June 22, 2006
Vodafone Journey
[via adcritic]
Who says corporate websites have to be mind-numbingly dull? Certainly not Vodafone Group, the global mobile communications giant that just unveiled an immersive online experience to introduce the company to consumers on a personal level. Following up on its award-winning "Future Vision" campaign for Vodafone in 2004, Swedish interactive agency North Kingdom designed the new experience, dubbed "The Vodafone Journey," as a video-heavy "guided tour" of the company. "We knew we wanted personal and direct storytelling to show the inner soul and heart of the huge company that Vodafone is," says creative director David Eriksson. "The ambition was to take the users by the hand and show them fragments from the world of Vodafone. We then made it possible to explore all these details and go deeper by themselves."
Led by the friendly spokeswoman Lucy, the tour runs about five minutes and spans a multitude of settings, including an airport, a snowy ski slope, a tropical beach and a hi-tech office building. As Lucy journeys from location to location, she interacts with various "characters" that represent real stories from within the Vodafone community. "We worked to find real people and real stories that we thought could represent the different parts of the company," says Eriksson. "It was very important that it feel authentic and genuine, and therefore we didn't use any actors, and we used local languages to tell the stories." In addition to Lucy's informative monologue, users can click on a handy "tell me more" symbol at any point to pause the tour and learn more about a particular topic.
The biggest technical challenge for North Kingdom? "Integrating the video that was shot in real HD and making it work without demanding too much performance of the users' computers," says Eriksson. "Another big challenge was the complex structure of the storytelling, and implementing seamless navigation within and between the different movie clips, since there is so much to experience and see. We employed focus groups to make sure we created something that the users could understand and navigate."
Posted by richard ting at June 22, 2006, 12:13 PM
May 23, 2005
The Sith Sense
Crispin Porter and Burger King are at it again with their new campaign, The Sith Sense. The interaction is simple and some of the insults are funny. My only question is, 'where the hell is the Burger King brand message story?' There's absolutely no brand or product tie-in to the experience. Maybe the objective of the campaign was more about driving traffic because this site is definitely going to go viral. I wasn't overwhelmed by the experience, but I did feel compelled to play it through to completion. One thing is for sure, the average time spent on the site should be a nice big juicy number. Crispin is definitely tapping into their award winning formula of sending a clear message that borrows from pop culture while giving cool whimsical feedback to the user.
Check out a generic version of 20 questions.
Posted by richard ting at May 23, 2005, 10:27 AM
January 14, 2005
Nintendo - Start the Mayhem
[from Mediapost]
Sedgwick Rd. has created a Web site for Nintendo called "Start Mayhem," supporting the company's Game Boy Advance SP. The site features Webisodes that give each of the Game Boy Advance SP colors its own personality. Colors include Flame, which "revels in chaos," and Onyx, the "cool guy." My favorite part of the site is the "Personality Test," which matches you up with the Game Boy Advance SP that you relate to the most. Hello world, I'm Flame. This Web site is part of an integrated campaign which includes a TV spot, radio, and print ads.
