Content Is King - The making of Klonies

Lately, I keep getting readers emails saying that I haven’t written about the Klonies for a while now… So I decided to give you a peak of the Klonies backstage. I’ll start with the Klonies content and continue with the making of in my next post.

We all know that when it comes to mobile, content is the king. You can have a cool sharing app or community but if you don’t have attractive or compelling enough content - you’re doomed.

Just a quick note - Klonies, for those who don’t know, are a new service of personalized Avatars by the mobile solutions provider Comverse, that enables the creation of Avatars from a big content library of body types, eyes, hairstyles, hats, glasses, moods, clothes, branded accessories, etc., which can be used in traditional Web forums, as well as to extend this experience to the mobile arena. Comverse has created a mobile Caller ID service, by which a user can create his Klonie either on the Web or on his mobile handset. Klonies let youth segment do something they could never even dream of doing before: create expressive avatars that represent them on other people’s phones. Klonies give the users extended means for self expression: they define how they are seen by their friends, on their phones.

To be able to cover the Klonies content I met Ronen Ventura, the Klonies Chief Graphic Designer and Tali Perel, the Klonies Styling Adviser. Here’s what they told me:

Usually we start with a meeting of the designers, Styling Adviser and Marketing for a brain storming, to raise upcoming events (Valentines, Halloween, spring break etc’), topics, characters and that sort of leads. For example, when we launched the Klonies on Skype last year, we offered a wide collection of Football Mania clothing as it was only a few days before the world cup.

Other lead is analyzing users downloads; we can share with you that we were amazed to find out that men and women are very different in their preferences:

Most women want to be either bad or cool:

We see a lot of laid-back men:

As for dressing up:

Also, sport is the strongest theme amongst males, which nonexistent with the ladies. So, by analyzing downloads we get to learn a lot about tastes and trends. Also this is a great pointer of which areas to need to be broadened.

Apart form events, locals fashion also inspires the Klonies content. Our styling adviser explores fashion and teen magazines to get the sense and taste of specific audiences. Klonies sales people usually buy local magazines as part of their tasks when flying on business trips.

And you'll have to tune in later on for the second part of 'The Making of Klonies' :)