Stardoll is a community and entertainment destination delivering creative, fashion focused entertainment in a social networking environment, comprising a core worldwide audience of girls aged 9-17.
Today Stardoll is drawing traffic from over 200 countries per week. The site is running and supported it in 16 languages. With over 92 000 000 of registered members and between 30,000 and 40,000 new users join daily, that spend in an average 17.05 minutes at the site.
"Stardoll's unparalleled popularity is a testament to their focus on crafting personal, engaging experiences which empower the imagination and aspirations of girls around the world. This rich integration introduces the world of 'Nim's Island' in a way that furthers that experience and allows audiences to embrace the characters, fashions and adventure as their own." said Matt Griswold, Director of Interactive Marketing for Fox Walden.
Background
The year was 2005 and Internet was loaded with games, communities and entertainment sites. One problem though - everything was created for men by men. But there was really no one making anything fun and unique for teen and tween girls online.
Stardoll originally started out as a hobby of the Scandinavian-born "Liisa", who created paper doll dress up games picturing celebrities. The investors at Index Ventures saw the potential in the product that “Liisa” was creating and invested money to develop it. Mattias Miksche was recruited as CEO. He gathered about eight people that would come to be about 100 employees in only a few years, to start the journey of an online fairytale – Stardoll.
Mission
To create a fun place to go for teen and tween girls online, based on the paper doll dress up game.
Target group
Girls at the age of 9-17, worldwide.
Insights
• A lot of the online entertainment was, at this time, all about 3D, motion and experiences in a complex and aggressive environment. The simplicity and the one click interaction in the dress up game were both easy and less distractive for the girls when creating and playing.
• Games/plays for girls do not necessary need a start and an end. You don’t want a GAME OVER when you are tinkering and creating.
• Girls needed a safe place to express them self and interact with others.
• At the age of 10-17 its all about exploring, projecting and challenge your identity, expression and self image.
• Every body wants to show off, be seen and get feedback on their activity and action- verification/endorsement.
The never ending product - Stardoll
With an idea of building a virtual world around the users, focusing on selling virtual items as the core source of revenue, the new team added the idea of personalized avatars (called ‘MeDolls’) and personal rooms to house and decorate. Users maintain their very own blogs, albums and photo galleries so they can share their creation and thoughts with their online friends.
We created a natural platform were girls could express their creativity as well as interact, explore and socialize with their favourite brands, celebrities and friends.
A selection of features at Stardoll:
• Shopping Mall, ‘Starplaza’ launched as the core centre of Stardoll, offering an extensive collection of furniture, garments, accessories and makeup from a variety of real world and virtual brands.
• The Fashion Studio featured the ability of creating their own virtual apparel or furniture and later sell them to other users in their own store or in Stardoll’s very own vintage shop, ‘StarBazaar’.
• The voting functions enabled us to have competitions and highlight users and their creations each day.
Real Brands Goes Virtual
First DKNY store in Starplaza.
The launch of Starplaza included integrated DKNY and Sephora specially designed virtual stores, offering virtual clothing and makeup to Stardoll members online. Each collection where released on Stardoll at the same time they hit the boutiques on the streets. In the virtual stores, the users could find a “mood book” with real images of the collections. By clicking on an image the users where taken to DKNY.com. This “hidden” link drew more traffic to dkny.com than any other sites.
“The millions of members of the Stardoll community are a group of great relevance to the future of our brands and it is exciting to be able to interact with them in their space. In bringing the exceptional style and offerings of DKNY and Sephora to Stardoll, we hope to further enhance the experience for their members and to gain valuable insight into the virtual world that will benefit our brands and our current and future customers,” said Antonio Belloni, Group Managing Director of LVMH, the parent of Sephora and Donna Karan.
A Stardoll user demonstrates how to create a “Boho Beach Look” with makeup from Sephora and various Stardoll make up brands.
Other real brand integrated in Starplaza:
Miss Sixty, Killah, L’OCCITANE, ELLE, Alberta Ferretti, Vivienne tam, Kohl's, Elizabeth & James, InStyle, Amy Claire, Stuff by duff, Baby Phat, Mary-Kate and Ashley, AMYCLAIRE, OTTO.
Real Celebrities goes virtual
Heidi Klum is one of Stardolls’ "Real Celebs". Which means that she has got her own official artist page at Stardoll, a unique promotional platform where artists can interact with there fans and promote there different activities. The users can visit the celebrity’s ‘Suite’ (Stardoll home), dress them up from a full wardrobe of unique clothes and outfits, shop merchandise items, live chat and get sneak preview of images, tracks, movie trailers etc.
2008 we housed a boutique for Heidi Klum’s jewellery brand and a Jordache boutique that offered the Heidi Klum by Jordache collection. During the Fashion Week in New York we arranged a release party with Heidi Klum and Stardoll.
"I used to make clothes for my dolls with my Mom when I was a little girl, which was always so much fun, and look—I'm still doing it. I'm looking forward to having Stardoll fans get a chance to dress me up!" - Heidi Klum
Other Real Celebs:
Avril Lavigne, Hilary Duff, Mary-Kat & Ashley Olsen, Faith Hill.
Movie release integration
Stardoll offers boutiques mirroring movies like FOX production- “Nim´s Island“ and Disney production- “Hotels for dogs”. Where for example the Nim´s Island boutique had an adventurous look and feel of the movie. Inside the store, users could try on and purchase limited-edition virtual fashions and accessories inspired by the film. At Nim’s Island official site the users could pick up a code to redeem a virtual prize to decorate their Stardoll virtual suites as well as a gift of Stardollars. In Stardoll’s very own Cinema, the users could watch the movie trailer and later style the movie characters.
"Stardoll's unparalleled popularity is a testament to their focus on crafting personal, engaging experiences which empower the imagination and aspirations of girls around the world. This rich integration introduces the world of 'Nim's Island' in a way that furthers that experience and allows audiences to embrace the characters, fashions and adventure as their own." said Matt Griswold, Director of Interactive Marketing for Fox Walden.
Other integrated brands:
Unilever, P&G, Disney, Warner, Sony, Paramount, 20th Century Fox and Penguin Publishing, Barbie.
User generated fashion
Stardoll users can create their own fashion garment and furniture in the ‘Studio’. Some skilled and talented users have gone truly famous and rich in the Stardoll world, by creating beautiful and unique fashion.
This feature would have just been a perfect place for Project Runway to inspire, engage and interact with their target group. We could have arranged virtual “Project Runway”- contests together with Tom Gunn and Heidi Klum, invite the real TV participants to teach and tip the Stardoll users and lots of other fun stuff. To bad they didn’t do it, but it’s not to late!
User demonstrates how to create a cute duck print in the Design Studio.
One of the million members showing of her own made designs.
Tons of other features and collaborations have been developed over the years and it’s an ongoing process with no limit. If you are interested in hearing more, don’t hesitate to contact me. I could talk forever about this product- it’s a never ending product.
My Role
I was part of the core team from the very start in 2006. My contribution included working on brand/product/concept development, spec features and games, coaching and art directing the design/illustration department. I also provided the sales team with concepts for integrated brand campaigns.
The possibilities to interact with this target group are huge and amazing. They are smart, fast, extremely creative and socially active. If you have a project or a product with a target group of women or teens, contact me! I would love to share my experience and help you find solutions for engagement and communication.
Visit Stardoll
Awards
Webware 100, 2008, Social Category - Stardoll
Internetworld Sweden's 100 best sites, 2007, Entertainment Category - Stardoll
Internetworld Sweden's 100 best sites, 2008, Place 9th, Best Site Idea - Stardoll
Sime Awards, Best Online Entertainment - Stardoll