Disney XD: A Case Study on Packaging Boyhood

Nov. 3, 2009 In diving into media messages targeting boys for my weekly Tuesday Packaging Boyhood posts, my mind snap went to ‘gaming’ pronto. Is this a stereotype? Or did I just do a Malcolm Gladwell style "Blink” in rapid cognition? I flipped to the Packaging Boyhood chapter on “What Boys Do” since we know marketers are tapping a boy’s desire to be ‘powerful’ and admired … [Read more...]

Using Digital Hide & Seek To Get Kids Outside: A Treasure Trove of Ideas

Sept. 17, 2009 “Childhood obesity may be a problem of epidemic proportions in many parts of the world, but several games are doing their part to help keep kids moving. We've already covered LocoMatrix, Swinxs and The Hidden Park, and now a new contender launched last month takes kids on a wifi-based treasure hunt outside,” says Springwise (one of my fave industry resources for … [Read more...]

Digital Data Mining 101: Echometrix Takes Kids’ Pulse

July 8, 2009 Still focused on "child predator" panic on the internet? I'd focus more on white collar stalkers like Echometrix, ubiquitous in far greater numbers, if I were you. Imagine digital tracking of every pop culture cue and kids' conversation in "real time" mode, self-described in their Echometrix blog as "opinion mining and sentiment analysis," to tap the "$190 billion … [Read more...]

Media Musts To Wrap Up “All Things Girl” Week (Part One)

To whittle down to a handful of ‘media musts’ for our grand finale of ‘All Things Girl’ week has been hard, so I’m going to try to shine the spotlight on some lesser known, deserving Offerings and invitations to be a part of some incredible communities taking steps toward the vision of self-actualization, hope, and promise for girls on a global … [Read more...]

150 Kids’ Virtual Worlds: 95 Live, 68 in R&D; How Many Are Worthy?

Seems everyone is in L.A. for the Virtual Worlds Expo except me right now, with e-mails and schmooze plans flinging back and forth like a gamer leader board. No, gang, I can’t make it to dinner, but yes, I DO wish someone would crosspost some of these fly-on-the-wall conversations on Utterz as I’m sure key connections will transpire and I want to track anyone … [Read more...]