Sugar Inc.

Sugar Inc. Launches Social Online Fashion Game With Brand Partners

brian — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 21:00:00 -0700

Sugar Inc. Launches Social Online Fashion Game With Brand Partners Banana Republic, Barneys New York, Diane von Furstenberg, Gap, Juicy Couture, Topshop, and Tory Burch.

San Francisco, CA (July 20, 2010) - Sugar Inc., the leading online women’s media company, today announced the launch of its first social online game, called PopSugar’s Retail Therapy. The game debuts with a host of popular brands, including Banana Republic, Barneys New York, Diane von Furstenberg, Gap, Juicy Couture, Topshop, and Tory Burch. PopSugar’s Retail Therapy allows players to merchandise and design their own fashion boutiques and dress their characters in the hottest styles and brands. Retail Therapy is available on Facebook and can be played for free at http://playretailtherapy.com/play-now.

Beginning with a small and empty boutique, players are challenged to stock their stores with clothing from PopSugar’s Retail Therapy brand partners and design their store layout. The virtual clothes are replicas of real items that players can buy. By carrying the best fashions, players earn virtual money to customize their stores with stylized furnishings or grow their stores into giant department stores. In addition to running their own boutique, players can shop at their friends’ stores or stores hosted by brand-name retailers. Players can also download their personalized characters and outfits to social networking sites in order to share their style with their network of friends.

“Our goal is to constantly add innovative offerings that entertain and delight our large audience of women. We wanted to create an addicting game that would appeal to one of their greatest areas of passion - fashion. PopSugar’s Retail Therapy allows women to mix and match dream outfits from their favorite retailers and feel the experience of running their own high-end fashion boutique,” said Brian Sugar, founder and CEO of Sugar Inc. “What is especially unique about PopSugar’s Retail Therapy is that we have integrated real brands and products into the game environment. All the products featured in the game are available for purchase. Within the game, players can link directly to retailers’ websites if they want to buy the products in real life. This level of brand integration simply does not exist in any other game.”
Sponsors can be involved in the game in a number of ways. Retailers can host in-game virtual stores or provide clothing from their current fashion lines for players’ characters to wear, order, and stock in their own boutiques. They can also sponsor in-store events, gift clothing to players, and introduce limited-availability items that will be coveted by players of the game.

To start, Banana Republic, Barneys New York, Diane von Furstenberg, Gap, Juicy Couture, Topshop, and Tory Burch have all provided virtual merchandise for the game. Diane von Furstenberg and Topshop also have in-game virtual stores that players can shop at.

“One of the most compelling aspects of Retail Therapy is that it gives players the opportunity to actively engage with our brand and clothing in a sophisticated and entertaining virtual environment,” said Heather Kaminetsky, director of Internet marketing at Barneys New York.

To provide its readers with a comprehensive experience across all its properties, PopSugar will integrate aspects of Retail Therapy into its editorial content, which includes 16 sites focused on three primary channels: Celebrity and Culture; Fashion, Beauty, and Shopping; and Home and Family. For example, PopSugar will give fashion trend alerts based on celebrity photos, FabSugar editors will host a Retail Therapy “look of the week” contest for players’ characters with the best outfit and write posts about the newest clothing and accessories in the game, GeekSugar will provide weekly game tips, and CasaSugar will have “get the look” posts inspired by new in-game furniture assets.

“PopSugar’s Retail Therapy presents a very innovative way for us to engage with women online who love fashion,” said Meredith Fisher, digital media director at Diane von Furstenberg. “We are excited about the ability for players to link to our website directly from the game and purchase their favorite items. It’s an organic and seamless connection between the virtual world and the real world.”

For more information about PopSugar’s Retail Therapy, please visit http://playretailtherapy.com.

About Sugar Inc.
Since being founded in 2006 by wife and husband Lisa and Brian Sugar, Sugar Inc.’s mission has been to entertain and delight its audience by producing insanely addictive content, unmatched shopping experiences, and a robust social community. Sugar Inc. is a leading international diversified women's media company with an audience of more than 16 million monthly unique visitors across three business segments: original content (PopSugar.com and PopSugar.tv), commerce (ShopStyle.com), and local (FreshGuide.com) with operations in the US, Europe, and Australia.

Sugar Inc. is privately held and backed by world-class investor Sequoia Capital.

Media Contact
Rosabel Tao, Rosabel@rstao.com, 213-219-1446

Sugar Inc. Enters Local Editorial and Advertising Market With Acquisition of FreshGuide

brian — Tue, 08 Jun 2010 05:30:06 -0700

Sugar Inc. Will Rapidly Accelerate FreshGuide’s Growth and Expansion with Its Large Passionate Audience of Women

San Francisco, CA (June 8, 2010) – In its first foray into providing local editorial and advertising, Sugar Inc. (SugarInc.com) today announced it has signed a definitive agreement to acquire FreshGuide Inc., which operates FreshGuide.com and BookFresh (BookFresh.com). FreshGuide.com is an online women-focused city guide that provides access to exclusive daily offers from a well-edited selection of local businesses in beauty, health and fitness, dining, travel getaways and other relevant categories. BookFresh provides an online booking service for local businesses, such as spas and salons.

Sugar Inc. is a leading diversified women's media company that includes PopSugar Network and PopSugar TV, producing original content and social community for women, and ShopStyle, a social shopping service that brings together the most fashionable stores and the best brands. Sugar has had rapid organic audience growth since inception four years ago and today reaches over 16M monthly unique visitors globally.

“We are constantly striving to add innovative offerings that entertain and delight our audience,” said Brian Sugar, founder and CEO of Sugar Inc. “We felt there were tremendous synergies between Sugar and FreshGuide that could be achieved by combining our large audience with their local service. We are very excited to be able to bring to our readers exclusive daily offers at the best places to eat, exercise, shop and relax in their local areas.”
FreshGuide was founded in 2008 by Ryan Donahue, a veteran of Pay Pal, and launched its first service, BookFresh, later that year. In January 2010, the company launched Freshguide.com to provide local offers by city. Currently, FreshGuide operates in four markets: San Francisco, Silicon Valley, Los Angeles and Seattle. FreshGuide will continue to operate under Sugar Inc. as a separate brand.

“FreshGuide is focused on providing exclusive, local offers for women. By integrating our service with the PopSugar Network’s addictive editorial content, we are creating a city-based editorial and offers of unmatched quality in the market,” said Donahue. “This acquisition will also allow us to dramatically expand our reach and accelerate our growth. We plan to launch FreshGuide in 30 additional cities over the next 18 months in the U.S. and internationally in the UK, France, Germany and Australia where Sugar Inc. has operations.”

Online local advertising is forecast to grow at a 19 percent annual rate over the next four years and is expected to be a $19 billion market in 2010, according to BIA Kelsey Group. Most of that growth is coming from the decline of the $120 billion traditional local advertising market.

“We believe the winning business model for next generation media companies must include diverse revenue streams. This conviction led to our acquisition of ShopStyle in 2007, which provided Sugar with a new marketing channel for retailers and brands to acquire visitors that met their ROI goals. The acquisition of ShopFlick, now PopSugar Studios, in 2009, enabled Sugar to launch PopSugar TV and provide advertisers a compelling video environment for branded entertainment. Similarly, we believe that FreshGuide will provide local advertisers the ability to advertise to Sugar’s large audience in a high-quality and cost-effective manner. The FreshGuide service will also provide Sugar’s national advertisers and retailers with a new way to extend their brands into local markets as we develop our local city guides,” added Sugar.

About Sugar Inc.
Since being founded in 2006, Sugar Inc.’s mission has been to entertain and delight its audience by producing insanely addictive content, unmatched shopping experiences and a robust social community. Sugar Inc. is a leading international diversified women's media company with an audience of more than 16m monthly unique visitors across three business segments: original content (PopSugar.com and PopSugar.tv), commerce (ShopStyle.com) and local (FreshGuide.com) with operations in the US, Europe and Australia.

Sugar Inc. is privately held and backed by world-class investor Sequoia Capital.

ShopStyle Adds Contextual Shopping Ad Units to ShopSense Program

mieko14 — Thu, 18 Feb 2010 17:53:09 -0800

Sugar Inc. CEO Brian Sugar published the exciting results from a test pitting traditional ad network banners against ShopStyle's new contextual shopping IAB units. Drawing upon ShopStyle's strong retailer relationships and expansive, continually updating inventory of product images and links, these new ad units surface items based on page content for contextual relevance. The ShopSense ads join interactive shopping widgets and product layouts in ShopSense's stable of tools, providing yet another way for site owners to make money. Check out the results and the full story at BrianSugar.com.

Learn more about ShopSense products.

PopSugar Media's Kristine Shine: MediaPost's Newest Gen Y Expert

mieko14 — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 15:20:33 -0800

Understanding and connecting with one's audience certainly makes sense in a media landscape that changes as fast as technology can evolve. Sugar Inc. is excited that one of our own has been recognized for doing just that. Vice-President of PopSugar Media Kristine Shine has been tapped by MediaPost Publications to contribute regularly as an expert on Gen Y women in its Engage: Gen Y blog. Check out her most recent installment about lessons learned from the front lines of the battle to reach millennials, and subscribe to the blog newsletter to stay on top of Kristine's insights on social media and this very influential generation of women.

mieko14 — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 10:35:44 -0800

Is Sugar the Future of Online Publishing? Asks Fortune Brainstorm Tech

CNNMoney.com's blog discusses how Sugar Inc. is shaping the world of online publishing.

PopSugar Media Releases New Marketing Study on Gen Y Women’s Influence

mieko14 — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:00:00 -0700

PopSugar Media Releases New Marketing Study on Gen Y Women’s Influence on Lifestyle Trends and How Technology Has Expanded Their Sphere of Influence

“Why Y Women” Report Also Examines Generational Differences Between Gen X and Y Women

San Francisco, CA (October 29, 2009) -- A new research report released today by PopSugar Media (www.popsugar.com) revealed that two-thirds of Generation X women chose Generation Y women as the most influential age group when it comes to defining trends in popular culture. Gen Y women, in turn, are discovering new brands and getting most of their style inspiration and product recommendations from blogs and social media.

Download the "Why Y Women" white paper

The report, “Why Y Women,” is a two-tier study of 1,018 women ages 18-49 conducted by Radar Research on behalf of PopSugar Media, which examines Gen Y women’s sphere of influence of lifestyle trends, how technology and social media help them expand their sphere of influence, and how marketers can target and communicate with this group. PopSugar Media is the online leader in original content and social media for trendsetting Y women.

“Gen Y women represent a challenge to marketers. The results of this study underscore how much marketers must think and act differently when addressing this generation of women online. It shows they want to be addressed as individuals, they can be skeptical of marketing messages, and they are inundated by media and advertising,” said Brian Sugar, founder and CEO of Sugar, Inc. “As this study and our experience proves, it’s crucial for brands to create a trusted relationship and earn their loyalty through honest dialogue about their brand. Once they have a personal connection to a brand, Gen Y women will be passionate advocates and ambassadors. Our goal has been to work closely with brands to help facilitate that relationship.” Read full release and download the white paper

Real Simple Family Takes a Tip From LilSugar

mieko14 — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 14:02:42 -0700

A recent LilSugar poll served as inspiration for a money-saving tip in the latest issue of Real Simple Family. LilSugar finds that many couples are foregoing regularly scheduled date nights in favor of more wallet-friendly options. Pick up the Fall 2009 issue of Real Simple Family to read their saving tips.

Shopflick and fashionologie Named in InStyle's Best of the Web 2009

mieko14 — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 16:30:46 -0700

InStyle Magazine named Shopflick and fashionologie as website favorites in this year's Best of the Web list. The magazine selected Shopflick as the best video shopping site, while fashionologie made the list of best blogs and inspirations. Check out the full list in the November 2009 issue.

FabSugar's Melody Nazarian Featured as 7x7's October Stylephile

mieko14 — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 13:55:42 -0700

At Sugar Inc.'s HQ, we have been privy to FabSugar Associate Editor Melody Nazarian's fabulous fashion sense, and it appears that the word is getting out! Read Melody's tips and inspirations in the October issue of 7x7 Magazine.

Source: Cody Pickens, 7x7 Magazine

fashionologie's Tommye Fitzpatrick Shows Elle.com Her Style

mieko14 — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:00:01 -0700

Elle Magazine Creative Director Joe Zee profiles Tommye Fitzpatrick, Editor of fashionologie in his piece on the style of fashion bloggers. Find out what she's wearing from day into night.