webkinomics: Cute, Cuddly and Creating a Halo
Effect As With iPod, Marketers Rush to Build
Accessories for Ultra-popular Doll Line
Beth Snyder Bulik
AdAge.com
August 20, 2007
Chris and Steve Tini are flourishing in the
Webkinz economy.
The owners of Sweet Be's Candy & Gifts in
suburban St. Louis have doubled their staff
within the past six months and added a second
phone line just to field requests for Webkinz,
the interactive, collectible plush toys that
have generated the same frenzied fever as
Beatlemania and Beanie Babies.
"While the kids are looking at the Webkinz, the
moms check out the jewelry or other things," Ms.
Tini said. "The Webkinz have brought a lot of
people to the store who didn't know we were
here."
Accessory bonanza
They're far from the only ones benefiting. The
popularity of Webkinz, like that of the iPod
before them, has resulted in sanctioned and
unsanctioned accessories, such as trading cards,
jewelry, clothing, books and party products, and
spurred a rush by toy and gift makers to create
rival real-world products that connect to the
virtual Webkinz World.
It's impossible to value the extended Webkinz
economy, but it's assuredly huge, ranging from
entrepreneurial eBay-ers selling Webkinz
clothing to media for enthusiasts, such as
Beckett Media's recently announced bimonthly
Webkinz magazine, Plushie Pals. There are books,
too. "The Complete Idiot's Guide to Webkinz" is
due out in January, according to Amazon. That
doesn't include, of course, the scores of media
bloggers and columnists who've chronicled their
child's or niece's or neighbor kid's fascination
with Webkinz.
"We've had our eyes on Webkinz for about 18
months," Beckett Media's Doug Kale said in a
news release. "The Webkinz craze has all the
same feeling and buzz of Beanie Babies or
Pokemon."
That's naturally drawn Webkinz competitors such
as Shining Stars, Ty Girlz and Kookeys, as well
as offerings such as Mattel's Barbie Girls,
MGA's Be Bratz and Hasbro's Net Jet. (While
Webkinz has KinzChat and KinzCash, Barbie fans
can chat online with B Chat and buy items with B
Bucks.) There is also a growing list of
noncompeting toys seeking to straddle the real
and virtual arenas. Spotz, for instance,
introduced by Zizzle last week, combines a Spotz
button maker (retail $24.99) with an online
Spotz site (free) where girls can design buttons
with their own photos or art and interact with
the Spotz girls.
Complicated combinations
"Whether it's a toy/digital combo or a
TV/internet combo or all three, I firmly believe
we're going to see these types of property
proliferation explode, and we'll see
ever-more-creative and perhaps complicated
combinations of physical and digital product
interaction," NPD analyst Anita Frazier wrote in
an e-mail interview.
Webkinz parent Ganz is private and does not
disclose sales, nor is it able to quantify the
thriving economy it's spawned. (A single
interactive toy retails for about $12.) But Ganz
does seem to appreciate the market it's created.
"We're really excited and still feeling very
positive ... about seeing the potential in what
we ourselves have released," said spokeswoman
Susan McVeigh. "It's been interesting to see
this become a whole new arena for everyone."
Ms. McVeigh would not say how many Webkinz have
been sold, but according to internet-tracking
site Hitwise, traffic to Webkinz.com has
increased 1,300% year over year, with visitors
staying for an average of more than 12 minutes.
Webkinz.com had more than 3.7 million unique
visitors in May, according to ComScore Networks.
Ganz this summer has launched trading cards,
with codes and an online area at Webkinz.com,
and Webkinz Charms, which also have secret
codes, like those that come with the Webkinz
plush animals, that unlock play in the site's
Charm Forest. Just weeks after their launch, the
Charms are selling out at specialty and gift
stores. People are already preordering Ganz's
Webkinz-brand clothing (with codes), plus lip
glosses and body spritzes, for the fall.
Different economies
There are differences between the Apple and
Webkinz extended economies, however. Ganz has
been adamant about protecting its intellectual
property and the Webkinz brand and has not
allowed any licensing or use. Apple, on the
other hand, mostly has let the iPod economy grow
and flourish on its own.
The Webkinz economy could grow even bigger,
given that the product has a foot -- and can
ring up sales -- in both the real world and the
virtual world. "The internet just opens up
infinite worlds of possibility for all types of
products," NPD's Ms. Frazier said.
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