advergirl

Chics Who Click: Which new women's site wins?

When a couple of media powerhouses launch competitive sites in the same month, it tends to make a little noise. Especially when they're both going after 40+ women. A demo they'd like us to believe is veiled in mystery, heretofore only defrocked by Lifetime and iVillage. A demo largely ignored by online marketers and jonesing for some real content.

Back to the powerhouses. We're talking about one of the founders of the Internet vs. the real-world lipstick mafia:

• Shine: Yahoo's latest attempt to win over the world with content comes to life in this editorial-style portal.


• WowOwow: By chics, for chics, this portal is the self-funded creation of Liz Smith, Lesley Stahl, Peggy Noonan, Mary Wells and Joni Evans.

Well, a month has gone by since the shiny new sites were unveiled. Plenty of time for a little investigation and trial and error.

What's working:

• Shine is smart to lead with thoughtful editorial. A big smart topic that is at once personal, female and thought provoking. Even women who love Oprah and Sex and the City have a conflicted relationship with their girly side. Leading with content and following with dish lets people get comfortable.


• WowOwow is making great use of its own real network. Offline heros - like Candice Bergen, Marlo Thomas, Lily Tomlin, Whoopi Goldberg - are creating fresh content for the site.


• I've come to really dig the Hair Day forecast on WowOwow. At first I thought it was vaguely insulting, but, really, it's chat-able and iconic and works for me.


• Shine feels like a magazine. The buckets of content. The reader feedback. It has excelled at taking an offline guilty pleasure and delivering it online completely intact.

What's not:

• WowOwow, meet Ajax. Ajax, Wowowow. It's easy to see the difference between savvy Yahoo and this group of newbies. The usability of the site is aggravating. Always more clicks. Even for easy little widgets and polls that should be included inline with the content.


• Shine's top nav is a little reductive considering the pop of everything else. They've designed it to encourage a full scroll. Which is interesting and oh-so-tabloid, but I think users are used to being able to increasingly limit their content to what's most relevant to them. That feels underplayed here.


• WowOwow strikes me as a little too reliant on community content. Everything is an open-ended question with a click to see what other people said. Couldn't we take some learnings from Twitter on this interaction?


• WowOwow gave up their above-masthead real estate to advertising. Ouch. Unless done incredibly well, that's a killer in editorial. And this snowy site is not done well enough to pull it off

Final word:
WowOwow walks away from some of the proven-for-a-reason principles of user experience. And community. And, for what? A 40+ Facebook group? Uh uh. 40 is the new 25. Your audience doesn't need Internet for Dummies.

Meanwhile Yahoo steps up the plate with one of the best sites I've seen from them. It's clever. Approachable. Content rich. Comfortable.

I hate to say it, but: I'm going with Goliath on this one. Go Shine!

Investing in the agency brand: SCPF’s “Solutions for the Modern American Life”

I get a lot of emails about agency self promotions. Curious forays into what creative minds can do when unencumbered by practical concerns, like, for example, selling variable annuities or wedding registries.

And, I get a veritable slew of emails (and the occasional ominous paper wrapped mailing cylinder on my porch) from PR agencies working to build buzz about their client’s product or book or thing-a-ma-do.

But this was the first time I got an email from a  PR agency about an agency’s self promotion. Obviously, I had to investigate:

The site is called “Solutions for the Modern American Life”, which they describe as “a collection of high and low tech products, methods and techniques that will help America.” It’s a retro little throwback to the days when the recipes on the back of the Jello box were serious culinary stuff and agency self-promotions were a little more … well, like an episode of Mad Men.

And, I don’t think I’m going too far to say – it’s kinda out there.

So, I tracked down Gonzalo Marti, SCPF’s Creative Director out of Miami to get the back story on the development, inspiration and promotion investment:

Advergirl: Why did your agency decide to invest in a multimedia self promotion?

Gonzalo: In 2005, - closing in on SCPF’s tenth anniversary – the agency made the decision to leap across the ocean into the U.S. market. Since then, we’ve felt the need to explain the ‘newcomer’s’ point of view about the United States and the “American way of life” from a more Spanish and European perspective.

Advergirl: Where did the creative idea / concept come from? What was the inspiration?

Gonzalo: We wanted to develop a campaign that would speak creative volumes about our agency, our culture and our traditions to the business and creative community here in the U.S. We didn’t want it to seem too self-promotional but reflect how we do business and how we can help bring a different and certainly, fresh perspective to a campaign. 

Advergirl: What are your goals for the site?

Gonzalo: With our first ‘house’ ad campaign, we wanted to continue raising the agency’s profile in this market and to position ourselves as a key creative partner to our clients. We will continue to challenge the mainstream and bring new ideas to the table.

Advergirl: We’ve all worked in an agency where the big idea for self promotion hit some bumps along the way. I’m thinking of a certain agency holiday card that everyone was supposed to sing a carol for … except somehow the executives all had an identical whistle in the final rollout. Did you run into any internal challenges / objections during development?

Gonzalo: No, everybody was enthusiastic about this project and promoting SCPF. We believe strongly in the power of the creative product - that’s what SCPF has always been about.

Advergirl: [Oh, come on. Really???]

Advergirl: Thanks, Gonzalo

Those of you struggling with your own agency Web site design might want to check out SCPF’s temporary -> lasting solution
 

Favorite new multimedia sites

With every new location comes a new pipe to deal with... and this one is... slim. Checking out Flash sites lately has been a little circa-1997-56k-modem-enter-a-URL-and-go-make-dinner-while-it-loads. Nonetheless there have been a few delightful ones this month that were absolutely worth the wait:

Best B2B
Motorola City's show-and-tell of their commitment to public safety. Wait, stop yawning at the title, this site is slick:

Best I-don't-even-begin-to-get-it but somehow admire what you're doing:
Modernista's site relaunch that basically leverages DHTML and some open sourceness to dynamically assemble content from around the Web. I think the point is: we fundamentally get how the Web works in ways that other agency's don't. I think the visual experience is, in a word: painful.

 

Best basic landing page:
Haagen Dazs Help the Honeybees issue site. For its beautiful illustration and actually worthwhile soundtrack.

Best for kids:
Nintendo's Professor Layton and the Curious Village game promotional page. It brings the game to life and (at least seems) very fun and interactive for kids.

It should always be...

This EASY to use a press room:

The media room for Andy Beal's Radically Transparent offers enough content to power six news articles, four custom reviews, a buying decision and an ongoing relationship.

All in one place. All super easy to navigate.

This FUN to watch a branded video:

AKQA and Cake really fundamentally get it. It being social media and brands. You have to be able to take liberties - with yourself, your culture and your customers. You have to be able to delight and entertain and be completely different than a 30 second spot.

Little escapes the snark of this video from Pot Noodle. A piece that 200,000 people have already watched this month.

This PERSONAL to watch a recruitment video:

When Molly posted this video on Twitter, I had to ask her if it was sanctioned or organic ... the very simple delivery is so brimming with personality and conversation that I couldn't imagine it making it through any agency's self-marketing process.

But, somehow it did.

And, the simplicity of it - from an agency that COULD do anything - might just make it even more compelling.

This SIMPLE to share information:

Speaking of Twitter, I've been logged on for the past two days reading some of your favorite bloggers cover Ad Age's Digital Marketing summit in real time.

The posts include verbatims, analysis and a little argument. It's addictive.

This OPTIMISTIC to profile an audience:

After it sat for months on my teetering bedside stack of good intentions, I've finally picked up RenGen and dug in. Definitely my favorite industry book of this year... as much for its optimism as its smarts and illustrative examples.

Martin connects the dots from our creative and intellectual selves to a theory of renaissance that will define a generation.

ING Your Number

Now that your mortgage is worth bupkis, America's banks have shifted their acquisition strategy. Sure, it would be nice to have your checking account, but what they really want is the big dog: your retirement account. (Even if you haven't started one yet.) It's guaranteed growth income for them (and you), locked up for a couple of decades. Ideal.

I'm a fan of AIG's + campaign for its incredibly repeatable, conversation-starting voice and copy. And, of course, who doesn't get a kick out of the latest Nationwide Life Comes at You Fast episodic jaunt into rather clever and sunny nightmares. But, there's also something really engaging about this fundamentally simple campaign recently rolled out by ING and BBDO...

The spots feature people buzzing along in their daily lives - boarding planes, taking elevators, having lunch - all while toting a giant orange number. Most of the people are aspirational white collar professionals, but there's also a chef, a granddad, a car full of carefree young people. The numbers vary from several hundred thousand to a couple million and represent how much the person needs to save for retirement.

These are big numbers. And, frankly, all things equal, they would be reminiscent of that sick feeling you have in early April when you've been putting off your tax return because you don't know if you owe money, but fear that you might, and a lot, and just are not ready to face it... BUT, these ING spots overcome the fear factor with fun and friendly music and lots of positive motion. In the end, you get: I wonder what my number is. Not: Holy shit, I cannot do this.

The campaign drives to INGYourNumber.com. Which is a great example of why competitive audits work. ING took the best the competitive field had to offer, merged and elevated it, and added their own spin. The result is a site that has clearly learned from its neighbors.

Take a look. I think you'll see the simplicity of Fidelity's retirement planning tool; the personal delivery of Nationwide's; and a little twist on the call-to-action that is all ING.

In the end, the tool isn't a great fit for me. It rewards a customer who likes a high touch experience. And, I'm about as impatient as you would expect of someone for whom even Twittering is too much information. But, it's light and short and there are lots of helpful tricks for people just wading in - like a smart use of (looks like) Ajax to show help tips when a puzzled planner hovers on a question. All-in-all, probably a big win with the target.

Four new Web sites to play with

I'll share. You decide.

Dominos Big Fantastic Pizza Builder
Starz' Headcase original series site
Ikea's calm bedrooms experience site
Microsoft's Simplify Your Work campaign site

"I don't have to grow up" - gen

For every thoughtful discussion I've had about the cultural consumer, the green citizen, the attention economy, I've had a party / conversation / meeting completely derailed by a group of mainstream 30-somethings playing or talking-about-playing video games. Even as I type this, my copy of RenGen is sitting under my PS3 controller on the coffee table.

We - the fabled, if aging GenXers - are a damn playful bunch. Our marathons are as likely to be a Saturday of Project Runway reruns as 20-sweaty miles across the city. We've passed on scrapbooks for passing around digital cameras packed with thousands of hammed-up snaps. We can cook but would rather collect memories of childhood munchies - from an EasyBake oven to the Snoopy Sno Cone machine complete with grape syrup.

So, if I can put down my classic wooden yo-yo for just a minute, I'd like to congratulate three advertisers for really getting the spirit of grown-up play:

#1 Dominos pizza for the inventiveness of friends
#2 Toyota Tacoma for the joy of the game
#3 Tostitos for the creativity in every roll of duct tape (and best random :5 seconds of moose)

Here are the smile-out-loud spots:

Target Corporate Responsibility Ads: A miss?

It is possible that the next World War will not be fought by proud countries, but rather be a heroic battle for global dominance between the two true gladiators of our time: Target and Google.

Like much of the rest of corporate America, Target is on a 'good citizen' kick lately. Racking up comp points with talk of philanthropic programs and charitable causes.

Jump to: These online ads (above) driving traffic to their 'do good' page.

Cute design, right? But quite misleading and a good cautionary tale for other Web advertisers.

Three AVOIDABLE sins of banner advertising:

1. Misleading call to click: We're a nation of multimedia. We toggle sound and video on and off. We've been trained by advertisers to believe 'click to watch' means just that - a video will begin playing in the window. And, we appreciate that functionality - because it gives us the choice rather than overwhelming us with noise and causing us to smack the mute button on our laptops.
   
   But, this target ad is actually a flat banner. Click to watch takes us to target.com. The resulting community page features a few rollovers and a lot of reading. None of the promise of the call-to-action is fulfilled.


2. Missed opportunity for interaction: The graphic is a door. The words are open the door. The strategy is to evolve consumers overall categorization of the Target brand. Come on, show us something. Let's slide open the door to change. Let's rollover to interact. Let's re-purpose that experience on the Web site in a much more in-content way.
   
   Here it is: Meet Pointroll. Meet Eyewonder. Do better.
• Or, a possible alternate to #2: Not optimizing message to the medium. Once an ad is approved, it's all too common to simply route it universally. If 80% of your media buy accepts the multimedia ad designed, the other 20% just gets a flat JPG of the same creative.


3. Fully branded page, not fully integrated page: Target definitely owns share of voice on this page. They have covered it with banners. But, are they saying anything with that megaphone? And are the impressions building on one another to say something about the brand? We've all seen the darn-near-perfect Apple ads. And, surely there are learnings there that can be applied cost effectively.

 

Interactive Holiday Cards

Happy holidays, good people! I was thinking a bit of caroling might be in order this season.

Join me (to the tune of We Three Kings)

We ad-ver-tis-ers are
Slinging products near and far
Brand name leading
Price proceeding
Peer reviewers please give us 5 stars...

Oooh, oooh...

Ok, I'll stop. Instead, check out this great holiday card from my home agency. There's plenty of caroling to be had by all. See if you can spot me on jinglemangle.com-

And, while you're in the mood, do a good thing for the online magicians at Resource Interactive.  They're donating one computer to One Laptop Per Child for every 150 'what's inside the package' guesses on their site. Go give the present a shake at guessthegift.com -

Still want more? A few favorite agency e-cards from years past:

Decision time again for multi-channel retailers: Where do you want shoppers to go?

Lots of news for multi-channel retailers out this quarter. JCP.com launched a 'know before you go' campaign that directly speaks to online pre-shoppers. Brookstone launched a true virtual store online - one with all of the sense of discovery and maddening inconvenience of a real-live shopping trip.

Barnes and Noble launched a site intended to bring the local store experience online, while Whole Foods finally got in the Web experience game with a holiday planning site aimed at sending you in-store, list in-hand.

And, new research out claims that one in three Americans will shop more online this holiday season (over last) even as they indite online retailers for shoddy customer experiences. Cyber Monday sales alone were up 21% off the same day last year.

It seems that we're reaching another key critical decision time for retailers.

What do you want your brand experience to be tied to? Your flawed local store or your impersonal national warehouse? What does ideal convenience really look like for today's shopper?

The options are much broader than the current big three:

• Buy online
• Pre-order online, buy in-store
• Browse online, buy in-store

One of my favorite options re-invigorates high-touch service and another turns shopping on its head...

• Neighborhood store: One of my most-despised words in the press right now is 'the new urbanism.' Essentially, walkable amenities moved to the traditionally housing-rich suburbs. The ethic behind it is one of neighborhood-ism. Of being part of something 'smaller' with access to all the conveniences of 'bigger.' That same ethic could create a resurgence of personal deliveries. Customers check product availability online. If the product is at their local store, they can choose to an open time for a same-day local delivery to their home or office. Trust me, if the Mentos intern can do it, so can Best Buy.
• Virtual-real store: I'm sure you've seen this concept store created by IconNicholson. It's this incredible 'social retailing' concept that's a combination physical dressing room with online social tools that enable idea sharing, remote recommendations and more.
• Remote personal shopper: 66 percent of shoppers said they would be more willing to buy online if every purchase was guaranteed. So thinking about the concept of guaranteed, what if we brought the trusted recommendation of a favorite sales associate online. Higher-end brands, like Nordstrom, could offer a free (likely even a paid) consultation with a sales associate. The associate would profile the customer, understand their preferences, shop the store with them. Then, via IM or phone, that associate could make Web-purchasing recommendations to the customer over time - becoming a virtual private shopper and an essential guarantee of satisfaction.

There are hundreds or permutations ... but the core question is: Do you want your customers to interact with your brand in a vacuum? Or will you leverage the local store for all it's worth...