What's New At Creativity
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The respected review site will now offer parents and educators a trusted one-stop shop to discover and learn about high-quality family-friendly voice apps. Submit your apps here!
The Good App Guide, the UK’s respected review site for children’s apps, has expanded its app product coverage to include voice apps as part of their international expansion plans. The establishment of this new Voice App Hub is made possible as part of a strategic partnership with Creativity, Inc.
The goal of the Good App Guide’s Voice App Hub will be to provide a centralized source of information about voice apps, with advice for parents, educators and the brands and developers producing voice apps. Powered by the Good Play Guide’s trusted child and expert testing process, the Voice App Hub will be a one-stop shop for anyone wanting to learn more about and find high quality family friendly voice apps.
Though kids and families have quickly adopted voice-first platforms like Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, voice apps can be difficult to find in an app store and many parents are still unsure about them and how best to use them.
“Voice apps and connected products are expanding rapidly but as yet the market is fragmented and consumers don’t know where to go for advice and to find new innovations,” Good Play Guide Founder and CEO Dr Amanda Gummer about the opportunity. “The Good App Guide’s Voice App Hub will provide a much-needed solution that enables parents to test and adopt new voice app experiences for their children with confidence.”
The Voice App Hub will also provide much-needed discoverability opportunities for developers and brands who want to reach parents and drive engagement for their experiences. Creativity, Inc., an expert developer of kids’ interactive experiences including more than 30 published voice apps for Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, will provide voice-first design expertise and advice as well as a link to the voice development community.
“The Voice App Hub provides an easy-to-navigate portal with independent reviews by play experts and the children who will play with them to help communicate the benefits of your app directly to your target market,” said Caitlin Gutekunst, Creativity’s Senior Director of Marketing and Development. “App developers can receive helpful feedback on their product and earn a valuable stamp of approval to help them market their experiences.”
The Good App Guide’s Voice App Hub is now accepting submissions for review and those submitting apps for review before 30th September 2020 can benefit from a £75/$100 discount and all the PR surrounding the launch of the hub in September. Click here to learn more or submit your app - 9/3/20
We are excited to announce that Playful Pandas, the adorable interactive plush launching Fall 2020 with Far Out Toys, has been nominated for a Toy and Game International Excellence (TAGIE) Award. The awards will be announced on November 20th as part of the Toy and Game Innovation Awards.
We’d appreicate if you could vote for us here!
The Funfare and Far Out Toys product development teams worked together to develop a truly one-of-a-kind interactive pet. Playful Pandas are the magical, musical friends that you can teach to sing ANY song, thanks to a feat of engineering called Intelligent Tone Recognition. You sing to them, and they will sing back to you in their own panda language, getting more and more in tune as they practice with you. Playful Pandas interact with each other and create amazing harmonies. Not only do they respond to your voice, but they will wiggle, giggle and roll about when you touch one of their multiple sensors. Each Panda has signature songs and their own unique personality!
Women in Toys kicked off their inaugural first WIT Launch: Innovation Summit on October 5th.
Designed to be a “Toy Industry 101” for inventors, entrepreneurs, or anyone wanting to learn more about the toy business, the event featured live and interactive panels, keynotes, and workshops where you’ll get front-and-center access to industry leaders.
One highlight from the day was the “Pitch Perfect” panel session exploring the do’s and don’ts of pitching concepts. Moderated by Creativity, Inc’s Caitlin Gutekunst, the session featured Jazwares’ David Winter, PlayMonster’s Adam Hocherman, Spin Master’s Harrie Sivanander, Hasbro Games’s Tanya Thompson and TinkerTini’s Trina McFarland.
Other sessions provided information about marketing, the larger entertainment ecosystem, and where to find inspiration for new inventor concepts.
To find out more about the Summit and learn about upcoming events, please visit: https://www.womenintoys.com/summit/
Caitlin Gutekunst talks with Voiceflow about Creativity’s newest Amazon Alexa Skills, Toy Doctor and Animal Rock. Both skills feature the latest Amazon Alexa technology, APL-A, which enables high quality audio and layering options to really bring out the richness and quality of Creativity’s fully custom SFX, music, and recorded cast of characters.
Creativity, Inc was mentioned on the Amazon Alexa developer blog and during Alexa Live because of our integration of Amazon Alexa's newest audio technology into our new skills, Toy Doctor and Animal Rock. This new Alexa technology enabled our skills to showcase higher quality playback and layered audio, both very important features for a studio like Creativity that is known for our expertise in audio development. Can't wait for you to try them! -7/22/20
Caitlin Gutekunst, head of Marketing and Business Development at Creativity, Inc, shares the history of Creativity and discusses our latest initiatives - 6/18/20
The Digital Kids Meetup group held our first virtual event, a discussion of Children’s UX Research & Best Practices with expert Megan Boddum. Check out the video! -4/29/20
The Game Development program at Michigan State University visited to learn more about about professional Toy & Game development. - 3/4/20