Virtual-gift app delivers upscale curios and trinkets

Virtual gifts and flowers are ubiquitous in the online world, but most are essentially a simple picture of the real-world equivalent, or an unattractive rendering. Proving once again that everything can be upgraded, Little World Gifts is a free app for iPhone and iPod Touch that offers a wide range of upscale alternatives. Associated with the Little World Gifts app is a boutique store filled with handcrafted, 3D digital curios and trinkets. A ceramic Maneki Neko statuette, for example, is a Japanese token of good luck; a tuk-tuk toy, on the other hand, is a true-to-scale miniature. Other interactive items include a balloon dog, a bowler hat, an antique rocking horse and a red chilli pepper, all hand-rendered in digital 3D and touch-manipulable through the Little World Gifts app, which is available both on the App Store and on Facebook from UK-based Kisky Netmedia. Pricing on the gifts begins at 99 cents, according to a report in The Next Web. Little World Gifts also delivers a virtual goods platform for brands, which can use it to offer free or paid interactive, touch-sensitive and even location-sensitive gifts, either through the Little World Gifts store or through their own branded equivalent. Earlier this year, for example, the Tate Liverpool museum partnered with Little World Gifts to create a virtual framed version of Picasso’s “Monument to the Spaniards who Died for France” as a way of promoting its “Picasso: Peace and Freedom” exhibit. In a partnership with WWF UK, meanwhile, a portion of the proceeds from three wildlife-themed gifts benefit the conservation charity. How could *your* brand use upscale virtual gifts to engage and delight its own discriminating customers…? Spotted by: Vodafone Mobile Clicks