Webkinz, the latest pre-teen craze from Canadian wholesaler Ganz, are little stuffed animals (Beanie babies, basically) with special tags that contain secret codes. Kids go to www.webkinz.com and enter the secret code to unlock an online social media game world that borrows from MySpace, Second Life, and casual game sites like Pogo, and Puzzle Pirates. The site features daily activities that kids perform to earn Kinzcash with which they can purchase all sorts of virtual add-ons for their virtual pets. The kids play against other kids in some of these games, and the winner wins more Kinzcash. The website is driving demand for the plush toys which can quickly get forgotten. The tags on the toys drive kids to the website, and the daily activities keep them coming back – often. Every year, the child must buy a new toy and get a new code to continue playing on the site, else they lose all they have earned. This isn’t going to sit well with Parents, who are already having to call around to find these things before the sell out (usually within an hour of arrival).
The persistent web community is driving demand for these toys WAY beyond beanie babies: Ebay features Webkinz on their front page pretty much all the time and there are usually around a dozen Webkinz auctions ending every minute. The traffic on the website has rocketed past ty.com, the home of beanie babies, which had its peak two years back. Webkinz.com shows little sign of slowing down, either. According to this NYT article, the site now services about 3 million unique visitors.
This brilliant campaign has it all – and they did it without the help of major toy retailers. I find the the way the product drives traffic to the website, the quality of the activities, the community aspects, and the steady drive to buy more product inspiring. They even retire the plush toys rapidly to drive up their value as collectibles (baseball cards and coins are a lot easier to store, by the way, and once you use the unique secret code they’re worthless).
Tags: Viral Marketing
MY DAUGHTER IS CRAZY FOR WEBKINZ IT’S RIDICULUS I CAN’T STAND IT ANY LONGER
WEBINZ ARE DRIVING INTELLENGENT KIDS STUPID
Dear Parents:
I don’t know if you will post this, but this is a warning to parents regarding webkinz and passwords.
My eight year old daughter has had a webkinz account since December. She loved it. She had two webkinz. For her birthday about three weeks ago, family, friends and my husband and I gave her 10 additional webkins, some charms and trading cards. She was so happy.
Then school started. On the playground, one little girl was badgering my daughter for her user name and password. I had spoken with her about not sharing this information and what potentially could happen if she did share it. Well, this other little girl turned bully on the playground and began to squeeze my daughter until she couldn’t take it any longer and finally gave her password and her username up. This happened on Friday. She didn’t tell us when she came home. She knew that she wasn’t supposed to tell someone and I believe she didn’t want to disappoint us by telling us what happened. On Monday night, after a busy weekend, she logged on to her account and began screaming and crying.
Apparently, this bully turned thief. Gone was over $31K in kinzcash, her pets were left out of their beds and things were missing from her doc.
I am so frustrated over this. More so that I can’t just call webkinz to complain and see if they could shut down the thief’s account. But also because webkinz is facilitating a new type of crime with young, very young children. My child feels violated, as if she actually experienced a violent crime. And in her world, she did. Someone hurt her to get access to her account, stole what she worked hard for and mistreated her cyberpets. I can’t even describe the look on her face. It took me hours to try to calm her down and let her know that Mommy would try to do something about this.
Has anyone else had this type of problem? Were you able to contact webkinz for any sort of resolution? Please help!
I posted it but, to have to be honest, I don’t think this is the forum for your issue. I will say, however, that this sort of thing is not unique to Webkinz, and that kids have to be taught at a very young age what password security is all about. It’s our responsibility as designers of websites to consider this when designing sites for children, but it’s certainly our responsibility as parents to help our kids understand the need for keeping certain information private. I have, in fact, experienced this sort of situation with my kids when one of them shared a webkinz password with a friend. Fortunately, it only produced a few minor accusations and not the sort of outright looting that you endured, but it was a hard lesson none-the-less. I hope Webkinz can offer you some satisfactory solution. Good luck.
webkinz are a waste of money
STEALING IS STEALING IN MY BOOK (whether it’s money or a child’s once dearly loved toy)
Dear Shern:
Almost the exact thing happened to my daughter in August. My daughter’s (now ex-) best friend and next door neighbor was attacked and assaulted by the bullying brat (Kathryn41) across the street and he coughed up her user name and password, after I had been very explicit with both children never to give out their passwords to anyone. Kathryn wiped my daughter out, including stealing all of her “rare collectibles and exclusives”. This has upset her to the point where she rarely goes there anymore (& I’ve invested a small fortune in webkinz, as it sounds like you have, too). It was impossible to communicate with the brat’s mother, who has relapsed and is using & dealing meth again.
Needless to say, Webkinz did nothing about it, either. It sets a terrible example for children who are trying their best to be good, honest and decent. I have talked to the BBB about webkinz’s inexcusable “customer support”. That’s all I can recommend for you to do too. Also you might want to google “webkinz thieves; webkinz complaints; etc”, as I did. That’s how I found your post. Now if we can just console our children. I hope our children won’t get anything remotely related to webkinz/ganz for Christmas nor any other special occasion in the future.
Yes, Rob, that’s exactly what every member of webkinz, who is honest and righteously upset, needs is some “good luck”. Thank you for allowing me to post, even though your blog wasn’t for this reason. I’ll keep looking for the RIGHT FORUM. I hope Shern will get this message and know that her child isn’t the only one who’s been victimized by this greedy company who couldn’t care less.
Sherri,
I apologize. I just cleaned my screen off and realized that you are Sherri and not Shern. Sorry!
Sherri,
I am so sorry that happened I would just change her password , and contact the school about the bully and if it continues to happen I would just switch classes or talk to her parents directly. I hope I helped you.
Kaylee