Social site experience: The coolest thing.

Ologie does some pretty great work every day, but there are a few stand-out projects that I just can't seem to stop talking about. This is one of them. And, it's total Ologie: simple, compelling and smart as hell.

Here's the setup: Capital Univerisity is a private college here in Columbus. It's got a strong liberal arts core, surrounded by a number of practical, professional programs. Super engaged faculty; lots of hands on learning.

And, a brand that wasn't really keeping up with the offer.

At their best, brands set an expectation for an experience. They connect what a company does to what it says about itself. Capital was a project just like that - find the cool, geniune stuff and tell a tight little story about it.

Part of the launch of that brand was sharing the work with the students. We did that in part through a website called WillYou. It's got a great storytelling video, but then relies on the community for content.

So, the site maps in comments from the Facebook page; pulls in Tweets with a certain hashtag; grabs photos from Flickr, etc. Super simple show and tell with a whole campus of feedback.

Proving again that one of the best assets an agency can have is a bootstrappy programmer who's willing to take home a weighty print out of Facebook developer guidelines and mine for answers.

Couple of other social experience sites I've been talking about lately:

I love Pledge to End Hunger for its choose-your-own adventure levels of interaction and its conversational voice. It connects collaborators (and competitors) across the country and powers big initiatives, all with a call to action that seems more friendly than pitchy.

Stand Up & Eat is an entirely different kind of social. It powers WOM with its clever phrasings and unfortgetable facts. You'll tell someone about this site. (agencies unknown)

Comments

[Rhys]

I'm always amazed how little things people do can make a huge difference. This Pledge to End Hunger site is a good example of "the power of small." But doesn't it include Alaska or Hawaii?

[elijahP]

Leigh,
Thanks for sharing. Your comment that at it's best, a brand sets an expectation of an experience is about as succinct as you can put it. This campaign turns over the keys to conveying that experience to the students and the campus community. But obviously there is a higher presence directing the experience, in terms of design and moderator, etc. It's as if the brand (college) throws out a subject to a huge improv class and asks them to riff on it. The whole dynamic of Cummunity = Brand works with entities like private colleges and movements. But it obviously didn't work initially with a packaged good such as Skittles. It will be interesting to see how far this dynamic can apply in other categories.
I also wonder how well something like this would work at Ohio State (large, diverse, almost unwieldly, public instiution). Thanks again, Leigh.

[Grace]

This is a great site and a brilliant idea. Its almost like a Twitter but instead of what are doing? Its what will you do? And, like Twitter, you have to answer that question in limited words. It really appeals to the emtional cord we are always trying to strike in people. If I wasn't about to graduate from a great college [Go Jayhawks! =)] This site would totally get me to look into Capital University. Can you image if companies started using this idea and striking that emotional cord with its consumers!

[Dirk Singer]

Think Will You is a great site Leigh, and a lesson to organisations to make their homes on the web both interactive and speak from 1st person (ie let the faces behind the thing do the talking)

I've thought more and more recently about why organisations still do the one way old style sites, and if I may I am going to borrow this in a report / slideshare presentation I'm going to do when I next have time!

[Cheryl Harrison]

Good post, Leigh, love this campaign.

My perspective on the "WillYou" campaign, as a Capital Student/marketing maven wanna-be, is on my blog: http://beingcheryl.com/2009/03/30/capitaluniversityiwillcampaign/

[Shane Haggerty]

Leigh-

I saw the "Will You" campaign on Facebook and was instantly intrigued since I work for an educational institution and now seeing the website and all of the elements I absolutely love it! I am very jealous of it, actually! This is something very similar to what I would love to develop for our recruiting season for our high school sophomores as they are accepted, but alas, I am always two steps behind! Nice work! The video is excellent as well. Guess that's why you agency peeps are making all the money! ;)