The "early adopter" rate may have passed, but there are still good reasons to register for the Ypulse Tween Mashup. We just added two more sponsored case studies to the agenda. The first is from KiKi magazine, a start up magazine geared towards tween girls. I think it will be fascinating to hear about an independent upstart choosing to launch a print publication, and how they plan to leverage technology to make sure they stay in business. We will also have a case study from Privo, a company that helps brands market to tweens in ways that are safe and COPPA compliant. I first heard about them from work they did for the Schwab Foundation's site for tweens called Sparktop and met them in person at another conference this past spring. They will dispel the perception that you can't market anything to tweens under 13 online and talk about how to do it right.

Keep the lunch roundtable topics coming. Right now we have:

Future of tween magazines - Nancy Gruver, New Moon
What's developmentally appropriate for girls 8-13 online - Joi Podgorny, Ludorum
Tweens and video games - Jen Brown, Allykatzz
Research on tweens and social media - Peter Grunwald, Grunwald Associates
Why tweens love avatars - Maura Welch, Wee World
Mom and the tween media experience - Dr. Mary Manz Simon

Sponsor Roundtable
Tweens and Payments - Jessica Stroud, Pay Jr.

If you're attending and would like to suggest and topic and volunteer to moderate a lunch discussion, email me!

And finally, this event is not just about tweens, it has been powered by them as well. I wanted post a shout out to the tweens (featured in the photo: my business partner's daughter and her friends) who helped us mail out Mashup post cards last weekend!

Posted by anastasia at 07:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

I'm excited to announce that Tina So, the Interactive Marketing Leader for P&G North America's Health and Well-Being business (which includes Beinggirl.com) will be joining the Old School to New School panel at the Ypulse Tween Mashup. (Full disclosure: Beinggirl.com is sponsoring the Totally Wired Parent/Educator Tour.) I've actually been really fascinated by Beinggirl.com's blending of health information, community and entertainment as a way to build its feminine care brands with tween girls, and I think Tina will bring an interesting perspective to the online branded community discussion.

In other Tween Mashup speaker news, check out this interview with Joi Podgorny all about kids, tweens and online communities. Joi will be leading a session with Zoey's Room founder Erin Reilly called "Marketing to Tweens with Parental Consent Plus Age Verification that Works."

Finally, I want to thank all of our friends who are helping to get the word out, especially our newest friend, Cynopsis Kids, which is pretty much THE newsletter to get if you work in the kids/licensing/tv space. I also want to thank:

Ziff Davis/Digital Life
Digital Media Wired/The Millennials
The Experiential Marketing Forum
Youth Markets Alert
New Moon

The "early adopter" rate ends Saturday, so register now. Plus RSVP for the Ypulse Mixer sponsored by MyYearbook and NGT at Bongo if you haven't already (this is open to all Ypulse readers, not just Tween Mashup attendees).

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It's funny to think about Pokemon being an "old school" brand, but the game has been around for over 10 years! Since its early days on the Game Boy, Pokemon has become a full blown media franchise with anime, manga, trading cards, toys, books, movies and more. I'm excited to announce that Lawrence Neves, the editorial director for Pokemon.com will be joining the Old School To New School Panel at the Ypulse Tween Mashup. Just one more reason to take advantage of the "early adopter" rate and register today.

For Ypulse readers already registered or planning to register, we will be reprising our hugely successful "user generated" lunch discussions. This means you can suggest a topic related to tweens and technology and moderate a roundtable discussion at lunch. Sample topics could be:

The future of tween magazines
What is developmentally appropriate for 8-13 year olds online?
How to reach moms and tweens
How to leverage different platforms for your tween oriented characters
Tweens and video games - which games are popular and why

Feel free to grab one of these and offer to moderate! Just email me.

We also added a new sponsor! Yes, my conference is being sponsored by a 17-year-old superstar -- Whateverlife will be joining us as an exhibitor at the Tween Mashup.

Finally, don't forget to RSVP for the Ypulse Mixer at Bongo (sponsored by MyYearbook and Fleishman Hillard's NGT). It will be full soon!

Posted by anastasia at 11:29 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

There has been so much buzz about how kids are getting their first cell phones younger and younger inspiring the need for "parental controls." In fact AT&T just announced it is launching "Smart Limits," with options like limiting talk time, text messages, instant messages, and Web content and downloads. Of course, well before AT&T's announcement, kajeet was offering all of this to parents (plus tween friendly content). Daniel Neal will be presenting a case study (sponsored by Swivel) about kajeet at the Ypulse Tween Mashup on September 28th in NYC. Register now (for the "early adopter" discount) and learn more about what kajeet is doing in the tween mobile space.

Ypulse: Playing devil's advocate: Do tweens really need their own cell phones?

Daniel Neal: There's no denying that almost every tween wants a cell phone, but no, not all tweens need one. We don't advocate that. In our society, many factors make cell phones a useful and powerful tool for kids and families, one that can enhance convenience, connectedness and safety. Every family will decide for itself whether cell phones work for their kids. At kajeet, we've put a lot of thought and effort into making sure families and kids can customize their kajeet cell phone service to meet their particular needs, and to ensure that the content available on kajeet cell phones is appropriate for kids.

YP: How did you guys come up with your little alien-like characters?

DN: kajeet's six little dudes represent six different personalities in which almost all kids can see themselves. They are featured throughout our marketing campaigns and in our service itself, an ever-present reminder of who our company serves.

YP: How do you position kajeet against competitors like Disney Mobile?

DN: kajeet is different because it is a pay-as-you-go service with no long-term contracts, no need for mom or dad to switch their plan, and no activation or cancellation or other hidden fees. Our service plan and Wallet Manager enable families to help kids budget responsibly and for parents to always get through to their children. kajeet is the only cell phone service truly made from a kid's point of view. Our services, handsets and content are all about putting kids' needs and interests first, while always being thoughtful from a parent's perspective.

YP: What are the top three features parents say they want in a phone/plan? What about tweens?

DN: Parents - affordability, ease-of-use/simplicity, reliability

Tweens - cool-looking (and not babyish) handsets, lots of features (text messaging, IM, relevant games and ringtones, a camera, alarm clock), the ability to personalize their handset and service

YP: Tell me about your venture into Whyville (another Mashup speaker)...

DN: We partnered with Whyville because together we empower kids to communicate with each other in new and exciting ways. We consider our partnership, which is fairly new, a success -- within the first four weeks of opening, tens of thousands of Whyville citizens had visited the "kajeet Chat Factory" and discovered the fun and useful things they can do there.

YP: Anything else you think Ypulse readers should know?

DN: kajeet is much more than "just a cell phone company." We are all about providing kids and their families with mobile computing platforms that are always networked, and we do this in a way that always puts kids first and thoughtfully addresses the issue of children and technology.

Posted by anastasia at 10:26 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBacks (0)

Just a quick post to remind Ypulse readers to register now for the Ypulse Tween Mashup happening on September 28th in NYC. We just confirmed Evan Bailyn, the CEO of Cartoon Doll Emporium (a tween site that boasts 4 million unique visitors, 90 million page views, and 2 billion hits each month!) for the New School panel. You can read more about Evan at his personal site here.

I'm also excited to announce Pay Jr. as an exhibitor and break sponsor. I'm also excited to announce that we will be doing a post Tween Mashup Ypulse happy hour at a location TBD on the west side. MyYearbook has signed up to sponsor drinks and food (Yay!). This event will be open to any Ypulse readers, but conference attendees will get priority on the RSVP list if it fills up. Look for an official announcement on this next week.

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We've been hard at work building our program for the next Ypulse Tween Mashup. I wanted to thank everyone who has been suggesting speakers and just clarify how we're defining tweens since the age range is a bit of a moving target in the media. Since we're focusing on technology, we decided to narrow the age range to 8-13 and limit the web sites that are speaking to those that are COPPA compliant. My thinking is that even though sites that are 13 and up may attract the "tween" demographic, I wanted the focus here to be really clear. These are sites specifically designed for this age group, not that happen to also attract them. We are keeping all of the speaker requests coming in for future events including next year's big Mashup in July.

We just added Addie Swartz, CEO, of B*tween Productions, to our new school panel -- Addie will be joining Jim Bower and Mattias Miksche to talk about how these new school brands are using technology to reach tweens. Beacon Street Girls has been an indie success story in the book publishing business and is expanding their online community in a big way. More about Addie:

B*tween Productions is the home of the Beacon Street Girls award-winning book series and Web site for preteen girls. Addie created the Beacon Street Girls in 2002 to provide positive role models and healthy messages for tween girls, whatever their challenges. Today, there are 10 Beacon Street Girls books with more than 500,000 copies in print. There are "super-fans" in 95 countries and BSG related products are sold at more than 850 independent gift shops and through the COPPA-compliant Beacon Street Girl website. Addie founded BrightIdeas in 1992. The company sold educational software to parents and teachers and was acquired by Addison Wesley in 1996.

We also added Bryon Cahill, the editor of Weekly Reader's Read Magazine, to the Old School to New School panel. Weekly Reader is a pretty old school magazine brand, and I have been impressed with how they have dedicated themselves to their new blog "WORD." I don't have his "professional" bio yet, but his WORD bio is pretty funny:

Bryon is the editor of READ Magazine. His whole life has been devoted to reading. In fact, he started reading before he was even born! Back in the middle ages, when Bryon was nothing more than well... nothing... he would read constantly. OK, that's an impossible lie. You got me. Wait a minute. Are we live? Turn off the camera! Turn it off!

We have confirmed that a very senior exec from Nickelodeon will deliver our opening keynote and are working hard to confirm an afternoon keynote from Disney. And...superstar Jupiter analyst David Card will moderate the Old School to New School Panel while kid/tween community guru Izzy Neis will moderate the New School panel.

I'm also happy to announce that Swivel has signed on once again as a sponsor of the event, which includes a case study slot. I was really excited when they told us they wanted to give their case study slot to Kajeet. If you've been watching the evolving tween mobile space, Kajeet has emerged as one of the leaders. They did a recent partnership with Whyville and also launched dudemail, which is powered by 2007 Mashup exhibitor Oddcast. Kajeet's CEO Daniel Neal will deliver the case study.

There are three sponsored case studies available, so if your agency or brand wants "15 minutes of fame" to talk about how you successfully engage tweens with technology, please get in touch with Charles Pelton at Modern Media. We're also looking for a "happy hour" sponsor -- the Javits isn't exactly the most hip environment to network, so we'd like to go somewhere cool in Chelsea after the event to keep the conversation going and the drinks flowing.

I also want to let you know about a special deal we have with Digital Media Wire. They are putting on their Millennials Conference in Manhattan right before the Tween Mashup. If you look at our agendas, you'll see there is almost no overlap -- the exception is Stardoll, but I think seeing Mattias demo Stardoll at Millennials will be very different than seeing him in conversation with other New Schoolers and YOU about under 13s specifically. There is no overlap by design because we want to encourage you to go to both events and are offering a discount to anyone attending the Millennials event. Of course, they are also offering a discount to anyone who wants to attend the Tween Mashup. We also are offering a discounted non-profit rate. The early adopter discount ends September 15. So register today!

Posted by anastasia at 09:03 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)