great url - lazy campaign

getahappyface.com

there's such a disconnect in the way most consumer goods are being advertised online. i found out about this campaign on adotas today and it was such a disappointment.

but let's talk about the good stuff first. the design is gorgeous. very modern and user friendly.

the best part are the video demos for their collection of st. ives elements widgets because what i really hate about downloading widgets is often, i don't know what i'm gonna get until it's on my desktop. and i uninstall them almost immediately because i haven't yet come across a commercial widget that i don't already use iGoogle for. so there.

i don't really see why anyone would want these widgets anyway - especially the GOODNIGHT TXT MSGs. does anyone want st. ives to write them a goodnight txt msg? they don't even give you an example of what kind of messages to expect. it all just seems really kitchy to me.

here's where the campaign really starts to fall apart for me.

as a part of the audience (female, buys a lot of competitive skin products), there are some essential question that this site simply does not answer:

1. is this product right for my skin?
2. where's the swag??? (i.e. discounts, sample offers, etc.)

then there are the hot spots. why does a bottle of cream need to rotate and offer hot spots of information? this is not a car or even a cell phone. you can't even magnify the back details to see ingredients.







then i took a look at their current display ads and they appear to have a deal with instyle magazine to promote a sweepstakes both online and offline, which is great, but is that all you're going to do? we all know how much you can charge for a Flash microsite these days so wouldn't it make sense to dedicate a bigger portion of your ad budget to drive online traffic? don't they want anyone to see the site???

from an audience perspective, the internet is a fantastic place to advertising detailed product benefits because people go online to read and that's a fact. i was happy to see that st. ives did an advertorial which only appears in lime.com.

anyway, i'm sure their offline campaign more than makes up for their online attempt.

scion figures out audience's sweeeeetspot

Scion Speak.com

i used to work on a car account which shall remain nameless, and we tried really hard to create a cult following using "viral" campaigns, stupidly slow "interactive" microsites and all the usual bs tactics used on a tired customer db. but unless the car is sexy enough to be in a james bond movie, cult followings are not for sale.

scion's Scion Speak microsite caught my eye because it doesn't force you to watch a 30 second flash intro of the car and there is nary a hot spot in sight. instead, you can create your own nicely designed decals for your scion (assuming that you own a scion) that you can print and get it tagged on your ride, or download as a JPG or buddy icon.

when you're done, your hot new badge gets added to a giant spiral shaped gallery where you can look and steal others:

virtual ikea is so much better than the real thing.

ikea.com

fun! ikea takes disposable furniture shopping to a whole new level with this microsite.

• interactivity: check
• seamless video: check
• sells products: check
• improves brand identity: check

everyone goes to ikea. a trip to ikea may not be a facebook event to post about, and it doesn't matter if you make 25K or 100K; we all do it. ok there may be some brand-whores or anti-brand-whores who might snub cheap furniture, but judging from the line-ups any given friday night, saturday or sunday - i think it's fair to say : we all fucking go to ikea.

but how many times have you gone to ikea to look for the perfect (and affordable) tv stand and walk out, instead, with a new set of stylized drinking glasses and a belly full of spaghetti for only 99 cents?

i think creating a microsite that encourages online purchases is a fantastic idea for ikea. and here's why:

this site makes ikea furniture look amazing!

and let's face it, the ikea showroom has trouble hiding the wear and tear that their furniture is so prone to. so you take away the hordes of people and children; remove the frustration of trying to fit a 7 ft. tall wardrobe organizer into your car (will those fold down seats make any difference???) and - voila - we can pretend the furniture isn't made of particle board!

this won't affect their in-store sales at all because a trip to ikea is still entertaining and you can't buy their swedish meatballs or ginger cookies online. plus, for the kids, the ikea ballpit is so much better than gimpy McDonald's playgrounds.