Infiniti and BMW
Lynne Grigg, chief creative officer, The Designory
Brand Name: Infiniti
Agency/Site Creator: The Designory
URL: Infiniti.com
What is unusual and effective about this website?
The site is highly visual, vibrant and modern. To reflect Infiniti's unique design sensibility and holistic emotional character, the site is designed to deliver content in a more progressive and emotional way. Featuring a large 10x7 canvas, cinematic full-screen imagery reveals how design transforms experience (in every Infiniti model and within the site itself). From interactive 360s embedded in the landing pages to the richly dynamic key feature content displayed within transparent windows within each vehicle section, the user discovery is self contained, intuitive and holistic.
How does the website fit into and complement the overall brand strategy for the company?
Infiniti promises a more modern and vibrant luxury experience, by design. The site reinforces the concept of vibrant design from the moment you arrive at the homepage. The information is engaging and relevant, designed to motivate the user to move closer to the purchase decision. A recent benchmarking study has confirmed that the site has a highly positive effect on user perception regarding brand and intention to actually purchase an Infiniti.
How would you improve this website?
We've learned from discussions with our customers that they would welcome even richer interactive experiences, particularly in the area of product feature demonstrations. We are currently working on additional rich media content to add depth to both product experiences and brand design stories.
Brand Name: BMW
Agency/Site Creator: GSD&M
URL: http://content.bmwusa.com/microsite/x52007/indexFlash.html?source=E70STATICFMA
What is unusual and effective about this website?
The site integrates computer graphic (CG) imagery and motion in a way that creates an engaging experience for the consumer. Using CG allows the main content area to be expansive, and the CG images show the vehicle in a high-quality manner without the typical low-quality CG image artifacts. Cinematic-like effects during product storytelling is a unique and effective means of putting features in context of the entire vehicle and demonstrating functionality so that consumers can understand.
How does the website fit into and complement the overall brand strategy for the company?
BMW is a performance-driven automotive brand that runs the risk of an SUV lineup diluting that position. Closely associating the X5 with performance testing at Nurburgring helps to close the perception gap. It also appears to broaden the range of model categories that they are able to shroud in the "high-performance, high-speed tested in Germany" cloak that works so well for the M-series vehicles.
How would you improve this website?
While I think the content areas are good, I would look to integrate the content even further, reducing the borders between video and the overall canvas. Adding an organic and fluid integration between the transitions (CG on white backgrounds) and the content sections would present a more elegant and sophisticated design. The videos would benefit from being larger, which would decrease the awkward transition from the CG motion to the historical videos and interviews.
