Interview: BarbieGirls Drops Physical Toys for Virtual Content

When BarbieGirls.com launched, it came with a free-to-play section and a premium section unlocked by the purchase of a Barbie-shaped MP3 player. The hope at the time is that older girls who were transitioning away from dolls and into consumer electronics would find it a happy medium. As Charles Scothon, General Manager & SVP Girls Mattel Brands, and Rosie O’Neill, Senior Brand Manager, Barbie Tech, explained in their Virtual Worlds 2008 keynote it became one of the fastest growing virtual worlds ever, but now it's time for a change: "You know, it did well, but we found in a lot of our dialogue and our conversations and our research with girls is that it was really about the content first and the stuff or the MP3 second," Scothon told Virtual Worlds News in a follow-up interview. "They liked it, but at the end of the day it was about unlocking that content."

"Part of what we found is that as our virtual world grew, 85% of the girls on the site are 8-15," Scothon continued. "They’re more likely to have an MP3 player already. That led us to the point that it became about the content conversation. You’ll see the MP3 player out there for about a year probably, but we’ll be more aggressive with the content and the subscription."

The model of selling toys to unlock content has been successfully practiced by plenty of other virtual worlds—notably Webkinz—and, in fact, there’s almost a backlash against subscription-based models in the current climate. More developers see microtransactions, toys, or advertising as appealing.

For Barbie, though, the girls liked the electronics, but the driving force was the content.

Content Instead of Toys

“If that’s what you’re hearing consistently, to continue to say it’s about the stuff too seems illogical,” Scothon explained. “It felt like a two-step process. It makes more sense to connect with them and give them the best content experience we can. How do we do that? It’s about selling the content through a monthly subscription instead of a two- or even three-step process.”

Mattel is looking at other electronics, like iDesign, to keep older girls in its brand. The virtual world is a different matter.

“Today we’re going to focus on keeping the online world where it is,” said Scothon. “The Barbie portfolio can span 3-15. 3 to 7 or 3 to 9 is really the core doll group. The interactive or CD-ROM, a la iDesign, can be as young as five and go up to ten. The virtual worlds tend to be 8+. While there may at some point be links to bring all three together, what we don’t want to do is try to do everything and just not be as good at it.”

Likewise, the MP3 player provided its own value, but additional options, like pets and accessories, could be purchased physically to unlock virtual add-ons.

“They wanted the pets, but they weren’t necessarily playing through the fashion plates,” said Scothon. “They were really playing online. Where we were saying ‘Hey, it’s about music, fashion, and online community,” what we really found is that it’s about online with the supporting sides of fashion, socialization, and creativity. Those are the three pillars that drive the experience.”

The play patterns remain fairly similar to when children pick up dolls and dress them, not Mattel is just trying to focus on re-creating that in a new medium.

“We look at how a girl likes to play and then translate that to online,” said O’Neill. “We talked to a lot of girls and there were a few things that really emerged. Social play is obviously very important, so the way we translated that online was allowing girls to make friends throughout the site, but also to have a really deep experience, sending gifts and messages, and we give two ways to chat.”

Along those lines, one of girls’ favorite activities, says O’Neill, is the makeover. It’s a social, creative effort. The new BarbieGirls allows users to click on other avatars, give them head-to-toe makeovers and exchange feedback.

“It’s a great example of how we merged that social play and fashion play with the online world,” said O’Neill. “From a topline perspective it is one of the most popular areas of the site. We’re seeing a lot of repeat play with the elements of creativity and surprise. It’s a new makeover every time.”

Why No Microstransactions?

From a purely economic standpoint, it sounds like a goldmine for microtransactions. If each element of the makeover cost five cents, the replay starts to add up. Other developers, like FlowPlay with ourWorld, are seeing parental discomfort when it comes to paying a blank check for items. $5.95 per month (or however much the BarbieGirls subscription winds up to be) is simply more palatable.

“What we’ve wanted to do is make sure this is simple for girls and moms,” said Scothon. “We want to make sure moms feel comfortable with the experience their daughters are having. We didn’t want to make it feel as if every day she’s spending money. We wanted to keep it simple."

That's not to rule out microtransactions, but the current feedback from parents points away from it. One reason they tend to work well in adult worlds--and even in youth-focused games like MapleStory--is that the user is also buying the goods. That's not the case for BarbieGirls

“Most worlds are aimed at adults as users,” said Scothon. “We’re aimed at girls, and they’re not the primary purchaser. The purchaser is Mom. The girls are just the primary user. With that two-step process, we felt that microtransactions added an element of complication. Right now we’re not sure our audience, including mom and child, is ready for that.”

Based on limited research by Mattel, that seems to be true.

“We have enough data to date, particularly with the targeted mom audience, that would suggest they’re not quite ready to embrace it with their child,” said Scothon. “They might do it themselves, but they also recognize that they make that decision with each click. They’re not as convinced yet that they want to do that when they don’t have the control of how many times they click.”

Parents

And there are parents watching. BarbieGirls is aiming to increase their participation.

“We really want to give parents a place on BarbieGirls that is designed for them and speaks to them,” said O’Neill. “What you’re going to see us launching in a few weeks is a new section called Parents’ Place. Our campaign around it is all about E3: Educate, Empower, and Engage.”

The goal is to teach both parents and children about safety, to empower parents and children with control, and to engage parents and children together.

“We’ve created a unique tool that’ll be going live in a few weeks,” said O’Neill. “It’s a parent-child interactive tool.”

With a series of agreements and contracts covering room settings, chat protection, etc., the families will establish their own rules.

“Every child is different, and every parent is different,” explained O’Neill. “We’re not going to give you a top-down rule. We want to give you tools to put that in place.”

Selling it All

Mattel is, by and large, a shelf-space company. It distributes products to toy stores, they see prominent placement, and children pick them up. The company is certainly embracing the Web, but even BarbieGirls followed the model.

“ Our first option is to make sure we’re connecting to girls that are already engaged,” said Scothon. “With 11.2 million girls on the site, we have a pretty robust audience to talk to. We need to make it over to moms, so they can see it, but we’ll really use online space and our own websites to drive awareness to the move and the conversion over. Right now we don’t anticipate a retail component, but that’s something we’re in a dialogue with everyone about on a weekly and daily basis.”

Those who already purchased MP3 players will get a free 1-year subscription, and the company plans to continue its free spaces as well.

“It’ll be a little bit more limited than you see now,” said O’Neill. “It’ll still be a very positive experience, but there will be a lot more locations, content, and experiences that will be exclusive to our VIP members. The world will be growing extensively—lots of new games, spaces, and content—but more of those areas will be reserved for girls with a VIP membership.”

Mattel plans to roll out the subscription model in May.