Crank Dat (Soulja Boy)," has become the latest Internet phenomenon to catch radio and record labels off guard.

How to Market to Teens: Keep It Real and Simple
Despite a slight decline in the teen population over the next few years, "The Teens Market in the U.S." report predicts that teen spending will grow an estimated 3.5 percent annually, climbing to $91.1 billion in 2011.

Back-to-School Shopping Now has a Second Wave
The fear of being uncool has upended back-to-school apparel shopping. Peers nationwide care so deeply about what they wear to school that they are putting off most of their back-to-school apparel shopping until after school starts — after they've seen what's cool.

Halo 3 Midnight Mania to Sweep US
Early-morning launch events for Bungie's sci-fi shooter in New York, LA, Seattle, and Miami promise celebrities, local pro athletes, and epic swag giveaways.
In addition to a $10 million publicity blitz, Microsoft revealed plans for several midnight events on All Halo's Eve, September 24.

AGDC '07: Habbo Hotel Manager Checks In
Creator of online social community site for teens gives keynote on supporting open-ended play and user creativity.
Habbo Hotel, a free social-networking service, crosses the appeal of MySpace with games and customizable avatars that has attracted more than 80 million registered users (mostly teenagers).

Zwinky's Virtual Cash Gets a Real-World Spin
Webware
September 16, 2007

Teen-oriented virtual world Zwinky has expanded its e-commerce operations so that members can use real-world cash to pay for virtual goods. Starting Monday, credit cards and PayPal accounts can be used to purchase the in-game "ZBucks" currency, which members could heretofore only earn by visiting certain in-world locations and winning games. The cash will then go on new "ZCard" shopping cards which members will be able to use at the in-world retail hub, the--wait for it--Zwinchester Mall, which contains stores like the Z-Loft trendy furniture outlet and "Like Dat," a boutique branded with the identity of the rapper 50 Cent.

For an idea of the exchange rate, 5,000 "ZBucks" will cost you $19.99.

Real-to-virtual economies are not uncommon in virtual worlds like Eve Online and Second Life. But Zwinky, which is owned by InterActiveCorp (IAC) and has a head count of more than 9 million members (that's accounts, not active users) who have already assembled more than 10 million virtual outfits through trips to the in-world mall, has not actually created a currency exchange--it does not appear that there are any plans to allow members to switch ZBucks back into real dollars. In that respect it's more like the Disney-owned kiddie space Club Penguin, but considering Zwinky's older youth demographic, it'll more likely be the teens than the parents who are doing the buying.

I'm guessing that reactions to the "ZCard" will either go in one of two directions--it'll ultimately be held up as a smart strategy to help young people learn about being economical, or as yet another factor in the material corruption of digital-age youth. Which one, I'm still not sure.

Back to top


Ministry of Sound System for Junior Clubbers
Crave
September 25, 2007

Ministry of Sound has, for a long time, been a big ol' player in da clubs, but its line of own-brand hardware hasn't previously blown us away. That may be set to change after the Ministry freshly announced a new micro hi-fi setup, the MOSMC139IP.

While the name couldn't be less inspiring, the glossy black system looks pretty nice for 90 pounds (about $181) and would certainly fit right into place in a teenage clubber-in-training's bedroom, especially if that teen already owns an iPod--a dock for said 'Pod sits atop the system.

So, specs. Each 10W speaker houses twin drivers and hopefully handles bass well, given the MoS's love of deep chest-pounding kick-drum action. The system also includes a bass-boost option to further distort enhance low-end impact and really irritate parents trying to watch My Family downstairs.

A USB port fitted into the front will play any MP3s stored on a memory stick, and as the CD player will play unprotected WMAs, we assume it'll handle Windows Media files too.

The MOSMC139IP will hit stores this month, and we hope to get our hands on one for a full review in the near future. Now where did we put those wretched neon glowsticks?

Back to top


Shiny, Happy Activism
Mother Jones
September 24, 2007

Eric Glocker is a rarity among 17-year-old high school students: He's not on MySpace. His folks don't want him to, he says—it's a protective "parental thing"—and so far he's indulged them. But three years ago his parents did let him join YouthNoise—a kind of MySpace meets MoveOn. Unlike MySpace, with its no-holds-barred banter and barebones aesthetics, YouthNoise is monitored for objectionable content and has a glossy homepage that feels like a scholastic magazine: Bright photos link to articles on "causes" for teens to claim, like "poverty," "environment," and "war, peace, and terrorism."

In his real life, Eric insists he's "average," a football player in suburban Colorado Springs with "no aspirations beyond going to college and joining the Marines." On YouthNoise, using the pseudonym Ampmaster, Eric indulges his "deep thinking" side, something Eric says would get him ostracized at school. As Ampmaster, Eric can debate the nuances of the term "jihad"; offer support to a 15-year-old girl wondering if she's gay; and admonish newbies for being trivial. ("I actually have read your blog," Ampmaster responded to one young woman who wrote about how she hates cleaning her room. "You need to find more amusing content, like rants against society and what not.") And by pontificating about women's rights, religion, and the war in Iraq, Ampmaster has made friends with types of teens that Eric would never be found sitting with in his school cafeteria.

YouthNoise is one of the most established of a growing number of activism sites for youth. YouthNoise caters to slightly older youth; DoSomething awards grants to teen "rock stars" who "make a difference"; the United Nation's Voices of Youth educates young people about their rights; TakingITGlobal has a refined, international feel. And the software Causes on Facebook launched in late May, letting Facebook members promote social causes. These sites' goal of "making service cool and accessible," as DoSomething's "Content Dude" George Weiner describes it, appeals to corporations wanting to associate their brands with hip, youthful social responsibility. Last year, a group of corporations and foundations pitched in $1.5 million for YouthNoise to revamp its social networking features, and the logos of JP Morgan, Jet Blue, Doritos, and Home Depot flash across DoSomething's homepage beneath the slogan "sponsors that rock."

The adults backing these sites say they're providing youth with tools to use the Internet for true change. After all, last year's student protests around immigration issues were partly organized on MySpace. But distilling politics and activism into glitzy one-stop shopping sites for teens may reflect adults' fantasies of youth engagement rather than the real deal. What's appealing about MySpace is its raw, unmediated nature: It "represents a part of life that seems to be noncontrolled by adults and that's why it has such currency," says Mindy Faber of Open Youth Networks, which collaborates with youth on technology and media projects. She adds that the activist sites, by treating politics as an isolated interest, overlook "how tied to culture political expression is for youth."

So far, DoSomething and YouthNoise both report around 100,000 monthly visitors, trifling compared to MySpace's 60 million. Fewer than 50 YouthNoise members use the site heavily, but these enthusiasts, like Ampmaster, are true devotees, posting nearly daily.

After three years on YouthNoise, Eric decided it was time to retire Ampmaster and live more resolutely in the real world. His online community mourned. "Tears are running down my face," wrote one poster. "You want to save the world, but we need you to save the world here." She was referring not to an adult idea of revolution, but to a more personal radical enterprise: creating a virtual haven where the cool kids can indulge their ruminative side, and the geeky ones get to be a little cooler.

Back to top


MySpace.com to Host Nationwide Concert Tour
Cnet
August 29, 2007

In a move that further shapes its image as an MTV-like pop-culture hub as well as a social network, News Corp.'s MySpace.com has announced that it will be sponsoring a concert tour this fall.

Appropriately called the MySpace Music Tour, the series of shows will kick off October 16 in Seattle and will host more than 30 performances before winding down in Las Vegas around Thanksgiving.

The headlining acts for the tour will be two artists who have built up large followings on the social-networking site--geeky pop band Hellogoodbye and emo act Say Anything.

The tour will also include the Japanese punk band Polysics, which has been signed to the new MySpace Records label, as well as yet-to-be-announced guests.

In a statement from the company, Say Anything frontman Max Bemis is quoted as saying, "We are stoked as beans to be on the first MySpace tour with Hellogoodbye!! It's going to rock!"

MySpace users will be able to prepurchase tickets starting Friday. Those who are not MySpace members will have to wait until September 6.

The site has not released a full list of concert dates or venues, but those will presumably be available by the time sales open. Sales will be conducted through a branded community page on MySpace, which will also feature photo galleries, contests and band blogs.

Back to top


Cellphones Look to Gain a Greater Voice in an Internet World
The Boston Globe
August 30, 2007

The cellphone world, dominated by giant telecommunications corporations, is colliding head-on with the Internet, where hackers abound and a good idea can grow into a Google - spawning a full-fledged mobile media industry.

The intersection of the wireless world with the Internet's openness has long been anticipated, but it is edging closer to reality as new technologies, devices and consumer behavior finally chip away at the telephone's long legacy as a device used for talking.

The high-profile iPhone launch cast a media spotlight on a device that is more hand-held computer than phone. Google sparred last month with wireless carriers over the rules governing the upcoming auction of the radio spectrum, used to carry calls and data. Sprint plans to build its highly anticipated wireless broadband service, called WiMax, in 2008.

The activity has created opportunities for a bunch of wireless start-ups.

"People say that it's just a novelty now. But when the PC connected to the Internet, it transformed a word processor to a communication platform, to a media platform," said John Puterbaugh, founder and chief strategist at Nellymoser in Arlington, Massachusetts, which takes content from places like Comedy Central and VH1 and turns it into video, audio and visuals for cellphones.

Phones are now at a place much like the PC was in the mid-1990s, Puterbaugh said, and Boston is rich with a new generation of consumer mobile companies trying to make a business in a largely undefined space.

Established local industry leaders are key to the burst of new activity.

Two companies that went public this year build the backbone infrastructure that enables carriers to send network data - Starent Networks and Airvana.

M-Qube, a company that built technology to deliver content to phones, was bought by VeriSign for $250 million late last year. Third Screen Media, a company that created a mobile advertising network, was acquired by AOL for an undisclosed amount in June.

But on top of those more established players are start-ups that are so plentiful that the mobile scene is beginning to seem crowded - even as only about 10 percent of cellphone users subscribed to a data plan in the first quarter of 2007, according to Julien Blin of the industry analyst firm IDC.

Many companies offer new ways to get content on a phone - whether it is mainstream music videos or niche content, like a foodie's favorite video podcast, and their approaches include everything from working with carriers to trying to reach consumers directly.

Buzzwire, a company that received $4 million in venture funding, lets people stream podcasts, live radio, video clips, or other content on their phones. Groove Mobile is a mobile music company that powers the music store run by Sprint and also provides downloads and sharing services to users.

Oxy Systems earlier this year unveiled Phling, a service to allow a user to stream a music collection from a home computer onto a phone. Mobicious raised $4 million in venture backing this year and aims to become the ultimate go-to spot for mobile content - allowing people to search for mobile content and ship it directly to their phones instead of going through carriers' stores.

"It's sort of a cross between Google and Yahoo in the early days when they were indexing the Internet; we're indexing the mobile content," said George Grey, chief executive of Mobicious.

Already, the cellphone industry has spawned new business - the ringtone industry in the United States was valued at $600 million in 2006, according to Broadcast Music, a performance rights organization. The content industry is also projected to grow more than 60 percent, from $2.3 billion in the United States last year to $3.8 billion this year, according to IDC. But many believe mobile content will have room to expand further as consumers begin to use phones more like they do the Internet.

RazzberrySync creates premium text message content - ranging from beauty and fashion tips for teens to "blitz fiction," fiction fed to the phone in SMS chapters. And 80108 Media sends insider thumbcasts, including music reviews, event alerts and news to phones.

Many new companies are also bringing new categories of Web content to phones. Mobile social networking sites, which allow people to tap into their online network of friends when they are walking among people in the flesh, may seem a bizarre concept, but a U.S. study by M:Metrics found that already 7.5 million people, or 3.5 percent of mobile subscribers, use such mobile networking Web sites.

MocoSpace has created a social network primarily geared for phones. It says nearly a million people have signed up. RPM Communications is working toward a mobile social network that incorporates voice and sound. This year, the company launched Foonz , a service to quickly set up group conference calls. RPM says Foonz is a stepping stone toward its larger vision of a voice-enabled mobile social network.

Meanwhile, other wireless companies are trying to break the most formidable barrier to cellphone usage - the keypad. Digit Wireless integrates letter keys and punctuation into the keypad found on a standard cellphone. Vlingo introduced a beta version of its voice-based cellphone interface this month.

Nextcode in Concord, Massachusetts, is working on turning a mobile phone camera into a barcode scanner, so users can click a picture of a bar code from a poster or in the pages of a magazine and be directed to a related Web page or get content.

"People know there's stuff out there they could be doing with their mobile phones - they just don't know how to find it," said Jim Levinger, chief executive of Nextcode. "They're building out a Wal-Mart-sized amount of content for these stores, but a cellphone has a newsstand-sized interface, and you just aren't going to buy it."

Back to top


Teen Rapper Soulja Boy Ready for Duty
Reuters
September 14, 2007

The out-of-nowhere success of Soulja Boy's debut single, "Crank Dat (Soulja Boy)," has become the latest Internet phenomenon to catch radio and record labels off guard.

The 16-year-old MC, whose real name is DeAndre Way, has racked up 10 million MySpace hits and inspired thousands of YouTube videos featuring fan interpretations of his "Superman" dance. Initially a viral sensation, "Crank Dat" is No. 4 on Billboard's Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs chart and No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100, and Beyonce has incorporated the Superman dance into her stage show.

So as the October 2 release of Soulja Boy's debut, "Soulja Boy Tell 'Em," approaches, ColliPark Music and Interscope must determine how best to capitalize on the online enthusiasm.

"Soulja Boy is the blueprint for the new record business," Interscope co-head of marketing Chris Clancy says. "He's built his phenomenon all on his own."

A year ago, "I was just making songs in my house and putting them online," says Soulja Boy, who was raised by his mother in Atlanta but moved in with his father in Batesville, Miss., during eighth grade.

He began playing around with the audio production program Fruity Loops and uploading original tracks to soundclick.com, where artists rate one another's songs.

"Really I was just playing around, but after I uploaded the first song, I was rated well," he says. "The Soundclick site linked to my MySpace page and my hits started increasing, so I started taking it seriously."

Enter industry vet Mr. ColliPark (Michael Crooms), who was looking for new talent. He heard "Crank Dat" from several music scouts, and though the song in its rawest form hurt his ears, ColliPark eventually gave in, called Soulja Boy and told him to send over some music.

"Then I started asking kids about Soulja Boy, and they all knew of him," ColliPark says.

After signing him, Collipark quickly rerecorded and polished Soulja Boy's songs, all of which he produced himself.

"I gave the record to (Atlanta DJ) Greg Street, and the following week it was No. 1 on his countdown," ColliPark says. "Nobody can dictate how far this kid will go because he wasn't even getting club play. It was just kids putting the music on the iPod and saying, 'Oh, my God, Soulja Boy's on the radio."'

Interscope, which distributes ColliPark Music, wasted no time shipping "Crank Dat" to digital retailers like iTunes, prompting a strong response from consumers (the cut is No. 1 this week on Billboard's Hot Digital Songs chart). The song's video premiered August 10 on Yahoo Music and has already been named Jam of the Week on MTV2.

To round out the upcoming album, Soulja Boy is working on a duet with Sean Kingston called "Soulja Girl." And despite the attention the Superman dance has garnered, Soulja Boy is being careful not to become pigeonholed right off the bat.

"The song is great, and with the dance it's perfect, but I don't want to be labeled as 'the dancing dude,"' he says. "My song is part of what's going on right now. It's just for teens and kids because we want to have fun."

Back to top


How to Market to Teens: Keep It Real and Simple
E-Commerce-Guide
September 17, 2007

According to a recent report from market research publisher Packaged Facts, approximately 25.6 million teens live in the United States today, and in 2006 they spent nearly $80 billion dollars on food, apparel, personal-care items, entertainment and other items. Despite a slight decline in the teen population over the next few years, "The Teens Market in the U.S." report predicts that teen spending will grow an estimated 3.5 percent annually, climbing to $91.1 billion in 2011.

Where are teens spending their cash? More than a quarter of them are spending it online, with that figure expected to rise, according to the report. Similarly, the survey found that roughly a third of teens now considered the Internet their primary source of entertainment.

Those statistics have a lot of online retailers and entertainment providers seeing dollar signs. But if you want to cash-in on the teen buying trend, you need to know how to market to this notoriously fickle, attention-strapped audience. To help provide that insight, Ecommerce-Guide.com spoke with two successful teen/young adult-focused online businesses and a leading marketer for the 14-24-year-old demographic to uncover the basic rules of teen marketing.

Rule #1: Be Authentic
"The biggest piece of advice I could give anyone marketing to teens is be who you are," said Greg Selkoe, the founder and CEO of Karmaloop, an online retailer of urban clothing and streetwear. "We've been really successful because we're authentic. We're all pretty young [Selkoe is the oldest member of the Karmaloop team at 32] and consider ourselves part of the culture we market to, which is streetwear culture. Our director of grass roots marketing is 19 years old. So we're very close to our audience and understand our audience, and I think that makes a huge difference," Selkoe said.

That word, "authentic," may be the buzzword when it comes to marketing or selling to teens.

When asked for his opinion on how to market to teens, Craig Sherman, the CEO of Gaia Online, a fast-growing hangout for teens on the Web, with two million unique visitors a month, immediately used the "A" word. The founders of Gaia Online, who initially built the community for themselves and their friends, "built something that was truly authentic," Sherman said. "They were trying to build an online hangout for teens, the equivalent of what the mall was 20 years ago," he said. And they succeeded.

And what does Sherman, who described himself as "the old guy in the room," mean by "authentic"? In addition to staffing your business with folks who "get it" and who aren't much older than their users (Gaia's main copywriter is in his early 20s and the average staffer is 26), it means being "open, honest and direct with users, about what [you're] trying to achieve," he said.

Brandon Evans, the managing director of RepNation Media, who has worked with a lot of brands on how to generate buzz among teens and has created many successful campaigns targeted at young adults, agrees. "You have to be honest and upfront with what you're doing," he said. "And you shouldn't sucker [teens], in any way, into deals where they're providing credit cards and other information without knowing what they're getting involved in."

Rule #2: Create Some Buzz
As for how to reach teens where they live or play, Karmaloop's Selkoe is a big believer in grass roots marketing. For Selkoe, his strategy was born out of necessity, as he didn't have the cash for a splashy marketing campaign. Instead he simply went around to family and friends, talking up the business, being honest (or "authentic") about what he was trying to accomplish with Karmaloop, and asking everyone he knew if they could tell, e-mail or text their friends to check out the site and buy something.

"In a lot of ways, that's the best way to do your marketing," Selkoe said. "Spend as little as humanly possible and rely on generating buzz. We've really just enlisted our consumers as our marketers." And the strategy worked. In fact, everyone affiliated with Karmaloop is part of the company's grass roots marketing campaign, going to parties, clubs and events frequented by the company's core demographic, talking up Karmaloop and handing out free flyers, stickers and other fun freebies.

RepNation Media uses a similar approach in helping clients market to young adults. "A lot of what we do is what we call brand ambassador and influencer networks, where we'll identify influencers in a particular demographic, recruit them, and then work closely with them to help them spread the message to their friends and their peers," Evans said.

"Whether it's getting a product into their hands, providing them with a special deal that they can distribute to friends, getting them to sample and provide feedback on a site, it's about working closely with a tight knit group of people, and providing them tools, online or offline, so they can spread the message to their friends," he said.

A big part of creating buzz and getting customer buy-in involves making them feel special — offering exclusive information and/or deals for those willing to opt-into e-mail lists.

Karmaloop, for example, features a box on every page of its Web site that offers visitors $10 if they sign up for the company's free e-mail newsletter. And that's just the beginning of the VIP treatment. "People who are on the e-mail list are treated specially," Selkoe said. "In return for agreeing to join our e-mail list, we give them special deals and offers... like 15 percent off or free shipping."

As a result, Karmaloop's opt-in-only e-mail list contains 300,000 names and e-mail addresses, making it "a very powerful list," Selkoe said. "If we send out an e-mail it's going to generate $20,000 to $30,000 worth of sales automatically for us, like, that day."

Another great way to get teens to visit and buy from your site is by running on-site contests and/or promotions. (Karmaloop has a "CONTESTS!" link on its left-hand navigation bar and often partners with other sites, which has brought in additional traffic.)

Rule #3: Keep Your Message Simple
"Teens have a very short attention span," said RepNation Media's Evans. "They're often multitasking: watching TV, reading e-mail, on IM, doing lots of different things. So you really need to catch their attention in a short, concise way." If you're using e-mail marketing and you "provide them with a lot of text, a lot of things to read, a lot of different things they need to click on and do [like music and video clips], you risk losing them before they see your main message," he said.

To create an effective e-mail campaign, you really need to decide what your main message or offer is, and then "put it in the forefront, and make it as simple and straightforward as possible," said Evans. Video and audio clips, even lots of graphics, while fun or attractive, can actually distract viewers, causing them to delete or close your e-mail before they've even clicked on the offer or visited your site.

Rule #4: Engage Your Visitors and Solicit Feedback
One of the keys to both Karmaloop's and Gaia Online's success is that both companies actively engage and solicit feedback from their teenage/young adult customers. "Virtually every feature on Gaia has been built in response to our users asking for that feature and then us going and building it," Sherman said. "And if we build something and the users don't like it, we change it."

That's why last December, when Gaia wanted to change the look and feel of its home page, it posted a version of the new page on one of its message boards and asked users for feedback. Within the first 24 hours, 19,000 users responded. "And they had really intelligent, articulate, insightful suggestions for improvements," Sherman said. Gaia's Web developers used the feedback in the redesign. As a result, the redesign took a bit longer, but "they [Gaia's users] made it better. And more users came to the site as a result."

Rule #5: Don't Forget About the Parents
While everyone we spoke with warned against marketing to parents when trying to attract a teen audience, all agreed it was important to be sensitive to parents, especially when it came to using their credit cards.

"We have a certain threshold for a charge," Selkoe said. "If someone charges over $300, we're going to call that customer and ask to speak to the cardholder," he said. Most of the time, parents are OK with the charge, he said. But if they're not, Karmaloop will refund them their money. "Our goal is to always make our customers happy."

While not specifically aimed at parents, Karmaloop's Wish List feature, for example, gives users the capability to "create a whole list of the stuff they want and then e-mail their parents the link," said Selkoe. Parents know what to buy, how much each item costs and can buy it for their child.

It All Comes Down to Providing Good Value
For Sherman, it all comes down to offering consumers (no matter how old they are) something of value, which could be a great product or service that they can't get any place else, a way to save them time or money, a unique form of entertainment or peace of mind.

"With teens it's harder than ever to sell them something [if they don't consider it] really valuable," Sherman said. "The age of pure mass market, one-size-fits-all, has gone away. Teens have [and want] more options than they ever had before. Therefore you have to offer a product or service that helps them to express themselves in a way that is unique and customized — that speaks — to that individual."

For Karmaloop, which has been around since 1999, the goal has always been to carry the clothing brands that teens want — cutting edge, urban streetwear — and to give its customers reasons to frequent the site and tell their friends about it.

"Every day we have new items, and we probably change the home page once or twice a week," said Karmaloop CEO Selkoe. Freshness and maintaining an edge is important to young adults, especially in the online apparel business. "With fashion that's considered edgy or unique [as well as with teens], things get old quick."

Back to top


Back-to-School Shopping Now has a Second Wave
USA TODAY
September 19, 2007

Nervous freshman Lindsey Bergholz stepped into high school last month with her wardrobe of new back-to-school clothes at the minimum: one pair of jeans.

It isn't that the ninth-grader at Hinsdale Central High School in suburban Chicago doesn't care about what she wears to school. She cares deeply. So deeply that she opted to join many of her peers nationwide in putting off most of their back-to-school apparel shopping until after school starts — after they've seen what's cool.

"You don't want the same shirt that 12 other kids have," says Lindsey, 14, adding that she found herself in that embarrassing situation last year. "But you want to fit in. You're safest if you wait."

Now, Lindsey and millions of kids nationwide are still doing back-to-school clothes shopping in mid- and late September. Some have barely started.

The fear of being uncool appears to have upended apparel shopping habits for the $7.6 billion back-to-school season — the second-most-lucrative season for apparel retailers after the holidays. In 2005, 36% of consumers said they started back-to-school shopping in August, while 25% said they started in September, reported a survey by retail researcher The NPD Group. By 2007, the numbers had flipped, to 25% planning to start in August and 38% in September, according to NPD's online survey of 63,000 consumers in July and August.

Retailers would appear to have little choice but to extend the back-to-school season.

The shift in spending habits has been building. Trends are so localized that what's cool at one school may be totally different at a campus across town. Some students also are holding off while waiting for sales or cooler weather. Others spread out the spending of back-to-school gift cards from parents who want their kids to learn how to live within a limited clothing budget.

The shift is affecting clothing retailers big and small — from teen fashion giant American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) to small-town chain Maurices. It's changing everything from how they stock fall merchandise to when they have clearance sales to how soon they start preparing for the holiday season. Stores have to refresh back-to-school lines to get their share of September shopping and delay clearance sales on those goods, sometimes into October. That, in turn, delays preparing new displays of winter and gift merchandise for the key holiday season, which can generate up to 40% of annual revenue.

"This (trend) is sending hives through the bodies of most retailers," says Marshal Cohen, chief retail analyst at NPD. "They all want to put their Christmas merchandise out by the end of August."

Some, however, have begun to embrace the trend. "Students get back to school and are inspired by what they see each other wearing," says Susan McGalla, president and chief merchandiser at American Eagle, with 932 stores in 50 states. "Does this spur another round of buying? Yes."

In response, for the second-consecutive year, the trendy specialty chain tweaked its stores with updated back-to-school fashions the day before Labor Day.

A change in the retail calendar
For years, most retailers were pushing back-to-school merchandise earlier — some even beginning within days of the last school bells in May and June. With few exceptions, they pretty much christened Labor Day as their unofficial end of back-to-school shopping.

The outdated, back-to-school shopping calendar is based on a faulty financial model, not shopper behavior, says Candace Corlett, principal at WSL Strategic Retail.

"It's plain wrong," she says. "It's not what shoppers are doing."

What they are doing is keeping spending power in reserve until they get the lay of the land, Cohen says. "It's all about fear. Kids who (spend all their money for clothes) in July or August know they won't be able to go back out after school starts and buy the cool stuff."

Stuck with fashion 'don'ts'
Lindsey Bergholz knows the consequences all too well.

Last year, she bought a bunch of long-sleeved shirts before school started only to discover — to her horror — that the kids at her school mostly were wearing short-sleeve shirts with "hoodies" (a hooded, zippered sweatshirt) over them.

"I had like 100 long-sleeved shirts that I didn't know what to do with," she says.

To avoid such a fashion disaster, Katherine Beaton, 14, of Westlake, Ohio, did only 15% of her back-to-school clothes shopping by early this month. Ditto for many of her friends at Westlake High.

Her key reason: "You don't want to go to school and look dorky."

When school started, she'd purchased only a couple of pairs of jeans, a few blouses and a skirt. Beaton says she's still a week or two away from doing her "serious" back-to-school shopping.

Getting the fashion right is serious business in Katherine's family; her sister, Lindsey Hahn, was named the high school's "best dressed" student in 2001.

Their mother, Jenny Beaton, says, "It's crazy for retailers to push back-to-school shopping during the summer. They need to back off."

Some students want it both ways. Alexandria Mitchell, a 12-year-old, seventh-grader at Durham School of the Arts in Durham, N.C., did most of her shopping before school began. But, she adds, "I go shopping every weekend and get one or two things."

Redefining 'back-to-school'
Executives at Maurices noticed the extension of the back-to-school shopping season and began reacting three years ago.

"It's changed the way we define back to school," says Lisa Rhodes, chief merchandiser for Maurices, which has 600 stores in 42 states. "We look at it as a longer selling period instead of short and sweet."

The chain now keeps back-to-school merchandise on its sales floors into October.

That has changed how it stocks clothing in July and August. It carries a bit less back-to-school apparel in the summer but adds new items more often, Rhodes says. "We used to say, 'If we build it, they will come.' Now, we don't build it quite as high."

The chain also has added a new fall catalog that is mailed to more than a million customers in September. With this mailer, says Vivian Behrens, marketing chief at Dress Barn (DBRN), which owns Maurices, "We show that we're not walking away from back-to-school, but are augmenting it."

Clearance sales moved back
Not so long ago Roxy, a chain of about 100 girls clothing stores owned by Quiksilver (ZQK), started clearance sales right after Labor Day for remaining back-to-school clothing. No more, says Gregg Solomon, senior vice president of retail for Quiksilver. "We're not having sales as early as we used to, that's for sure."

For Labor Day weekend and the first week of September, percentage increases for sales at Roxy's company-owned stores were up "in the strong single digits," compared with the same period last year, Solomon says.

"There seem to be a lot of kids who are waiting to shop, to make sure they're on-trend," he says.

Other drivers of September and October back-to-school shopping:

• It saves money. Cindy Swainbank got fed up with doing her son's back-to-school shopping in the summer and missing sales in September and October. "It was frustrating to find the same things on sale six weeks after I bought them," says the computer systems engineer from Scranton, Pa.

This year, she and son David, 16, will hold off on his back-to-school clothes shopping until October.

Lorrie Ortega plans to hold off on 75% of her back-to-school shopping until November The San Antonio resident has two sons, 15 and 7.

"When they start bringing out the spring line," Ortega says, "I start buying winter school clothes really cheap."

• It's too hot in August. Kathy Bergholz, Lindsey's mother, says it's too hard to think about back-to-school clothing in the heat of summer. "Back-to-school shopping in July is a real turn-off. It's too hard to buy new school shoes when you're in flip-flops."
• Some big states are opening schools later. With Texas and Florida both starting school two weeks later this year — and delaying back-to-school "sales tax holidays" by two weeks — some stores saw sales dip in July and jump in August.

"It made a huge difference in sales at our stores," says Jim McGinty, chief financial officer at teen retailer Hot Topic (HOTT).

• Gift cards are becoming shopping allowances. A growing number of parents, eager to teach their kids how to budget for expenses, are handing them their back-to-school shopping allowances via gift cards.

Once the card is spent, that's it, says Ken Nisch, retail consultant at JGA. With the gift card, he says, "Kids no longer have to do all their back-to-school shopping in one day while Mom is standing there with her credit card."

It's not over until...
There were no gift card limits for Lindsey Bergholz.

After waiting nearly three weeks past the start of the school year, she finally hit the mall on Sept. 9 with her mom. They spent roughly $500 on a trip to the Oak Brook Center Mall in Oak Brook, Ill.

Later, Lindsey went online and did more damage.

Even so, there's more to go.

Back to top


Halo 3 Midnight Mania to Sweep US
Early-morning launch events for Bungie's sci-fi shooter in New York, LA, Seattle, and Miami promise celebrities, local pro athletes, and epic swag giveaways.
Yahoo Games
September 18, 2007

In part fueled by Microsoft's $10 million-induced publicity inferno, the hoopla surrounding the release of Bungie's anticipated shooter Halo 3 is quickly rivaling that of a hardware launch. Microsoft today further fanned the flames today, revealing plans for several midnight events in the UK and the United States on All Halo's Eve, September 24.

Early-morning Halo 3 launch events will encompass more than 10,000 stores across the country, with major events planned in the four corners of the continental US. In New York City, the Best Buy on the corner of Fifth Ave. and 44th St. will offer Halo fans a chance to log some prelaunch playtime against celebrities, professional athletes, and Bungie staff members. Similar experiences will be on offer at the GameStop at 1000 Universal Studios Blvd. in Los Angeles, Bungie's hometown of Seattle at the Best Buy at 457 120th Ave., and the Circuit City at 8575 Northwest 13th Terrace in Miami, Florida.

Swag slated to be given away at the regional events includes Halo Action Clix from WizKids, collectible trading cards from Topps, Halo Ghosts of Onyx by Eric Nylund from Tor Books, Frag Fest T-shirts from Mighty Fine, accessories and hats from Changes, messenger bags from Enmon Accessories, console sling bag and hardware organizers from BD&A, Halo Graphic Novels published by Marvel, 2008 Halo calendars from Trends International, Halo Uprising Comic (issue one) from Marvel, Halo soundtracks from Sumthing Else Music, weapon replicas from Master Replicas, Zune Halo 3 edition, and limited-edition figurines from the diorama created for the Halo 3 ad campaign.

Rated M for Mature, the Xbox 360 exclusive is available in three versions: the $59.99 regular edition, the $69.99 limited edition, and the $129.99 legendary edition, which comes with a miniature helmet of the game's hero, the Master Chief. A limited-edition Spartan green and gold-colored Xbox 360 Pro bundle--which includes a matching wireless controller, a 20GB hard drive, a headset, a play-and-charge kit, an exclusive Halo 3 theme and gamer pics, as well as support for HDMI output--went on sale September 16 for $399.

GameSpot's Halo 3 Launch Center has more information on the game, the review for which will go live on Sunday, September 23.

Back to top


AGDC '07: Habbo Hotel Manager Checks In
Creator of online social community site for teens gives keynote on supporting open-ended play and user creativity.
Gamespot
September 6, 2007

While discussions of the biggest massively multiplayer online game efforts in recent years are likely to center around World of Warcraft and its 9 million subscribers, it is by no means alone in its good fortune. One of the bigger success stories that doesn't get covered much on gaming-specific sites is Habbo Hotel. The free social-networking service crosses the appeal of MySpace with games and customizable avatars into a cocktail that has attracted more than 80 million registered users in its seven-year history (mostly teenagers). Habbo Hotel sports roughly 7.5 million unique visitors every month--roughly 2 million more than the population of Finland, where its developer, Sulake Corporation, is based. Last year, it made $50 million in sales of virtual furniture and other items for users.

To kick off the second day of the Austin Game Developers Conference, Habbo Hotel creator Sulka Haro delivered a keynote address to an interested audience. Haro began by talking about Habbo's progenitor, Disco, a simple, online virtual club made in 1999. That was followed by a snowboarding-themed game with a virtual ski lodge for people to hang out in, as well as an assortment of minigames. In a significant misstep, Haro said the creators allowed players to use real money to buy in-game items that would grant advantages to the users.

"We learned that people hate when you can actually buy stuff that makes it so you can do better in the game," Haro said.

Haro described a "retro pixel look" that all of his works have shared. While it leaves the games less than visually impressive, it gives them their own character and prevents them from getting dated. Habbo's graphics looked old when it was new, Haro said, but they haven't aged since.

Habbo Hotel doesn't have room rates, as it makes its money through advertising, sponsorship of certain in-game areas, and selling virtual currency that can be traded for items. Because the game updates frequently with new in-game products and cycles out older items, Haro said a secondary market has sprung up around rare goods. Some items have been valued at up to $2,000, with Haro listing the total secondary market for Habbo Hotel at about $550 million a year.

That's particularly striking, Haro said, given that the vast majority of users are between 13 and 16. There are exceptions, as Haro said that in Japan the game is unusually popular with older housewives. But for the most part, the game appeals to users at the time when they are just building their identities and experimenting with the social aspects of life outside their immediate surroundings. However, once those users get driver's licenses and have places to go and other things to do, Haro said they tend to lose interest in Habbo.

The company has analyzed its users into a variety of categories, with labels like "rebels," "achievers," "loners," "creatives," and "traditionals," with most of them split in similar proportions between boys and girls. However, different regions tend to produce different types of players. In the USA there's a wealth of achievers, while Japan is rife with loners, and Finland has an unusually large percentage of traditionals.

That global success has also led to some problems for the company. While 70 percent of Finnish players were keenly interested in having foreign friends, Japanese users complained that their hotel was overrun with Finnish players. The company eventually had to use IP-screening to block Finnish players from the Japanese hotel in order to let that community grow without being pestered. Across the board, Haro said only about 44 percent of the teen users of Habbo have positive attitudes toward foreigners.

Haro said Habbo is about open play, and the company is trying hard not to define what the product is about. But more than anything else, the company wants the users to dictate what happens with the game. For instance, there are no predefined rewards for any actions in the game. Every bit of positive feedback comes from other users, and that has led to the creation of a wealth of unintended games.

Haro has seen players exploit bugs in the game's room-creation process to make their own games, creating a room of floating chairs that serves as a puzzle for visitors who need to figure out where to click to sit down. One player set up a faux fast-food restaurant to role-play as a minimum-wage-earning burger cook and take the orders of visiting users. Others would make mazes out of multiple rooms connected through teleporters. Some form their own Harry Potter-inspired Hogwarts, complete with separate factions. Others establish their own armies or mafias.

While some would call the game dependent on "user-generated content," Haro said he preferred to think of it more as player-generated activities.

Back to top