Tag Archives: user experience

Wow Experiences and Liquid Content

Coca-Cola Journey and Wow Experiences
What can we learn from Coca-Cola’s marketing and advertising approach? 

Many, including Melinda Gates, have commented on how we in the social sector can learn from Coca-Cola’s place-based strategy. Now there’s more: the Coca-Cola Journey.

“Today, Coca-Cola is taking its digital communications to a new level,” said Clyde Tuggle, Senior Vice President and Chief Public Affairs and Communications Officer, The Coca-Cola Company.  “Coca-Cola Journey is the most ambitious digital project Coca-Cola has ever undertaken, and we are doubling-down on our commitment to be a quality publisher of compelling content.

It is a wow experience.

In his book Platform, Michael Hyatt says that the essence of WOW is exceeding the customer’s current expectations. Coca-Cola achieves that with Coca-Cola Journey largely thanks to its smart packaging and display of quality content.

With Coca-Cola Journey,  you experience the Coca-Cola brand, its story and vision within a context that invites you to participate. Rather than provide a standard corporate website, you’re offered a dynamic, digital magazine that features original and curated content designed to invite conversation in a creative, welcoming way with a side of intrigue and delight.

Take notes.

Learning from Coca-Cola, here are just four items to consider as you continue to evolve your own digital presence:

1. Prioritize the user-experience. “More than anything, we prioritized what creates a great user experience over the latest design trends,” explains Ashley Brown, Coca-Cola’s Director of Digital Communications and Social Media. Yet–the site still has appealing design. Think wow, not just what’s hot now.

2. Speak visually. As Laura Kisailus of Forum One recently posted, “Visual media reigns supreme…consider the packaging of your content across the social web.” Coca-Cola takes this to heart by pulling some of its key data points and shaping them into a visual format.

3. Leverage inbound marketing. One of the biggest shifts in Coca-Cola’s web strategy is the strategic decision to be a quality publisher of compelling content. Many marketers see value in this type of shift but only a fraction of organizations have put resources behind it.

4. Create liquid content. Coca-Cola isn’t stopping with inbound marketing. They have bet the farm on content marketing with a “Content 2020” strategy. It’s mantra: “move from creative excellence to content excellence.” Content excellence equals liquid content, creating ideas that are contagious. As evidence, according to Marketing Week, Coca Cola’s new approach to creativity and advertising saw it create more than 120 pieces of content as part of its London 2012 Olympic sponsorship activity, compared with just three TV ad executions and six outdoor ad executions for the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

Go 70/20/10.

Watch the videos below on Coca-Cola’s full “Content 2020” strategy, especially time stamp 3:04 in the second video to learn more about Coca-Cola’s 70/20/10 principle to liquid content. In the comments, share how are you’re evolving your content efforts so we can also learn from each other. What barriers are working against you?

httpv://youtu.be/LerdMmWjU_E
httpv://youtu.be/fiwIq-8GWA8

Mobile Smack Down: Obama’s Responsive Design vs. Romney’s Mobile Site (and More)

Image Courtesy of Smashing Magazine

While the candidates themselves call upon differing mobile strategies, it appears they aren’t the only ones to disagree. When it comes to mobile, where do you stand?

Think “Mobile First”

While many of us can agree with a “mobile first” approach (hopefully, right?), actually moving forward and implementing a particular mobile strategy is another ballgame. Note: For those still working within their organizations or with stakeholders to understand the importance of mobile, keep going. You’re not alone, and we thank you. All the people who have a phone yet not a toilet, thank you.

Not only is the “mobile first” mantra a cornerstone of the new Digital Government Strategy, but it’s also a strategic decision adopted by an increasing number of organizations. From Google to Salesforce and now Facebook, more companies are going “mobile first” when it comes to designing and developing web products, services and features.

OK – But Then What? 

Some organizations take “mobile first” a step further by deciding to go “all responsive, all the time.” Others, are mobile site ambassadors while others say “it depends” and some have yet to decide (or scarily, even discuss!).

In a wonderful display of responsive design, AIDS.gov unveiled its new website as one of the first Federal agencies to go fully responsive. Rhode Island also has a beautiful responsive design that follows suit. Responsive design even gets a nod in the Digital Government Strategy defined as a method of designing content so that it can be re-sized to fit on various screen sizes (e.g. designing a service to work well on both a laptop screen and a smartphone, without the need to design and maintain separate “standard” and “mobile” sites). So, wherein lies the rub?

Responsive Design vs. a Mobile Site

Image Courtesy of riixlike

Jacob Nielson, a long-time usability advocate, greatly recognized for his expertise in web design and development, says not so fast. In April, Nielson advised organizations to:

“Build a separate mobile-optimized site (or mobile site) if you can afford it. When people access sites using mobile devices, their measured usability is much higher for mobile sites than for full sites. A mobile app might be even better – at least for now.”

Interesting. To further complicate things, Nielson throws in the app option as well – which we could get lost in debating the benefit and value in native apps vs. Web apps. To some of you, you might be even more confused thinking you understand “mobile first” and now find yourself weeding through the various options not sure what to do.

You’re not alone. In Smashing Magazine’s breakdown on Obama’s mobile strategy versus Romney’s (which is an excellent read that compares the pros and cons in choosing responsive design compared to a separate mobile site), author Brad Frost may capture it best when he says “this stuff is genuinely hard.” It takes thinking and discussion. And not everyone agrees. In fact, one advisor says “experience first” is a better positioning of the “mobile first” mindset. My advice: Start the conversation. Learn your options. Prototype. Test. Keep talking. Start.

Are you Appy?

It’s also worth noting that while Obama solicits a responsive design approach and Romney a separate mobile site, both also have their own apps as well. The plot thickens.

In the August 27, 2012 edition of Times Magazine, the article “Elections Will Never Be the Same” discusses how the future of politics is literally, in our hands. Brilliantly highlighting various features in both Obama’s and Romney’s apps, there is much here to offer for the public health professional. Hint: It involves mobilizing online advocacy through technology, networks and people. But that’s a post for another day…

Share: Given your options, where do you stand on “mobile first” and mobile strategy?

Bonus: For those interested, this Federal Computing Week article compares Obama’s overall digital campaign strategy with that of Romney’s.

 

Are You a Change-Agent? User-Experience Inspires Environmental Change

Timberland + Changents provide an innovative platform, strategy and user experience for change

What do a bus, a canary, an artist, a rocker and a college grad have in common? Getting green. and inspiring others to follow suit.

Today, Timberland, the outdoor company, and Changents unveiled a new online experience where individuals can be catalysts for change by teaming up with environmental “Change Agents” from around the world to advance the green revolution.

Engage ::

Watch broadcasts of firsthand experiences from the field through blogs, videos, photo albums, Flickr streams, phoned-in podcasts, Twitter dispatches and more.

Back a Change Agent by assuming the roles of:

  • “Fan” (a shout-out of support),
  • “First Responder” (being on-call if their Change Agent gets in a pinch),
  • “Buzz Builder” (promoting a Change Agent’s stories and Action Requests through viral sharing),
  • “Angel” (helping fill their Change Agent’s piggy bank) and
  • “Advocate” (influence policy makers with respect to a Change Agent’s cause)

Plug in to ‘Earthkeepers,’ where you can follow and interact with 5 extraordinary Change Agents, dubbed, “Earthkeeper Heroes.

  • Big Green Bus (12 Dartmouth students travel the country this summer in a tricked-out school bus converted to run on waste vegetable oil);
  • The Canary Project (an artist couple convey the story of human-induced climate change and potential solutions through media, events and artwork);
  • Agent 350 (a recent college grad and his scrappy team sprint to build a global, online/offline climate action movement from scratch);
  • Reverb (a group of rock and roll road warriors green summer concert tours for Dave Matthews, John Mayer and Maroon 5/Counting Crows while engaging fans around environmental sustainability);
  • POWERleaper (A 23-year old designtrepeneur created a blueprint for urban flooring systems that generates electricity from human foot traffic).

Become an Earthkeeper Hero yourself! Nominate yourself or others to compete for a chance to join the ranks of this amazing group.

About ::

Changents.com is an entertainment-driven Internet destination that connects innovators of social and environmental change – Change Agents – with a global network of people who want to help them. In 2007, Changents was founded by two social entrepreneurs, Alex Hofmann and Deron Triff, who set out to engage a digitally-connected, socially-conscious generation on its own terms.

“We started Changents to give a new generation of social and environmental problem-solvers the tools they need to build teams of active followers and help them become ‘rock stars’ of change through the Internet,” said Changents Co-Founder and CEO Deron Triff.”


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