Creative Agency: IQ Interactive
Overall, the site is an interesting proposition in an 'infotainment' kind of way. There was some engaging video, which loaded quickly, that both entertained and informed-- all housed in a movie trailer like format. The balance of relevance and fun was more skewed to the gaming side of things, however. The dramatic -- and ominous -- red map coupled with the James Coburn-sounding voiceover in the videos often made the piece feel a little too much like an advertisement for a movie with less than spectacular special effects (the effects in the videos seemed lacking, given that the rest of the experience begged comparison with movie sites). This "Day After Tomorrow" send-up did not seem to keep with the Weather Channel brand, and after witnessing so many real disasters recently, the effect was a bit grim. The science I did find amongst the chaos was genuinely interesting, and I wish there had been more of it.
I found the transition from the splash page, principally in Weather Channel blue, to the danger zone red a little discordant, and wondered why there was no supporting text (up front or on roll-over) to help me understand that this site supports a series of televised shows. The map invited exploration, but the links were difficult to hit as they seemed to avoid my cursor. Once I was able to capture and click a link, I found some good content, and some areas that left me wanting more. One text box offered up "Wildfires Coming Soon," but I could not find out more about wildfires or sign up to be contacted when the show was going to air. I found the site to be less explorable than it visually promised to be-- links to more detailed information were absent (about the weather phenomenon, the broadcast series, The Weather Channel…). While this is a site I should be coming back to and telling my storm tracker pals about, there was no sign up option for me, and no viral element for them, so I spent an enjoyable few minutes with it and was done. A mild diversion for the curious, and a curious brand diversion for The Weather Channel.
-- Brian Crooks, executive creative director, Avenue A / Razorfish
Overall, I really like the idea of an immersive microsite promoting a TV show, and this execution is pretty strong. The interactive U.S. map is easily navigated, and each city's window has lots of interesting clips and other info that get you hooked into the show's startling subject matter. The show's 9 PM air time is clearly stated throughout the entire experience. An improvement I suggest is to call out what the hotspots within each city are about. There's so much to check out in each city, and some of the videos loaded very slowly, that I lost patience at times and clicked into and out of hotspot areas without getting the content.
-- Jon Verna, media supervisor, Black Bag Advertising