Fashion makeover game

Teens reinvent themselves - YM Magazine, MGI Software Corp makeover software intro - Product Announcement

MGI Software teams up with YM Magazine, creating YM Digital Makeover Magic package

Point and click, drag and drop and voila - you now have a new look. Teenage girls already have their pulse on what's in and what's out, but now they will be able to try out the latest hairstyles and colour crazes with the click of button.

Toronto-based MGI Software and New York-based YM Magazine have teamed up to create YM Digital Makeover Magic, a software program which allows the user to drag and drop various hairstyles onto a digitized image of themselves as well as apply makeup, add accessories and change hair colour.

"We had already identified software as the category that we wanted to go into and we had been dabbling with the notion of doing a makeover and had spoken to some other companies before MGI came to us. So by the time they came to us we were pretty ripe and we had some ideas of what we wanted to do with that product," said Tammy Palazzo, YM Magazine director of licensing.

This is the second time MGI has teamed up with another company in the teen market. MGI also paired with Toymax to create a World Wrestling Federation digital camera and software package.

"MGI doesn't really have a strong teen brand presence. We're known in the older crowd and more people who are directly involved in editing photographs. So that's where YM came in. YM is an extremely popular teen magazine in the United States and Canada and they sort of lent us their expertise at directing things toward the teen market," explained MGI public relations specialist Chris Taylor.

Taylor also noted that MGI conducted numerous studies in which teenage girls looked at Cosmopolitan magazine's makeover program and provided feedback on which features they liked and disliked. MGI also consulted YM on hair and makeup dos and don'ts.

"The leader in this space is Cosmo and I think the obvious advantage with the teen focus is the fact that we have something like a zit zapper in the product which is obviously more catered toward a teen audience than an older audience," said Taylor.

YM Digital Makeover Magic also comes with a built-in browser which allows the user to download images from the Internet, such as celebrities, for makeovers, as well as the latest fashion trends.

"The Internet gives us the ability to update our users. We have a very aggressive schedule in place where we are going to make more hairstyles, different makeup, different accessories available free for download from our Web site," noted Taylor.

Although video and CD-ROM games have been around for many years, according to Stephen Baker, director of analysis for Reston, Va.-based PC Data, it has taken longer for female-oriented products to hit the market because "most of the developers are guys."

"I think it's harder to conceptualize something that appeals to a 10 to 16-year-old female then a fighting game," said Baker.

"It's a natural product, whereas, some of these other things people really need to think about -- how do I design something that's really going to apply to young women," he said.

Baker also noted software creators needed a new avenue to go if they were going to grow and the girls' market was virtually untouched.

Mattel was one of the first companies to specifically go after the female software market with Barbie's first CD-ROM in 1996 entitled Barbie's Fashion Designer.

"Up until that time, that Barbie software was introduced to the market, there were a lot of naysayers that said girls didn't like to play on the computer.. . or play video games. And really up until that point most games were directed to boys and their interests," said Dana Henry, director of public relations for Mattel media.

Over the past three years, Mattel has created numerous Barbie branded software products including a makeover kit which allowed girls to makeover Barbie and her friends.

According to Henry, Mattel plans to launch Barbie Digital Makeover early next year and Seventeen magazine, YM's direct competitor, is also set to launch their version of a digital makeover sometime in the near future.

YM Digital Makeover Magic will be available at Future Shop, Wal-Mart and other retail outlets on Nov. 22 and will sell for $29.99.