Allison MedeirosChild’s Media Proposal

TITLE: ANIwhere Animals!

CONCEPT: To appeal to Parents: This interactive app will help your child identify animals, learn where the animals live, how to spell, and more!Your child can learn about animals that come from ANIwhere! There are six different habitats where your child can interact with different animals and learn how to spell. Try out the Lite version for free that focuses on Farm animals and animals that live at home with us!

To appeal to children: Explore six different habitats and their animals while playing fun games to unlock surprises! CONTENT, GENRE, and FORMAT: In this app, a child will be able to explore six different habitats (a home, the farm, the ocean, the cold/icy lands, the grasslands-oasis, and the jungle) where he or she will be able to play with the animals and play around with each habitat to reveal hidden noises and movements. There will be a range of five to eight animals per habitat. When a child double taps on an animal, the animal will enlarge on the screen and the letters of how to spell the animal word will appear underneath it. Simultaneously, a woman narrator will pronounce the animal word and when the child touches each letter, the narrator will sound out the letter.

The animals that would showcase in this app would be:COWS, PIGS, HORSES, CHICKENS, ROOSTERS, SHEEP, GOATSDOGS, CATS, HAMSTERS, PARAKEET, LIZARDS, BUNNIESMONKEYS, TIGERS, SNAKES, TUCANS, LEOPARDSWHALES, SHARKS, DOLPHINS, FISH, LOBSTERS, CRABSPENGUINS, WALRUSES, SEALS, ORCAS, POLAR BEARSLIONS, ELEPHANTS, ZEBRAS, GIRAFFES, RHINOS, HIPPOS

There will also be a game segment where children will have the option to play several different games. The genres of the games are based on matching, spelling, and hearing.

In the first game, MATCH, the child will be able to match pictures of animals’ faces (a picture of a cow with a cow face) on cards that they would flip over by touching/tapping on the cards.

In the second game, JUMBLE, the child will be asked to rearrange the letters of an animal’s word underneath the given picture.

In the third game, WHAT LETTER IS MISSING?, the child will have to tap and drag the missing letter or letters to the blanks to spell the word of the picture.

In the fourth and last game in the spelling category, WHAT ANIMAL AM I?, the child will pick through several letters and spell the animal name that the picture shows.

In the fifth game, GUESS WHO MADE THAT NOISE, the narrator will prompt the child to listen to a sound. The child will then have to choose between three to six pictures of animals he or she thinks made the noise.

Lastly, the final game, WHERE DO I LIVE?, will have the child match animals into their correct habitats. There will be a picture of an animal in the middle of the screen and the six habitats are surrounding it. The child will have to tap and drag the animal to the correct habitat.

Each game will allow the child to pick a difficulty level; easy, medium, and hard. The difficulty will also determine the pace of the games, allowing children to understand the games but not get bored as well. Also, the option of having a hint will be offered to reduce the frustration for the child.

The app will be completely animated. The habitats will be simple with bright colors to intrigue the children but also have a realistic feel to it. The animals will be animated with semi-realistic sounds. Since we encourage children to imitate the sounds of animals, we want to have the noise realistic but in an animated way. Also, in the habitats, the landscapes will be different to provide novelty to the children. When a child opens a habitat, they will be able to explore it to find out where they can go with their animals. For instance, in the jungle the monkey will be able to swing from the trees and touching different flowers will create different drumbeats. In the home habitat, the child will be able to play with the different animals all over the house. They will be able to take the dog from the bedroom to the living room to the kitchen playing catch and such. In each habitat, the child will have to touch around and see what kinds of surprises are in store!

AUDIENCE: The app is for both boys and girls from the ages four to eight in the US. This is for children in the US only because we know what typical animals are in a home in the US. Not to say that children from other countries cannot play; they would be learning a little about the American culture too! Also, the children will be in the preschool to 3rd grade learning levels of reading and spelling.

The app is also targeted to the children’s parents. If the parents are comfortable with letting their child play and learn about the animals, then they will love the learning aspects as well. We wanted to make an app that is fun but educational at the same time.

COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS: There is a similar app called Animals for Toddlers. It was called Farm for Toddlers where it only focused on farm animals. Now they have opened their horizons to ocean, Australia, snowscape, desert-oasis, and jungle while still having the farm scene. However, their app just focuses on sounds of the animals and does not have any games or interactive elements other than the animals just making their noise and moving when clicked.

But other than that, compared to the other apps that focus on animals, I have not seen an app that has a combination of different types of animals. I have seen many farm animal apps and jungle apps but nothing that has both. Also, there are many separate apps that focus on matching or spelling but no apps that combine the two. My app will be a fun and interactive way for children to learn.

My app will help children learn new vocabulary while having fun. Also, my app will encourage children to learn about different animals and their habitats. To ensure that the children will want to keep playing, each game will have a rewards sound and a “wrong answer” sound. Silly sounds will make the child understand they have received the wrong or correct answer while making it light and funny. In addition, winning games will unlock different surprises. When a child has won up to 10 different games, a new snack, toy, or trick will be unlocked for the child to use with the animals. This could include a banana for a monkey, a yawn ball for a cat, or a flip for a dolphin.

APPEAL: This app will appeal to children in my targeted audience because children have always been curious about animals and want to learn about them. Also, animals have always been a starting point for children to learn for spelling as well. The children will be learning and not even know it because they will be having fun. I think this will appeal to the parents of the children as well because they will be interested in their children learning about different animals but be pleased that the app includes different games and has different learning elements.

DISTRIBUTION: To distribute my app, I will have the “LITE” app for free in the app store. It will be compatible with all tablets, iPhones, iPods and iPads. I want the app to be universal so that a child is not limited to playing with it because of his or her version of technology. There will be advertisements in between other games introducing the new game.

MARKETING/PROMOTION/LICENSING/MERCHANDISING: To help promote and market my app, I will go to fellow preschool learning/teaching companies (such as Hasbro) or preschool associations for the support of my product. I would show them how educational my product is and how it differs from all of the similar apps already out. I would have samples tried out by children to test out the game before it is released to iron out any bugs. Also, as mentioned before I would have a free version for parents to first try out with their kids and have the full version for the most popular price of $.99. Lastly, I would have blogging mothers on blogging websites, such as www.bestkidsapps.com, have a free full version of the app in exchange for them to blog about the app. This way there will be advertisement about the app at little cost.