Client: Ferrero
Brand: Kinder
Product: Kinder Surprise
Title: Applaydu
The way children play, interact and learn has changed as physical and digital worlds blur, raising new expectations among today's families. Parents want to make sure digital isn't purely a distraction but also help their kids grow, and children claim learning is easier when it feels like play. To meet families' new expectations, Applaydu promises to unleash the iconic tiny Kinder Surprise figurines from their physical limitations, opening a safe and imaginary world where kids can now interact further with their toys through stimulating & educational games. Applaydu was created to bring together children's thirst for entertainment and parents' educational expectations as an enhancer of playability.
Applaydu is a free edutainment mobile app launched in a hundred countries in six different languages. The app was developed to be played by all family members. It encourages bonding moments where parents and children can play and learn together. Intended for children aged from three to nine years old, the app delivers one of the first Augmented Reality (AR) experiences dedicated to kids at a massive scale. Thanks to AR, kids can now control their toys, interact with them, discover their personalities in the real world, and immortalize moments by taking pictures with them, like they were true friends.
Applaydu allows kids to embark their toys in personalized adventures where each decision and action will craft the story's outcome. As this was a first for this target audience, we created our own technology called a procedural narrative tool to shape all stories crafted by kids into readable books, illustrated with their creations and decisions they took during their playing experience. As kids aged three to nine do not necessarily know how to read, it would become a bedtime story where kids and parents can share quality time.
To support kids' growth, Applaydu offers a collection of games co-created with doctors in Children Education from Oxford University, with educational potential across different areas of child development such as communication or mathematics and cognitive skills like memory or attention. Kids will encounter characters who will challenge them through stimulating games with different difficulty levels that will adjust to each kid's learning curve. For instance, if the kid struggles in a memory game, the following sessions would be easier to favour the adequate learning curve.
Designed as an artistically crafted universe made out of cardboard, Applaydu's universe introduces kids to colours, shapes, and patterns thought to reassure and inspire them with recyclable materials that they can replicate at home with their parents.
Milestones
- +10 million app downloads
- 87% of parents state that Applaydu enhances playing moments between them and their kid(s)
- 84% of parents say that Applaydu offers their kids a chance to learn something new
- +8.2% net increase for the overall likeability of the toys, fueled by the fact that the great experience with the app results in a significantly higher evaluation from app users compared to non-app users
- +43% net increase in family togetherness
- +28% net increase in value for money
