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Hasbro introduces My Little Pony storytelling app for holidays

Hasbro has released a new, storytelling mobile application My Little Pony: Twilight?s Kingdom in time for the holidays to extend the life of the animated series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic.

With its launch date coinciding with the holiday season, My Little Pony fans will be able to enjoy the product during a convenient time of year. Omnichannel experiences that differ from one another often keep consumers coming back and remaining loyal to the brand.

?Approximately 20 percent of kids under the age of eight use a mobile device everyday, and 42 percent of families with young children under eight years old have a tablet,? said Shaan Kandawalla, co-founder of PlayDate Digital. ?Our mission is to create products that turned those digital screens into engaging educational experiences for young children.?

Playing with mobile
The app is being presented from PlayDate Digital, under license from Hasbro, Inc.

The extended storybook app is based on the two-part Season four finale of the animated series My Little Pony: Friendship is Magic, created by Hasbro Studios and currently airing on Discover Family Channel in the U.S.

In the app, Twilight Sparkle, Equestria?s newest princess, is looking for a way to prove herself worthy of the title. To save Equestria from a villainous centaur, Twilight Sparkle will need help from her closest pony friends, and a surprise ally, to restore magic to Equestria and unlock a kingdom. Twilight?s Kingdom recaps how Twilight Sparkle?s friends earn their keys of friendship and includes 27 pages of television-quality animation, as well as the original voice talents of John de Lancie as Discord. 

The product includes the biggest cast of characters to date, interactive action and voices on every page and ?read to me? and ?read along? modes for every level of early and emerging readers. There is also new and advanced vocabulary highlighted and sounded out throughout the storybook.

My Little Pony: Twilight?s Kingdom is also designed to create learning goals with its new vocabulary, reading practice and comprehension.

The app is currently available for $3.99 in the iOS App Store.

Physical turning digital
Hasbro has done a fine job of mobilizing its brands to give them digital capabilities.

Hasbro recently addressed a threat to traditional board games from popular video games by updating its iconic Monopoly with a mobile application that links to users? Facebook profiles, intending to entice families that are all-around more tech-savvy than ever before.

To promote the game?s digital components, Hasbro teamed with YouTube sensation the Holderness family to execute a video explaining the use of the app. Players can use the app to import their Facebook pictures and print them to be used while playing the game (see story).

In 2013, Hasbro had sold one million of its Telepods figures that allows kids to blend the physical and virtual by teleporting real-life figures into mobile applications.

In the summer of 2013, Hasbro launched its first line of Telepods for Rovio Entertainment and Lucasfilm?s Angry Birds Star Wars II, and it geared up for a new line of Telepods for Angry Birds Go!, a new Rovio app. When a child bought a set of Telepods, he could then access a feature within the Rovio app, place the Telepod on the device?s camera and teleport the Telepod into the app for play (see story).

?We believe that digital offers an opportunity to extend the core play patterns and create more immersive experiences, to complement the play from physical toys,? Ms. Kandawalla said. ?For example, for a child who loves My Little Pony, digital platforms allow us to bring stories and characters to life.?

Final Take
Caitlyn Bohannon is an editorial assistant on Mobile Marketer, New York