In a world where new is cool, creating lasting brands is a challenge. Building brands with longevity is hard, even for global brands. Its almost a weird club that keeps the old-school in and the new-boys out.

Take board games, for example - Hasbro and Mattel - how many copies of Monopoly or Scrabble do we need? Few games they launch become classics. Performance is critiqued and competition for shelf-space fierce. They simply get replaced with new products expecting similarly short lifecycles. Established games like Monopoly become cultural Җ they become gifts with meaning and its a very hard cycle to break.

Nick Kellet, a Kelowna based entrepreneur, may just have found a way to bridge that gap with his unique game that is ironically about the exchange of gifts.

Launched in 2006 GiftTRAP has since been voted ‘Party Game of the Year’ in USA, Germany, France, Canada and Sweden. The German award for ‘Spiel Des Jahres’ is a major prize Җ akin to an Oscar in the gaming world.

GiftTRAP takes rituals like Christmas Day and turns them into a fun party game that pokes fun at the dysfunction of exchanging gifts. Giving the perfect gift can be a tearful, joyful bonding moment creating life-long memories.

In reality, such moments are rare as a result of being short on time, remote from family and daunted by retail choice. GiftTRAP kicks in by creating conversations about hundreds of diverse topics (dressed up as gifts) bringing friends and families closer together to share passions and to give everyone a chance to excel in the gift department.

GiftTRAP is proving a global hit with longevity - already in 8 languages, expected to grow to 12 in 2010. Sales are at 50k units globally with this expected to double next year. The hard work is paying dividends by bringing in new distributors. 20+ awards and 8+ languages is no mean achievement for a first game, for a new company with no prior connections or experience in the industry. This bilingual game, invented in Canada is looking set to become a future classic following in the footsteps of Canadian legend Trivial Pursuit. Want more information? Need to book an appearance for Radio/TV? Call +1 250-864-3821

GiftTRAP is the first party game to have been awarded such a special prize by the SDJ judges. GiftTRAP, voted Party Game of the Year in France, Germany, Sweden, USA and Canada, expects to drive sales to 100k units across 12 languages in 2010.

We all understand that exchanging gifts has become dysfunctional. Social etiquette prevents us from telling people how we feel about the gifts we receive. With the explosion of consumer choice, exchanging gifts has become a nightmare.

Individuals arriving for family rituals, like Christmas, expect everyone to bring them a carefully chosen gift. This ritual exposes the dysfunction of gifting among friends and family. The ‘Holiday Season is an expos of consumerism that overshadows an event layered in meaning, religion and tradition. Coined by retailers and the media, the term serves to add to the social pressure, diminishing the idea that its ‘the thought that counts’ says Nick Kellet GiftTRAPs Designer & indie publisher.

‘We live in a want it buy it world’. Exchanging gifts is not the fun it once was. GiftTRAP stands against the rising tide of materialism, adding the feedback loop and fun givers so badly need. Research shows we don’t give feedback on the 1/3rd of gifts we don’t like - we all lie. GiftTRAP is a release valve for years of bad gifts! Nick added.

GiftTRAP is all about great conversation, high replay value & putting the fun in gift exchange. GiftTRAP has broad appeal; kids, teens, twenty somethings, young parents, grandparents & teachers extol the virtues of the GiftTRAP experience.

Gifts aren’t just for Christmas, now you can give anytime. Play focuses on social exchanges and virtual gift ideas - 640 diverse gift ideas are included and are guaranteed to start conversation in households around the globe.

ABOUT GiftTRAP

GiftTRAP is a tech-savvy indie board game company based in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, focused on engineering great conversation & fun social experiences. GiftTRAP is spreading the globe on the back of word of mouth, awards & an ever-expanding network of distributors & languages (8 so far). The company mission is to rid the world of unwanted gifts.

GiftTRAP is Board Game 2.0; a social, collaborative experience. Its content is crowd sourced from user-created content. Friends can exchange virtual gifts either online or in the physical game. Uniquely GiftTRAP is not about winning per se, but it is about you. No teams to hide behind. Winning doesn’t require any specific knowledge, but rather, people skills & strong intuition.

The good news is that anyone who plays GiftTRAP can improve their gift-giving skills with practice. In fact once you play the game, you really never stop. It has an effect of making people more attentive to the needs of others & to explore different preferences.

The company supports charity donations directly as well as through the content of the game. GiftTRAP is a strong supporter of Creative Commons & sources appropriately licensed images from Flickr.com to continually refine & refresh its gift ideas to reflect the current choices.

Players secretly choose & give everyone a unique gift. Next players each rate the gifts on offer as they feel Җ best to worst. Then gifts are unwrapped & scored. No real gifts, no lies, no dice, no turns just insight, laughter, honesty, great conversation & high-level engagement.

Aside from its unique theme & packaging GiftTRAP is one of few games that can be played/enjoyed from grandchild to grandparent often with interesting results.

As an indie game GiftTRAP is available from specialist game stores globally. Chains like Walmart & Toys-R-Us only stock games that are TV Advertised or based on TV Shows. SDJ style ‘Designer’ games are slowly finding their way into mainstream culture in North America.

Media & bloggers are welcome to apply for a review copy. To arrange an interview with the inventor call +1 250 864 3821 or email nick(at)gifttrap(dot)com

A very small % of eyeballs of total Twitter traffic go through Twitter.com. It’s a problem of their own making - their API diverts bulk of traffic via other tools. Now it’s true to say they are working harder to improve the twitter.com. I’m sure they somewhat regret the effect of the api, but you can’t bite the hand that feeds you (traffic not money). Apple just did that with the app store #fail #backfire. Twitter can’t insert ads into the feed. Twitter could charge businesses for Tweeting without fear of ban which is a consumer consenting way of inserting ads into the feed - as all content is equal and consenting to the consumer.

Twitter can also leverage its role in TV and broader media. A small license change could make them the sole provider of Twitter content for TV (for example). They could leave Web and SMS alone.  Twitter now feeds print media, radio and TV. Another small license change could make Twitter content reusable for free by all after n hurs. In simple terms they can monetize the value of their immediacy. They can certainly ensure all media is forced to quote the source - which perpetuates their ubiquity. This is a simple contractual requirement.

The Twitter reality show idea - whilst in early form - is a perfect example of how they can monetize their value. TV + SMS = real revenue model - see #idol. Twitter can exclusively own the rights to twitter via any other medium than the web. Twitter on TV - for example. Twitter for me has always been a ubiquity play. Twitter works for consumers and creators of content via web, phone, tv, radio (tweets from voice). That said Twitter is also a channel in it’s own right - a channel and a medium - it’s ubiquitous.

Twitter is the Swiss army knife of Web 2.0.  Web 2.0 arrived and trended to create an excess of ever more specialized apps. Too many apps. Too much registration. The same argument explains Facebooks’ success. Twitter offered a jack of all trades approach that in effect reversed the trend - Twitter is a single tool that almost does everything. With the API and 1000’s of partners Twitter can offer fixes to all the shortfalls. Want pics - there’s an app for that. Video/Voice - ditto. There’s an app for just about everything - in most cases there’s 20+ apps for each thing and more if it’s actually really useful. Here’s some example that the Twitter manages to deliver.

- Bookmarking/Link Sharing (Digg/Stumbleupon)
- Photo sharing (Flickr/Facebook)
- Chat (Instant Messenger)
- Social Networking/Community (Facebook)
- Special Interest Groups (SIGS)

In contrast to Facebook, Twitter supports voyeurism (Web 2.0 version of Hello Mag). Twitter removes the permission model Facebook used to make such a fuss about. Ironic that Facebook is now back peddling to reverse that feature/default/mindset.

But it’s not just the functional diversity. It’s the ubiquity that counts. this means it can’t be displaced.

No other medium transcends all other channels

- Email = No
- SMS = No
- TV = No
- Radio = No
- IM/Chat = No
- Comments = No
- Social Network = No

A Twitter address like @nickkellet or @giftTRAP or @garyvee is or will be as ubiquitous as a web address like http://gifttrap.com

Nobody owns Http. Nobody owns email. Twitter owns @twitter.

That’s the difference.

Twitter has proven it can neatly insert itself into TV, Radio, Websites etc.

That leads to many money. For now they need to focus on making themselves indispensable and irreplaceable. They need to focus on getting businesses hooked. More business = more content = more value.

KELOWNA (Wednesday 8th July 2009 ) GiftTRAP the first party game to capture the spirit of Christmas* today won the globally recognized Spiel Des Jahres (JDY) prize for “Best Party Game 2009”. Prior winners of the main prize include hits like “Settlers of Catan” , “Carcasonne” & Ticket to Ride”.

GiftTRAP is the first party game to have been awarded such a special prize by the SDJ judges. GiftTRAP sales exceed 50,000 units since launching in 2006 . GiftTRAP has won many international awards including “Best Party Game” from Games Magazine, “Game of the Year” in France / Faidutti.com, “Best Party Game” by Creative Child Magazine, “TV2 Hjelper Deg” in Norway & “Best New Game” in Sweden.

Individuals arriving for their family Christmas* ritual expect everyone to bring them a carefully wrapped gift - a ritual that both unites & divides. Today social pressures & commercialism overshadow an event layered in meaning, religion & tradition.

North American Retailers & Media coined the broader term “The Holiday Season making it feel that it’s the money and not the thought that counts.” says Nick Kellet GiftTRAP’s inventor & publisher. We live in a ‘want it buy it world’. Exchanging gifts is not the fun it once was. Believing we know people proves to be a myth.”

GiftTRAP stands against the rising tide of materialism, adding the feedback loop gift givers so badly need. Research shows we don’t give feedback on the 1/3rd of gifts we
don’t like - we all lie to Grandma. Now you can enjoy the exchange without the gifts!

The broad appeal of the game is one of its most unique features kids, teens, twenty somethings, young parents, grandparents & teachers extol the virtues of GiftTRAP’s
unique experience, high replay value & the fact that it resonates in current times.

Gifts aren’t just for Christmas, now you can give anytime. Play focuses on social exchanges - not the gifts - 640 diverse gift ideas are included and are guaranteed to start
conversation in households around the globe. Heidelberger launched the German edition of the game in 2008.

GiftTRAP is a tech-savvy indie board game company based in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, focused on engineering great conversation & fun social experiences.

GiftTRAP is spreading the globe on the back of word of mouth, awards & an ever expanding network of distributors & languages (8 so far). The company mission is to rid the world of unwanted gifts.Thinks of GiftTRAP as Board Game 2.0; a social, collaborative experience crowd sourced from user-created content; enabling friends to exchange virtual gifts either on line or in the physical game. Uniquely GiftTRAP is not about winning per se, but it is about you. No teams to hide behind. Winning doesn’t require any specific knowledge, but rather, people skills & strong intuition. The good news is that anyone who plays

GiftTRAP can improve gift-giving skills with practice. In fact once you play the game, you really never stop. It has an effect of making people more attentive to the needs of others & to explore different preferences. The company supports charity donations directly as well as through the content of the game. GiftTRAP is a strong supporter of Creative Commons & sources appropriately licensed images from Flickr.com to continually refine & refresh its gift ideas to reflect the current choices.

Players secretly choose & give everyone a unique gift. Next players each rate the gifts on offer as they feel best to worst. Next gifts are unwrapped & scored. No real gifts, no lies, no dice, no turns - just insight, laughter, honesty, great conversation & high-level engagement.

Aside from its unique theme & packaging GiftTRAP is one of few games that can be played/enjoyed from grandchild to grandparent often with interesting results.

As an indie game GiftTRAP is available from specialist game stores globally. Chains like Walmart & Toys R Us only stock games that are TV Advertised or based on TV Shows. SDY style games are slowly finding their way into mainstream culture in North America.

Media & bloggers are welcome to apply for a review copy. To arrange an interview with the inventor call +1 250 864 3821 or email nick@gifttrap.com

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