Website Reviews 21 Nov

Welcome to the first set of Digital Strategy Website Reviews. This is a (mostly) weekly view on what’s happening in the world of Digital. The examples are intended to inspire thinking by showing how brands are communicating with their customers. The objective is to examine issues in digital communications and discover how some brands solve those issues and engage customers in digital media.

Got Your Price Check
www.gotyourpricecheck.com

This is a service that works in a similar way to conventional price comparison websites — but it allows people to compare prices for electrical products and gadgets on their mobile phones, online and in-store at nearby retailers.

The service is quick and easy to use. Potential users would text the word 'price', plus the make and model of the item they want, along with a location, to 60706. Pretty straightforward. About a minute later (hopefully less) the shopper gets an SMS message listing two local stores with the cheapest prices, plus the best price found on the web. If the shopper's mobile device supported decent web browsing, you could even open that site right on your device (assuming the site formats correctly on the phone's browser).

The service is free of charge for retailers but shoppers have to pay 35p plus their standard network charges, per search. GotYourPriceCheck will launch within the M25 in December and a nationwide rollout is planned for 2009.

Zazzle
www.zazzle.co.uk

The new Zazzle.co.uk website lets customers create, buy and sell customised t-shirts, shoes, skateboards, hats, greeting cards, bags, ties, mugs, stickers and more. Note the variety of ways to engage with the site – today’s best, staff picks, start from scratch, etc.

Users in the UK, says the company, "can now take control of their own version of Zazzle, and will determine the most popular products on the site, Today's Best, and more." Personally, I dislike 'and more' as an ending to a PR pitch or as web copy. It's a lazy way to close off a statement and would be better to give readers a fuller explanation and a stronger call to action, but 'and more' is shorter.

There is a “Name-Your-Royalty program”, which gives sellers control over how much money they earn on each sale, and its Volume Bonus program, which enables sellers and other community members to earn money through sales and referrals to the Zazzle marketplace.

Zazzle was brought into the UK market via the Global Entrepreneur Programme, a government-backed project that aims to identify stellar global companies and bring them to the UK with the aim of getting them to choose the UK as their European or international headquarters. "Zazzle's unique model and investor portfolio was very impressive, and a lure for us to have them join the programme," said Charles Seely, a dealmaker for the Global Entrepreneur Programme. "We are excited to have Zazzle in the UK now and look forward to continuing to work closely together to further expand Zazzle's presence." Typical blah blah PR text, but an interesting initiative. Not sure what kind of person describes themselves as a “dealmaker” – modesty check, please!

YAPTA – Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant
www.yapta.com

Your Amazing Personal Travel Assistant - is a travel shopping website delivering a unique combination of price assurance and transparency to consumers who have purchased air travel online. It also alerts customers of price changes and changes to rewards redemption values. If a price changes after you buy, you get a refund, which is a strong assurance that you’re getting a good deal.

The founders claim there is no other travel website which automatically and continuously checks flight-specific prices – well, they would, wouldn’t they, but still a great proposition. Great use of their Data Assets to display total savings made to date. Nice clear design.

Vodafone – Meet Live Guy
http://liveguy.vodafone.co.uk/

Great promotion site to drive traffic and create interest around the brand. Check out the blog, follow twitter, watch videos, view pics, to keep people engaged. Nicely promotes Vodafone mobile solutions without ramming it down your throat in a “here’s a list of products we sell” kind of way. Nice co-promo with Dell, again in a relevant way. Finally great leverage of global sponsorship (F1) to create unique content.

As always with Vodafone, very high quality design and production has gone into the micro-site. The project itself would require good logistics and fair amount of planning to get right. Be interesting to know the level of consumer engagement during the promotion and the results afterwards, but in terms of execution, it's to be admired. Awesome.