AMERIKIDS^® Subsidiary Marketing Strategies

AMERIKIDS^® IS AN UMBRELLA CONCEPT FOR A SERIES OF GAMES AND CONSUMER PRODUCTS:

This report begins to outline a world wide subsidiary licensing and marketing strategy. The report outlines how AMERIKIDS^® can create a "tornado" market; a product line that creates a massive purchasing binge. We believe that AMERIKIDS^® products can drastically change the status quo, when the entire market place shifts its allegiance from the old architecture to the new. With a mass market adoption of the AMERIKIDS^® trademark a purchasing storm will ensue .

Our company believes that the underlying concepts of the AMERIKIDS^® trademark is exciting to youngsters and their families. We have found that these concepts are attractive to all Americans and to countries interested in America, world wide. We have focused in this report on books and board games. AMERIKIDS USA believes that the upcoming launch of the CD-ROM game is the best time to launch the subsidiary products. We believe that the subsidiary products should be produced and distribution to coincide with the launch of the CD-ROM.

We have not included in this report the AMERIKIDS^® merchandising campaign which includes home furnishing goods; sheets, pillow cases, and room furniture as well as clothes items; tee shirts, pajamas, watches, caps, underwear, Halloween costumes and school items; pencil cases, lunch boxes, notebooks, and toys: horses, period dolls, toy soldiers such as the cavalry versus Knights of the Golden Circle, toy mochila etc. This is under separate cover and available by request.

We also believe that the television and video subsidiary markets are powerful and should be pursued forcefully at this juncture. As AMERIKIDS^® began as a TV series concept we know for a fact that the television market is interested in this series. We have not included the TV series in this report. It can also be found under separate cover and will be made available to interested and appropriate parties.

How is AMERIKIDS^® different?

BENEFITS OF AMERIKIDS^®

I. AMERIKIDS^® CLUB

On-line Service:

Computers are everywhere in the home and in the schools. It is the student who is re-mapping the requirements and locations for learning, and they are often interested in sharing this knowledge on a global scale.

The producers of the AMERIKIDS^® Series realize that through the use of Internet On Line Services, BBS chat rooms, E-Mail, and the World Wide Web, many more users will have an outlet to converse and even down load games. By scanning the opportunities on-line, players can share clues and even participate in contests to win prizes and trips to actual sites visited in the computer game. An example, with the AMERIKIDS^® launching title, "PONY EXPRESS RIDER", the winners of a Pony Express contest will visit Pony Express stations and landmarks across America.

Eventually when specialized encryption technology is finally introduced, secure safe ordering of AMERIKIDS^® merchandise and materials will be possible. The AMERIKIDS^® CLUB On -Line can be hyper-linked to include teenage resource directories on social movements and an AMERIKIDS^® E-mail service for pen pals, all easily accessed by going on-line through an interactive multimedia home page.

II. IN CLASS APPLICATIONS

The student in the classroom is in another area that fits well with the AMERIKIDS^® subsidiary licensing concept. This includes books, CD-ROM guides and on line services. Teachers who are continually offered curriculum guidelines through the ordering of new textbooks may find additional materials in the form of supplementary workbooks, teacher guides and student guides. These may take the form of either a teacher's guide to the text or additional student activity material. The point is that curriculum, an ever changing subject in each class-room, has the potential to be custom designed because the AMERIKIDS^® Series is flexible and adaptive on many levels of Social Studies. Some of these applications can take the form of additional reading lists, pertinent films to watch, and historical clubs and addresses to create correspondence.

The wide range of characters in each AMERIKIDS^® Series Title suggests that we can author a plethora of interesting biographical novelizations. For "PONY EXPRESS RIDER" we can utilize the personalities in the "Pony Express Biography List" including such famous names as Bill Cody, Calamity Jane, Abe Lincoln, Jefferson Davis, The Grimke Sisters, Sarah Winnemucca, William Wells Brown and Biddy Mason. This list is available under separate cover.

III. SUBSIDIARY MERCHANDISING AND TIE-INS

Personal identification with product trademarks encourages tie-inproduct purchases.

Every title proposed in the AMERIKIDS^® Computer Game Series has the potential to become a brand identifiable product in other mediums. The purpose of this study is to show through reference and guidelines how other companies take comparable children's themes and transpose them into different packaged products. We hope to show through example, that if there is proven success in one medium, there is ancillary and subsidiary merchandising in another. Even more so, we have found that ancillary merchandising serves to advertise and promote the primary product, creating increased momentum for the entire franchise.

NOVELIZATIONS AND ACTIVITY BOOKS

Books that can be cross merchandised in other forms of products are one of the best sources for projecting the myriad ways in which the AMERIKIDS^® trademark can be utilized. We have divided this study into book and board game products that are for the eight year old and under, and those from eight to twelve, and from twelve to adult.

Some examples:

1. An Illustrated Classic AMERIKIDS^® Edition: utilizing high quality artist renderings, some of the famous AMERIKIDS^® characters and themes can artfully be included in an edition specially prepared and bound for a specific age group.

2. A Companion Photographic AMERIKIDS^® Book: profusely highlighted with enlarged color stills from the CD ROM version. Targeted for the child who appreciate more realism and authentic novelization. Age 6-8 yrs.

3. AN AMERIKIDS^® Picture Book: sturdily bound for younger readers who should appreciate more simple and concise illustrations with text that appeals to this age group. Age 6-8 yrs.

4. AN AMERIKIDS^® Book of Characters: presenting some of the major characters in each AMERIKIDS Series Title. The launching product being the Pony Express where we plan to focus on Bill Cody, Calamity Jane, Abraham Lincoln, Jefferson Davis and Biddie Mason. In these books we will focus in on the traits and personalities that made each character legendary and unique. These characters would be presented with a problem or issue of their day that they solve with characteristic resolution. They must face the unknown mysteries of their era with a mixture of courage and personality.

5. The AMERIKIDS^® PONY EXPRESS Nature Guide: explore nature and discover the answer to questions about trees, leaves, flowers, birds, and insects. For the first title, We would feature nature, circa 1861, in the Pony Express Territories.

6. The AMERIKIDS^® Movable Art Book: a sturdy tab book with movable art, such as push and pull activities for younger readers. Here we would give the reader a figurative horse that moves through the landmarks and towns of the Pony Express Trail.

7. The AMERIKIDS^® Coloring Book: selected scenes from each series make for a delightful crayon experience activity. For the younger child, ages 4-8 yrs.

8. An AMERIKIDS^® Native American Book and Western Crafts Kit: designs and patterns for creating original beadwork, like bracelets, headbands, pouches; that you may find some of the Native American characters are wearing in the stories or are presented in information encounters. Other ideas may also include discovery type activities offering Native American artifacts and games that children can interact with by following an instruction book.

9. Lyric Book and Audio Cassettes: original music from the AMERIKIDS^® series We can find publishing outlets via a songbook; that might also include a few recordings by celebrity artists. Other imaginative inventions might include a book plus a sound keyboard you press to hear specific sound effects.

10. Story Line Cards: an activity that teaches kids to draw figures of their own with crayons on special erasable cards, including an instruction booklet on how to draw, with crayons, and official stickers. Here the reader can create garments utilizing images from each title. FOR EXAMPLE. The first title, "PONY EXPRESS RIDER" would give the reader Pony Riding gear in which the activity centers on dressing up as Pony Express Riders.

11. AMERIKIDS^® Interactive Crafts Involvement: prepared materials such as fabric, patches, and T-shirt paints, socks to make frontier puppets, and even chalk for drawing. Some other projects might also include lanyards, braids and bows, all included with an AMERIKIDS^® instruction booklet.

12. AMERIKIDS^® Interactive Atlas: a relief map and geographic study which can be decorated with many reusable stickers, flags, animals, historical structures, and natural wonders.

13. AMERIKIDS^® Book Building Kit: a self contained book of stories and illustrations that can be embellished with an assortment of rubber stamps. Including stamp pad, colored pencils, sponges, and labels. Here the first title would supply cancellation stamps from Pony Express stations across the route from St. Joseph, Missouri to San Francisco. You can create your own historical letter on tissue paper and your own 19th century pen and envelope from materials available at that time.

14. A PONY EXPRESS Maze Book: challenging historical story mazes loaded with interesting details, dead ends, obstacles, and pitfalls that are fun and engaging when woven together thematically.

15. AMERIKIDS^® PONY EXPRESS Historical Puzzles: a basic timeline with illustrations and dates that you must match up in the traditional jigsaw style.

16. AMERIKIDS^® Cookie Making: easy to make 19th Century frontier life recipes and molds for kids, complete with a simple to read cookbook.

17. AMERIKIDS^® Special Crafts for Girls: activity books that girls may enjoy. Including birthday cards to cut out, color, and decorate with glamorous glittery trimmings, and envelope patterns all with images of horses from the "PONY EXPRESS RIDER".

18. AMERIKIDS^® Activity Guidebooks: special books for boys and girls that include country and western oriented projects, including materials that real Pony Express Riders used on the range. Building a station, a fort, a corral, the Comestock Lode panning process, or a newspaper of the time. Making a mochila or a rider's saddle can be included.

19. AMERIKIDS^® Action Sets: Three dimensional historical figures with AMERIKIDS^® characters depicted in action, some with movable parts, and a full color location "diorama".

CHILDREN'S BOARD GAMES

As the Producers of the AMERIKIDS^® Series, we realized these extensions into subsidiary manufacturing from the beginning. To that end, our company has successfully negotiated a contract with an independent "Board Game Designer." The results have been the creation of the "PONY EXPRESS RIDERS GAME." Test results have shown that it is both historically instructional and fun to play.

Each player will use a different color horse as his character piece on the board. The board game is in the territory of Wyoming and goes from Fort Laramie to Fort Bridger. As the player throws the dice they land on various Pony Express stations experiencing territorial , weather, and terrain conditions. The player must collect cards that both test their knowledge and experience and represent safe arrival at a station. Cards of chance will represent letters in the mochila. Right cards help them beat the villains and advance to the home Fort. There are plans to build in three dimensional aspects with more exciting hands on activities, however, further tests are needed to determine the scale of investment and the look and feel of the artwork.

A study into the latest children's board games that are either successful already, or are again, crossover marketing attempts that work off other primary computer games, books, television shows, comic books, history and science fiction show great diversity. According to a survey by the International Council of Shopping Centers," board games for 1995 are making a big comeback." The following description of board games came from the shelf of a national toy retailer. They are by no means complete, but this represented some of the more spectacularly promoted board games for 1995 Holiday gift buying season.

WHERE IN THE USA IS CARMEN SANDIEGO, $14.99.

Carmen and her gang of V.I.L.E. Henchman are headed for the U.S.A. Your assignment is to scout out the scene of the crime and locate the Warrant, the Loot, and the Henchman. When you guess incorrectly, a henchman escapes. Based on the computer game. Ages 12 to Adult.

WHERE IN THE WORLD IS CARMEN SANDIEGO, $14.99.

Player secretly hides color-coded pictures of Carmen Sandiego beneath Countries; then searches for pictures of their color. All the time learning the sizes, shapes, locations of oceans, seas, and nations. Based on the computer game and television series. Ages: 12 to Adult

DISNEYÕS POCAHONTAS, Milton Bradley Co., Hasbro Inc.

Now you can join the exciting adventure game of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith. Begin by showing John Smith the way to the waterfall, where Pocahontas awaits. Introduce them with a lucky turn of the dial. Collect tokens showing Native American and English ways of life. You'll win by collecting the right tokens and returning John Smith to his ship. Based on the book and movie. Ages: 8 to 16

Also: DISNEY'S POCAHONTAS PICTURE HUNT GAME.

DISNEY'S POCAHONTAS CANOE RACE GAME.

DISNEY'S POCAHONTAS WATERFALLS.

STAR TREK - THE NEXT GENERATION. Paramount Pictures Corp. and Classic Games Inc.

A game of trivia, exploration, and discovery. A game of navigation, research, and discovery. The object is to seek out new life and new civilizations on an unknown number of planets, and to be the first to report this information to star fleet command. Based on the TV and Movie Series. Ages: 8 to Adult.

X MEN UNDER SIEGE, Marvel Comics, $14.98

A host of evil Mutants has taken over the X-Mansion! Now an alert has been sent out to all X-Men to return to the mansion and try to regain control. Choose which pair of X-Men, each with an extra ability will form your team. After every room on every floor is explored, the player with the most points wins. Based on the comic book and television series. Ages: 8 to 14.

SABAN'S VR TROOPERS GAME, Milton Bradley Co.

Enter the world of Virtual Reality. Defeat Grimlord and his evil army of Robot Mutants. He's the power hungry Master of Virtual Reality. And he's about to launch a deadly attack on the real world. And only you can stop him. You and your friends must transform into VR Troopers and enter the mysterious world of Virtual Reality. Based on the television series. Ages: 8 to 14 yrs

MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS, Milton Bradley Co. $6.98

Cold calculating Rita Repulsa plans to take over the Universe. She's got her horrible henchman headed for Earth and its up to you and the Power Rangers to foil her plot for once and for all. Based on the television series. Ages: 6 to 12 yrs.

BATMAN FOREVER, Parker Brothers Co. $7.98

Two Face and the Riddler characters are creating havoc at the circus. Crime fighters Batman and Robin need your help to rescue the crowd from the criminals. . As you climb the circus rigging and teeter across the tightrope, try to defeat Two Face by flipping the Two Face coin. Based on the comic book and movie. Ages: 8 to 14 yrs.

LOONEY TUNES "SMUSH EM", Tyco Game Co. Licensed from Warner Bros. Family Entertainment. $11.98

The game where you Flatten, Squeeze, Spin, Twist, and Stretch Smush Em Dough. ItÕs a wacky race around the world of Looney Tunes. Mold your favorite Looney Tunes characters in colorful Smush Em Dough and your off. .

Based on the cartoon series. Ages: 6 to 10 yrs.

TODD McFARLANE'S "SPAWNÓ, Pressman Games Co. $17.99

From America's best selling comic book. Calculate risks along with a certain amount of luck make every game a new adventure. Play a story card on the game board and move through the pages of some of your favorite Spawn stories.

Ages: 8 to 14.

THE TICK, Hip deep in evil. Based on the series from the Fox Kids Network. $9.99.

JEOPARDY, The fast moving game of questions and answers.

Based on the long running television show. Board not included.

CHEERS, A fun trivia game about America's favorite tavern.

Based on the television sitcom.

MONOPOLY, The Real Estate acquisition game, on the shelf since 1935. Now a computer game.

IV. CONCLUSIONS

The interpretation reached from the preceding survey suggests that publishers are heavily relying on additional ancillary manufacturing. Thus marketing strategies are achieved that compliment and cross feed with the primary product title or theme in the franchise. Sometimes the focus is on a particular age group, and other times it is a gender specific activity or three dimensional figures that support a concept. Surveys show that action toys are still the most profitable sector of the market. The idea is to involve kids as much as possible with as much hands on interaction.

By way of extension, an advertising campaign gets tremendous follow through promotion as books and games remain in stores long after the major advertising has dissipated. Towards that end, what you find today in bookstores is the same kind of ancillary thinking going on with toy retailers. The way to gain control of your creative manufacturing is to also have control of all its downstream commerce, because the audience has to be expanded and brought in very quickly.

The macro economic concept proposed is that through vertical integration toy companies are influencing creative enterprises. Through these merchandising and licensing deals, subsidiary enterprises are giving way to a new term known as "entertoyment."

Thus, our company concludes that the merger of entertoyment and edutainement will effectuate and advance the marketing strategy of the AMERIKIDS^® trademark for both AMERIKIDS USA and Mc Graw Hill Home Software. We look forward to your comments.

Copyright 1998 by AMERIKIDS USA. All United States and International Copyrights and  Trademarks apply. No webpage or intellectual concept, herein, may be reproduced, downloaded, or disseminated into any medium without the explicit prior written consent of AMERIKIDS USA.

Email us at amerikids.com