London, 10 December 2009: Cyber-Duck, a multiple award winning interactive media agency (www.cyber-duck.co.uk) today announced the launch of a groundbreaking new virtual gift website that it created for its client BoonSpace: www.boonspace.com. 

With today’s globalised world causing millions of people to live far away from their loved ones, virtual gifts have been heralded as the next big Internet revenue generator, with forecasts totalling $5.5 billion in global revenue during 2009.

BoonSpace is a revolutionary new way to send and receive gifts and emotional messages; it allows anyone to send a present when it’s impossible to be present. It’s simple, easy, can be done online and as the gifts are virtual there are no carbon emissions in transporting them around the world. While online retailers and gift websites abound, they are impersonal and require the sender to know the recipient’s address; a challenge if the recipient is travelling or you want to surprise a friend.
 
BoonSpace innovatively brings the personal experience to the Internet by uniquely combining a wide array of functionalities from across multiple disciplines. The gift sender can easily create a personal multimedia message, including e-card, photo, video, webcam uploads and voice message. Then they select the ideal virtual present including a customised animated gift box and finally choose whether to send a virtual gift only or attach an amount of money so the recipient can transform their virtual gift into the real thing by redeeming the gift money via PayPal. Users can even add friends and manage a calendar of important dates to remember.

BoonSpace is the next best thing to being there in person. Above all it’s fun, and the gifts are truly memorable and personal. The basic service is free to use, with a $1 charge if you want to add one of BoonSpace’s virtual presents.  A small additional charge is applied for money transfers. As a next step BoonSpace will be incorporating into the service a range of retailers enabling physical gifts to also be redeemed online.

Danny Bluestone, MD of Cyber-Duck said, “BoonSpace uniquely takes virtual gift sending to a whole new level. It is the combination of functionality that sets it apart from other virtual gift services, making it an ‘all in one’, extremely easy to use and fun platform that combines gift money transfers with the ability to create highly personal and unique virtual gifts”. 

BoonSpace was founded by Nick Janus and Rich Hallam who met in the Super Yachting industry where, being far from home for extended periods, realised the need for an online gift service that replicates the emotional experience of offline gifts. The positive feedback that the concept received from their business tycoon boss inspired them to approach the venture capital investor that now backs BoonSpace.

Given the importance of promoting BoonSpace throughout online communities it was particularly fitting that BoonSpace sourced Cyber-Duck through the ASmallWorld network. They needed an agency that specialised in user-experience, so that even the least digitally savvy user could create their own customised virtual gifts.

Rich Hallam Co-Founder of Boonspace said, “BoonSpace was devised to revolutionise the way people around the world send and receive gifts. As this is so closely tied with social marketing and a positive user experience we were looking for an agency that specialises in these fields. Cyber-Duck proved to be head and shoulders above the rest. They quickly understood our vision and have approached every challenge with the attitude that nothing is unattainable. The team’s passion for producing the best website imaginable far exceeded our expectations.”

Over the next 12 months the company is dedicating significant resources to creating a buzz around the service, combining offline PR targeting students, expats and the military amongst others with a wide range of online campaigns that will be devised and managed by Cyber-Duck.

In addition to extensive Search Engine Optimisation, Search Engine Marketing, Video Optimisation and online PR, a key element of the online marketing strategy will be on social networking and online communities. The emotive, creative and personal elements of BoonSpace are particularly applicable to viral campaigns and creativity competitions. Additionally, the social networking features of BoonSpace will make a strong presence within other networks a key marketing priority.

Despite only launching today, BoonSpace has already drawn considerable interest with an impressive 2,455 signups generated from its pre-launch trial that was promoted on a few social media sites and forums for 2 weeks in November.

To celebrate the launch, BoonSpace and Cyber-Duck are offering some great prizes in a competition to see who can send the most creative and fun gift to BoonSpace. See www.boonspace.com/competition for details.