Brand Name: Visa
Agency/Site Creator: AKQA
URL: http://www.lifetakesvisa.com/visa.aspx
What is unusual and effective about this website?
Many people will find the navigation unique, which in itself can be engaging, if not tricky. The site prods users into the site by categorizing life moments in the right side navigation, which is a great way to get people started-- lure them in with the familiar and engage them with the unique.
The content is well done and well used in this medium. The moments are real, albeit produced, and are worth spending time on, which can be difficult to accomplish. The amount of content is a good balance between overwhelming and substantive.
How does the website fit into and complement the overall brand strategy for the company?
I think that AKQA has done a fabulous job of complementing the brand strategy with this site: the vignettes are a slice of life and many of them could fall into the category of "it could happen to anyone." I think that this site accomplished something that couldn't be done on TV or on paper, though fit well with other creative.
Users will come away from this site with knowledge of the tagline, the brand and how it aligns with the everyday.
How would you improve this website?
Resolve the ActiveX Control issue where you have to "click to activate" the Flash movie. This is a very easy issue to resolve.
I would also like to see another aspect of customer engagement beyond the "send to a friend." I feel like there could be something creative that rewards people for spending their time with the brand beyond the satisfaction of "life moment voyeurism."
Additional resources
iMedia Creative Showcase: Slate.com Flips for Visa
Brand Name: Cricket Communications
Agency/Site Creator: Red Door Interactive
URL: www.freedomtales.com
What is unusual and effective about this website?
The effective aspects of the site are in its combined application of design and technology. Flash is the video delivery tool, which delivers the content seamlessly, and the core goals of the site are straight-forward and apparent: Acquire and provide valuable, user-generated brand-aligned content worthy of forwarding. Visitors are spending a significant amount of time on the site with more than 15 percent of the users watching Cricket's commercials (non-user-generated content), effectively extending the life of the TV campaign.
Additionally, a significant amount of users explore beyond the promotional site and go multiple pages deep into the product site, which is inspiring because it indicates the site has made a connection.
How does the website fit into and complement the overall brand strategy for the company?
This site is intended to be viral and not brand-overt. To a degree, the site should feel almost gratuitous. However, the concept of pets escaping to freedom, which Red Door can't take credit for developing, ties to the in-market TV spots to communicate the concept of freedom from long-term mobile wireless contracts. People who are in Cricket markets definitely understand the connection more than others outside of their market.
A detail of this site that is worth noting is that the site attempts to connect users with the animal shelters that are in the Cricket markets to free real animals in need. The audience should be inspired by this and other aspects of the site to escape their own mobile contracts and enjoy their own freedom tale.
How would you improve this website?
We are in the process of using our findings from the first few weeks to improve the site in a few different ways. We are working on user retention through "new content alerts." In order to build traffic beyond the initial push, we need to pull the acquired visitors back. Also, we simply need to get more submitted content to achieve critical mass, so we are working on that, though the intent, of course, is to encourage more users to submit their own.