Could Creative Marketing Concept Click With Kids?

spanishmoss -- We welcome your involvement! Please share any specific areas that you feel
able to help with.

We need (for starters):

> Insights about the youth market - does anyone know what is now available? Or, approximate number of under 20 stampers? Are kids more into stamps outside the US?

> Contacts at national and international stamp collecting organizations (we will want to partner with the industry in order to gain promotional mention in stamp publications and on stamp websites)

> Contacts at the larger stamp related marketers (as our community grows we will want to become another valued sales channel for Amos, Gibbons, Palo, Mystic, Kenmore, et al)

> We also need organizers for stamp topics that may interest younger kids (owners of topical collections, industry knowledge, experience to be technical advisers)

Below is the APS web page content for the YSCA youth program.
Key thing here...page sounds like it's written for the adult APS members.
APS may be fun for serious adult collectors, but this web page is NOT what today's
kids would see as a "fun" place designed for them.

That aside, there are many nice functions and capabilities...
like the contact info for stamp clubs in 16 states. Very interested to learn about the online
pen pal meetups -- is this using Skype? Or one of the online meeting apps that APS contracts?

Reaching out to Young Collectors On-line

Young Stamp Collectors of America (YSCA) is a division of the American Philatelic Society created to promote the hobby to young stamp collectors (under age 18) on the internet.

YSCA Membership Includes:

YSCA eNewsletter - A colorful e-newsletter is sent quarterly filled with articles, how-to's, collecting basics, activities, stamp offers, and more!

On-line Monthly Meetings - Chat with fellow members from many areas of the United States.

Official Meetings - Two live meetings are held annually at our APS stamp shows.

YSCA Members Only Area - YSCA members can log-in and view special messages, archives of past eNewsletters, collecting tips, and more!

Pen Pal Services - YSCA members can become friends with other members in the United States or the world. Trade stamps, trade covers, or just write to learn more about someone else's stamp collecting interests.

Treasure Package - When you join you will recieve a treasure package which includes a first day cover, packet of stamps, collecting information, and special offers.

Register Today!

Regular Membership - open to any person of good character, under age 18. The signature of a parent or legal guardian is required for all applicants.
Cost: $10 per year

Family Membership - available for two or more youths in the same household for $15 per year. Each new youth family member will receive a "treasure" package.
Cost: $15/household per year

Supporting Membership - Adult collectors interested in showing their support for youth philately are welcome to join as Supporting Members. We invite them to offer advice, share financial and in-kind donations, and participate in volunteer opportunities at the American Philatelic Center and at the APS annual shows, StampShow and AmeriStamp Expo. Adult members receive the YSCA quarterly e-newsletter, and e-mail alerts on new leader activities, seminars, and support materials, as well as notices of volunteer opportunities.
Cost: $20 per year

Dan,
Thank you for the feedback and for considering this idea. If you can pick the mind of APS Janet Houser Youth Coordinator 814-933-3803 ext. 238 it would be very valuable. See if she will share with you the web traffic for the Youth web section. You will see which pages are being the most viewed and which ones aren't.

Frankly the APS youth site, nor the other ones I looked at, is designed to be viewed on a smart phone. Today's kids live their lives through these devices. Given this, and the fact that APS has missed this boat altogether, perhaps this is the greatest opportunity to reach an untapped market. And the APS might be interested in supporting such an effort.

Web sites designed for devices generally fit the smaller resolution screens better, use navigation aids which are more suitable for fingers, carry a bit less content per page, and use images a little more intelligently. Bt otherwise they are not any more challenging than a normal web site. If done properly, they will also display ok in a on a desktop monitor albeit with some extra 'white space'.

The design and graphics have to be engaging and have a modern feel. I would recommend seeing if Southpaw (here on SCF), who is a professional designer, would be able to offer a conceptualization for something that is targeted at kids.

A web site is not a static thing, to keep visitors returning you have to keep the site fresh and interesting over time (i.e. this forum or a blog). But I would not recommend that this be a youth membership site or one where kids are allowed to post. This only opens the door to weirdo's posing as kids and trying to make contact with them.

That's all I have for now because the dialysis vampires tanked my blood pressure again today at 61/38 (and take my word for it, that BP is no fun). I'll see if I can think this through some more when my brain is functioning better
Don

I still think it would be very difficult to interest youth in stamp collecting. Perhaps I am not giving our youth credit for being more broad minded.

I think the best we could do is create a violent computer game with stamps as warriors.



-IBFS

Don, I hope you feel better!
I agree that APS MIGHT be interested in our ideas.
But we first have to see what has worked for APS's efforts to engage kids. APS only provides club contacts in 16 states, so they may be sensitive about admitting any short comings. We'll see.

I love your idea of connecting with Southpaw. Could you reach out to him?? I recall his graphic design background. Creative skills will be needed to develop a Kid's Stamp World that really appeals to visual youngsters who are used to amazing graphics.

First we need to solve the basic challenges and prove that we have a BETTER way to appeal to kids while offering them new skills, introducing them to the world's other cultures, and exposing them to a fun experience they enjoy revisiting.

If we can do that (no small order!), we should be able to find a willing sponsor to help underwrite development of Kid's Stamp World and also support promoting it to kids.




Brake, no one said making stamping interesting to kids in 2016 will be easy. But my question to the industry is "What has been done to TRY to interest kids?"

The "Youth" page on APS website is as exciting as a Motor Vehicle Department form. Believe me, we can do better. We may not be able to interest massive numbers of kids to try stamping, but I think it's worth a try.

I'm very happy to offer help - and I agree a site needs to be "mobile first". If anyone is curious what that means, it is designing for smart phones and tablets with a flexible modular layout that rearranges and resizes, with care to accommodate smaller screens, especially when it comes to navigation. Since I'm a one-man operation in a small market, I'm a big fan of responsive Wordpress themes that I can easily customize, keeping costs down dramatically.
Here is a site for our local charter school I just launched: http://www.themountaincommunityschool.com

Most important though is a plan, a budget, good enthusiasts creating good content, partner organizations to help promote, a social media guru to handle the Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest component (and/or whatever social media platform the kids are on by the time this gets built, THIS IS VERY IMPORTANT), and someone to update and maintain the site.

My advice is to start simple. Perhaps what's called a one-pager, and grow as needed. Here is an example of a one-pager: http://loganwoodworks.com

But keep it fun. There are lots of things we can do. Making it look nice is the easy part. The appeal to youth will be engagement. Parents will have to be an integral component to this. There will need to be a parent section to "sell" stamps as the wholesome positive fascinating hobby we know it to be. Everybody talk it up at their churches, there are lots of parents looking for activities for their youngsters.

dcaraz1949, your enthusiasm for this project is very laudable. It's also great to see all the interest from forum members.


I've been involved in youth philately for about 7 years now. I have two children that are members of the APS Young Stamp Collectors of America club and the junior stamp club I run is part of the APS All-Star Stamp Club program. I have also created worksheets for the APS Stamps Teach program and I'm the producer of "Topical Tidbits," an online youth publication for the American Topical Association. I have also created youth material/activities that can be found on the Wisconsin Federation of Stamp Club's website. Also, I'm on the youth committee for World Stamp Show New York and am doing the activity books for the youth area. So..... I would be inclined to say that youth philately is alive and while not thriving, is hanging in there. There is a lot going on behind the scenes that hopefully will come to fruition soon.

I think you are dead right, though, that we need something computerized that will catch kids' attention. One thing that we are trying to get off the ground for World Stamp Show is computer games for tablets. Would anyone here be interested in that project? If you have time, you should visit the U.S. Mint's website for kids. It is phenomenal and is what we would like to do for stamps. We haven't been able to find someone, though, that could do this as a volunteer project.

Other ideas I have had but haven't had the time to pursue:

-getting a small stamp column in a national kids' magazine (like National Geographic for Kids, Highlights, Cobblestone, Cricket, etc.)

-getting a company like Kellogg's or Post to have stamp activities on the back of their cereal boxes

-awhile back, Chick-Fil-A had stamp-related activities in their kids' meals. I would like to see them (or another restaurant) do something similar

-have the post office sell little stamp collecting kits (you might remember the ones they did years ago on topical collecting)


If you'd like, I can run any ideas you have by the "higher ups" in the hobby.

-Aimee

Unfortunately the US Mint site for kids is woefully out of date. Something like this won't fly anymore. It has great ideas, it's just stuck with 15 year old technology. It requires Adobe Flash, which has been killed by Adobe, poses security risks, and doesn't work on many (if not most) mobile devices. At least it sounds like they are working on things based on the statement at the bottom of the page.

Thankfully we can develop with current tech in mind. Sort of like developing nations leap-frogging copper directly to cellular technology. The game component will be a major investment in time itself though if that's to be a part of it.

I believe the best way to engage young people in the hobby is to just introduce it to them. We should all share with everyone the beauty of collecting stamps. They are truly little pieces of art! No matter what you collect.
Stu

These days for games you are going to want to develop apps and offer them for download on the Apple app store and/or Google Play. You can promote and link to them via the website. Easiest to develop would be stamp-based trivia games. With correct answers the player could build a virtual stamp collection. Maybe an auction based game similar to one of the Price is Right games - bid up to the Scott value - but don't go over - and build your virtual collection. Presidents, politicians and other historical figures have said colorful things over the years. Animate the stamp portrait Monty Python Terry Gilliam style with speech balloon and multiple choice "who said this". The trick is to develop games that don't require people to be stamp collectors to appreciate them.

southpaw, your work is most impressive.

Your ideas for games are great. I believe the tablets for World Stamp Show are going to be Apples.

Would you be able to create the games yourself?

Thanks SM. Unfortunately no. As an Art Director/Designer I could provide the visual component. But a writer and a developer would be be required also. You are talking about a team effort, and this kind of thing is not inexpensive.

Dan,
Sounds like some of the plan is coming together, that is great. You have an offer host it, you have a fantastically talented guy to design it. You also have some general objectives, or mission statement, for the purpose of the site. From what I can see there is more planning work to do in two primary areas; feature(s) specifications and technical specifications. These are critical because they define the required resources, costs (both development costs and maintenance costs) and project timeline.

I see decreased value in publishing 'just another web site', to stand out it should have features, content, or capabilities which are striking different. A 'features specification' will help define whatever catchy things you want the web site to do. For example, a page where a young person snap a picture, uploads a picture from their smart device, and have the web app identify the stamp for them. (Hey, if you want an incredible web site you have to ask for the moon!) From a conceptualization standpoint, the shot gun approach is desirable here. Dream big, dream outside the box, ask for all kinds of things. Once the spec goes through the reality check (time, cost, and capabilities) this list will be heavily reduced. So you want to dream for a lot but expect a subset of what ends up becoming reality.

Technically, there are a lot of things that need to be ironed out. Two things have already been defined a bit and these need to be understood; oldguy has said he will host it and Southpaw mentioned he uses Wordpress. Before we get any further, the host platform needs to be describe and defined. For example, a Linux web server is different than a Microsoft web server, they have different capabilities at a technical level. You don't want development done and then find that the server doesn't support the way it was coded. In my opinion the platform isn't important as simply defining what it is to prevent any surprises. Can the donated hosting platform handle the load if the site becomes popular and generates heavy traffic? Will the hoisting platform be available for years into the future?

Southpaw mentioned he uses Wordpress. The development platform, like the server platform, carries with it things that it can do and things that it cannot do. Southpaw is a great designer and can certainly assemble great looking web sites, but some features or capabilities are going to need a software coder. How do you meld the developers various preferred development platforms into a single body of work? (Sometimes this is a breeze, sometimes this bites you in the butt.) Who handles the revisions and who owns/stores the original source code? Who owns the original artwork and designs?

The target, or client device(s), also needs to be further defined and specified. There has been mention of an iPad but there are many, many other mobile/smart devices. The bad news here is that these propriety devices can have operating systems and browsers that display web sites and handle web apps differently. It is critical that this be defined upfront and then these devices tested at key milestones throughout the development cycle.

And speaking of testing, this is another substantial resource requirement. If you have very deep pockets, buy the target client devices you want the new site to run on and pass them out to your developers to test on. More likely, you will need to ask for and assemble testing volunteers who already own the targeted devices. Line up about 50% more than you think you need since some will not pan out for various reasons. Testing can quickly bog down a development project, it is critical that this aspect be managed correctly (i.e a test plan written and followed correctly, project time assigned, resources assigned).

It is also critical for the long term health of the site that resource be available to keep it running. This requires ongoing resources in terms of money, people, equipment. This is not an effort where it is just development NREs (non-recurring expenses). There are very real expenses that will be required as the site moves forward in time. People to handle support and/or responding to contact requests. Who will be responsible for constantly changing eh content over the years to keep the site fresh and relevant? Will the original developer have the time to stay on board and keep producing? And of course, I have not mentioned budget limitations. What is the budget?

The web site 'ownership' is critical. Who owns this site? If it is a single person it can get dicey. The person/entity which controls the domain name is basically the 'owner'. Not only are the they legal 'front line', but they have all the keys to the castle. Say the site builds up great traffic the first two years and becomes very valuable. You don't want the person who control the domain name to walk away with it, sell it off, or die. People are less likely to volunteer for the project if this isn't nailed down. So will a club or some kind of non-profit organization be established to own this domain name and site?

Lastly, will the site attempt to generate income to defray costs? There are many ways to do this including selling ad space. This needs to be defined upfront since it can impact development.

I don't mean to overwhelm you, but this should not be a trivial project. A guy like Southpaw or myself can throw together a simple web site in under an hour, but this is not what is need in my opinion. A site like that becomes one like millions of others. In my opinion you have a single opportunity to blow people away to make a real impact. So I disagree with Southpaw in this aspect, starting simple is not the best approach. This is called 'creeping up on the specification' and reduces the chance for producing something outstanding and making a real impact in the marketplace. But Southpaw is probably thinking about the reality and budget of this effort. Without it being well funded putting a simple site out there is the most feasible direction. This is the biggest challenge; get the require resources to do something exciting to maximize its chance at success. A simple 'web presence' is the definition of a 1990s web site, today's youth demand slick interactive sites packed with features.
Don

Should this endeavor be undertaken, this will need to be a team effort. Like I said, design is easy. Project management, creative and tech specs, content development, ongoing maintenance, etc etc, there will be enough work to go around. Wordpress, while not eliminating the need for a programmer, allows me to focus on design and content. I've designed hundreds of hard coded sites. But if we want a nicely designed hard coded responsive site we'll need a sharp developer who knows html5, php, javascript...and who is available to update the site. If a CMS is in place though, any number of "non-programmers" will be able to add content and features.

Now, depending on what we want the site to do, maybe one of the other big three CMSs may be appropriate. Maybe Joomla (I don't like it), perhaps Drupal (actually a framework which is probably overkill for something like this). I don't know. The spec will tell us what's required.

Don, this sounds like a topic for our next lunch meeting?

Hello. I'd like to introduce myself. I'm Michael Bloom and I am chairman of the new APS Collector and Student Education Committee. This strategic committee covers all aspects of education at APS. I am the founder of the APS StampBuddy program that operates welcoming booths at both national APS shows and at many of the WSP shows around the country. I also chair the World Stamp Show NY2016 Entry Level and Youth Committee and am in the process of putting together the Welcome to Stamp Collecting Pavilion at NY2016. My friend, Matt Liebson, chair of the APS Membership Committee, of which I am a member, was kind enough to refer me to this site.

Much of the discussion here is right on target with ideas I am working on and would be happy to answer any questions that I can.

I'm quite interested in the topic of philatelic games for children. In the Welcome to Stamp Collecting Pavilion at NY2016, with 250,000 visitors expected, we will have six iPADs on pedestals in the youth area. We have a number of game ideas but we need someone to design the games on this platform. The games will be used by the APS Education Department after NY2016.

At my request, the APS is working on two videos for the Pavilion Theater which will be located inside the booth. One film is targeted at youth and one at adults with the purpose of attracting potential collectors.

I'll stop here but look forward to hearing from you.