Website Reviews 31 Jul

Mini USA Motoring Citations
www.miniusa.com

Despite strong attempts to engage digitally, motoring sites have a sameness about them (a few notable exceptions - current VW activity in the UK seems particularly good). Sites share common attributes: high quality photograpy (from offline activity), 'build your vehicle' and get it priced, specifications and dealer finders, etc. A large number of sites also try to inject a sense of fun into their digital engagement strategies. Trying to be fun is hard, however, particularly if this is not an attribute generally associated with the brand. If 'fun' is a digital-only stance, it likely misses the target.

Mini succeeds digitally with 'fun' because fun is wrapped round the entire brand. For Mini, it's not an add-on to be cool online, it's part of the everyday presentation of the product portfolio.

The Mini USA site is very attractively designed and engaging. There are plenty of fun expressions of the brand and products, one of which particularly caught my eye - the Motoring Citation. This is a download-and-print-out pdf to place on other motorists vehicles. Designed to look like an official citation (of some motoring wrong doing) the citation in this example is actually a positive one. Commending the driver on good parking, smart wheels, real mud on a 4x4, etc. It's a bit of fun and nicely engages visitors and not a vehicle specification in sight. Even if one doesn't use the citation, it does, at least to my mind, secure in the visitor's mind the fun positioning of the brand.

It's hard to generate separation for products online, but this type of activity is a nice way to try.

Website Reviews 30 Jul

67 Days
www.orlandoinfo.com/67days

67 days is an idea thought up by Orlando Info, to promote the range of fun activities Orlando has to offer. They calculated that 67 days is how long you need to try everything entertainment-wise that Orlando has to offer. The competition is to find two people to spend 67 consecutive days entertaining themselves in Orlando. The lucky winners are required to visit the parks, stand in lines, ride the rides, see the shows, etc. and blog and tweet about their experiences. The lucky pair will start their visits on 27th August, under the rather cheesy title, "67 Days of Smiles in Orlando"

Presumably, the shine will come off Orlando even for the most enthusiastic visitors after something less than 67 days and it will be interesting to see how their spirit changes as the weeks go by. You can follow the activities via Facebook, for example, and see if their smiles remain fixed for the full 67 days.

The construction of the promotion is interesting as it taps into two great themes for online success - social media and online pr. The idea of two people blogging and tweeting their days away may not hold universal appeal but it will create an interesting body of content which hopefully achieves an authentic air - 'authentic' being one of the key attributes of social media in order to engage. At the same time, the promotion execution and the winners experiences are hugely pr-able. Instead of reading some dreary facts in a brochure about 117 roller-coasters in Orlando, you can read (and watch?) the winners as they experience roller-coaster 24 of 117, etc. This type of content and approach to publishing should generate plenty of links and consequently traffic. Plus there are signs of participation initiatives to keep followers engaged. As the promotion goes live, expect more options to get involved with the winning couple - from simply posting comments to (perhaps) building wish lists, ticking off places already visited, taking part in competitions, etc. These, if executed well, should ensure online success.

For the winners, it's a fantastic shop-window for a future career in travel journalism - 'have you any experience writing about travel destinations?', well, yes, 67 days of it, actually, generating 27 kajillion page views. It's a great launch pad for the lucky winners, if they decide to pursue this line.

Overall, a great promotion and smart use of online media. Doesn't take a big budget to execute but likely generates significant coverage.