Peppa Pig Me Books App
Production credits: Me Books : Ladybird Books
Launch date: 16 February 2012
Since we last featured Me Books they’ve only gone and been nominated for a Guardian Digital Innovation Award for their Ladybird Classic Me Books App (one of our favourites from last year). Already a winner at the Lovie Awards, it was also named ‘Best Entertainment App of the Year’ by Apps Magazine.
Now, in collaboration with the Ladybird imprint of Penguin, they have produced the first digital version of Peppa Pig for the iPad. This hugely-popular children’s brand is televised in 180 territories and has achieved book sales of over 3 million.
Designed to ‘enhance the traditional picture book reading experience’, the Me Books technology is simple and intuitive. And in the case of this Peppa Pig app, children will have no problem switching between the book, cartoon and app, making this a natural extension of the brand.
Ten titles have now been released digitally. Fun at the Fair comes with the app and others can be made as in-app purchases. All 10 titles have been in print for some time so chances are you’ll already own a copy (assuming you have a child under-5 or simply a fondness for talking pigs – it worked for Charlotte’s Web author E.B.White). So will parents be persuaded to buy a duplicate, albeit digital version of the book? It is interesting that for the digital launch of such an established brand the next book in the series wasn’t offered as a ‘digital first’ to really incentivise people to give the app a go.
And people should be encouraged to buy this. The colour and humour of the books are beautifully captured and transferred to iOS devices. Children can listen to Peppa Pig narrator John Sparkes read the story, but the fun really begins when you record your own version complete with Mummy and Daddy Pig snorts. This is the technology that has made Me Books an award-winning app. As children and adults create their own versions of the adorable Peppa Pig tales, they make these digital books their own.
Beautifully-produced and simple to use, Peppa Pig for the iPad will get your little piggy snorting with delight as they read, listen, play and interact with one of the best-loved children’s characters around today.