New way to reward children for learning with SmartyCard

Launched at the beginning of March 09, SmartyCard's "learn-earn-and-play" platform provides a welcome solution to an increasingly commonplace dilemma: how to let kids safely play virtual worlds or purchase approved music, DVDs or toys online—but, in return, make sure that some of their computer time is used on educational activities that will help them succeed in the classroom and beyond. Tweens (ages 7-12) and parents alike can use the SmartyCard platform for just this purpose at SmartyCard.com.

Smartycard’s site is full of colourful, fun online educational quizzes with both physical and virtual rewards in points. Parents pre-purchase an amount of virtual currency in Smartycard and children are awarded amounts for successfully playing Smartcard’s online games (linked to US curriculum years 3 – 6). The prizes can then be exchanged for either virtual world prizes from a growing list of online partners or for physical goods from Amazon.com.

"SmartyCard.com is essentially PayPal for kids. SmartyCard offers a unique solution to the modern challenge faced by parents, which is how to engage their children in educational activities while making this fun and rewarding. Through its deep educational content and major online brand partnerships, SmartyCard.com offers a safe and relevant environment for children to play, explore, learn and get rewarded," said Ken Howery, co-founder of PayPal and Managing Partner of the Founder's Fund.

SmartyCard has a parent's account view to track their child's account history along with activity history and performance. In addition, parents can control the level at which their child learns, enabling a parent to decide if their child is ready to advance to a higher grade level. From this view, parents can review point accrual and redemption and take funding actions.
So far, the vast majority of online points have been spent on the virtual world prizes.

"Our rewards have been extremely strong around virtual worlds. We have a backend around Amazon that delivers physical goods, but the virtual rewards have made up 85% of our redemptions," continued Chris Carvalho, General Manager at SmartyCard. "They've been extremely popular, and the whole genesis of the idea was around virtual worlds because they're exploding and tween usage on the Internet was exploding compared to TV. You add all that up and look at the fact that a tween doesn't have means to pay for anything, and parents want some way to reward them."

Smartycard is already working with a number of other virtual worlds and plans to add one or two every few weeks, ranging from high-profile worlds to newer entrants to the field. So far it has linked up with Bella Sara, Cartoon Doll Emporium, ClubPenguin, Digital Doll House, Elf Island, Planet Cazmo, Stardoll, Webkinz, and ZooKazoo.

It is of course another route to monetisation, but there are additional benefits for virtual worlds, which explains why some of them offer their currency and rewards more cheaply through SmartyCard than through their direct site. Smartycards provides both another route to user acquisition and a link with serious educational content.

At the moment users go separately to Smartycard to take quizzes, but they may soon find Smartycard content in their favourite virtual world too. "We've had a lot of requests from our rewards partners to do something like that," said Carvalho. "They immediately recognize the value of having an educational component and making sure their virtual world is not only fun but educational. I think you'll see something by the end of the year where we take things to a virtual world or other major distribution points that would like to have a mini-SmartyCard. Take the Hulu model, where they have their own sites but also partnerships. That's something we'll be focusing on."

Smartycard can currently only be used in the USA.

Speaking as a parent, constantly looking for new ways to motivate my children to learn at home, it’s a winner.

For more information see Smartycard http://www.smartycard.com/tp/home.html