Angry Birds Landing in Tokyo

Rovio held two events of official Angry Birds birthday in Tokyo on December 11.

The first is in Harajuku SoLaDo.

It seemed to be the event which advertizes it towards people who do not know Angry Birds yet. Harajuku is one of the hottest towns that send Japanese culture. Harajuku SoLaDo is a new shopping spot of Harajuku, and many young girls gather. It is the place where it is most suitable for promotion and marketing. Most of girls who were present here on this day would not know Angry Birds. However, the character of a round form tends to be liked in Japan. Good luck!

The second event was held in Ginza Apple Store.

Rovio Entertainment CMO Peter Vesterbacka gave a speech about the history of Angry Birds and business in the future. The participant of this event had many men. In the last of the event, a man asked a question "After a black bird explodes, what happens to him?" Probably he would want to say in this way "Does the black bird die?". Vesterbacka answered "Angry Birds are magic bird, so revive immediately".

I remembered that it was interesting about Angry Birds. When I recommended my friends Angry Birds, they said. "It seems to be painful" "A bird and a pig are pitiful" "Do birds dash themselves and die? Cruel!" etc...
Of course the negative impression fades away because the game system of Angry Birds is very fun while they play. However, the Japanese tends to be sensitive to "attack". Especially they may be sensitive to a bodily crush attack. In addition, probably, the Japanese do empathy to a character superfluously. It may be better for Angry Birds to advertize prettiness rather than aggressiveness in Japan.

Air Mushroom picking

"Kinoko no Yama" is a chocolate snack popular in Japan. "Kinoko no Yama" means "The mountain of a mushroom" in Japanese.

Meiji which was the maker of this released iPhone application for promotion.

This is the game application that can experience mushroom hunting artificially. However, of course the mushroom is a chocolate snack:)

Many mushrooms appear when we watch neighboring scenery with a camera.

We perform hold of these with a finger, raise iPhone and pull it out. It is slightly difficult and tips need it.

The mushroom which gathered a harvest are list-ized.

Meiji seems to be interesting in AR recently.

See also:
AR figure of Final Fantasy XIII-2 on package of chewing gum

GREE released a prepaid card

GREE sells a prepaid card from today in Seven-Eleven.

The price are 1500 yen and 5000 yen two types.

The prepaid card does not have popularity somehow in Japan. When I went to U.S., I watched that many kinds of prepaid cards were sold at a toy shop, drugstore and convenience store. However, main prepaid cards sold in Japan are iTunes card, Nintendo card, PSN cards of Sony. Probably this is because mobile payment and e-money completely spread in Japan. Why GREE release a prepaid card this time? I think this is smartphone measures.

By the way, I may always think about a prepaid card. It is a "design" of the cards. A prepaid card has no business, if a serial code is inputted by a website. However, it is a waste of it. For example, how about putting a prepaid card and the factor of trading card together? After having input a serial cord, users can play with a prepaid card. In addition, they can enjoy the collection of card, too. Furthermore, how about adding AR contents to a prepaid card? I think that there is still room for much improvement in a prepaid card.

AR figure of Final Fantasy XIII-2 on package of chewing gum

Square Enix carries out a tie-up of Final Fantasy XIII-2 using AR apps with Japanese famous sweets maker Meiji.

http://www.meiji.co.jp/sweets/candy_gum/xylish/cmp/ff/

They released free AR apps for smartphones "XYLISH AR figure skating " for this tie-up. (iOS/ Android)

The AR apps works with three flavors of Meiji's chewing gum brand "XYLISH" :Crystal Mint, Fruity Mint, and Hyper Cool.

Start AR apps

XYLISH Fruity Mint

AR figure of Lightning appeared!

Press A or B to make Lightning change her pose

You can upload a photo to Twitter and Facebook.

Japanese e-money Web Money tie-up with Ameba Pigg and Famiry Mart

Japanese e-money Web Money started a tie-up with popular virtual world Ameba Pigg and convenience store Famiry Mart.

When we buy Web Money in FamilyMart, we can get special virtual goods of Ameba Pigg.

Web Money enforces a lot of such tie-ups. The game card is not so popular in Japan. In addition, there are few game cards sold in Japan. However, e-money and mobile payment are completely takes roots in Japan. Besides, we can do payment at a convenience store. The offtake of the Japanese virtual goods are crazy. It originates in infrastructure of virtual currency. They are "e-money", "mobile", "convenience store".