My experience working on GoArmy.com while at Leo Burnett was fantastic. I was at Leo when we completely changed the Army’s branding. We even evolved the Army from “Be All You Can Be” to “An Army of One.” That was a big shift in positioning and communication for the Army. I’ve watched the site from afar and love the direction it’s been going. This morning I noticed several new features that really impressed me.
GoArmy.com Home Page
The site opens with a video intro that isn’t a splash page. The main feature area serves up an entire library of videos, but does so in an easy to digest manner. The videos can even be downloaded for use on your iPod. Very nice.
I would have liked to have seen predictive search. However, the use of a Tag Cloud in the lower left of the page, to surface the most popular items visitors are searching for is a solid alternative. I’m shocked actually at how progressive and open they are being with the data.
Right next to the Tag Cloud area is a module that serves up the most recent posts from the discussion board. It’s a nice way to serve up what other people just like YOU are looking for. The only catch is you need to be a registered member to participate in the discussion. It’s a smart move the Army’s part.
I love the use of the dual navigation. They opted to leverage the top nav for the main sections of the site and the right hand NAV for content that is community driven or personalized. I just wish the login call to action was more prominent.
Many of these ideas aren’t new. Several are ones we recommended to the Army in 2001. However, back then they weren’t ready or able to make the recommendations come to life. Today though, tt looks like they have their eye squarely focused on being progressive. Very cool!
I love it when a company really gets “it.” I’ve continued to talk about the value of micro Interactions for a while now. Really, it’s all about making the little things matter. Check out this video from EA in response to a Tiger Woods 2008 game owner’s youTube video. The game owner believed there was a glitch in the game…EA is proving him wrong.
This works for so many reasons. First, it shows how engrained in consumer culture EA is. They really are listening and paying attention. Second, the response offers a tongue in cheek approach to acknowledging the “bug.” Let’s face it, there is a bug. Third, this does great things for the Tiger Woods brand. After all, only Tiger could walk on water
Product placement is an interesting business. When Michael Phelps wears a Speedo swimsuit it means something. When Kobe is featured in a pair of Nike shoes, ditto. The list goes on an on. The one product placement that has me perplexed is the Chinese Olympic Anti-Terror Force’s use of the Segway. Yes, that Segway. Don’t believe me? Check out this photo.
Segway
Am I now supposed to want a Segway because people who shoot other people for a living use them? I’m just seriously conflicted on this example of product placement, because I have no idea why it makes sense. Thoughts?
Ok, that’s a gross over-statement, but they don’t matter as much as they used to. This great article at HubSpot says much of what I’ve been professing for the past 8 months, but it explains it a hell of a lot better than I do. At a high level, here is why open rates don’t really matter:
The open isn’t usually the desired action. The action is embedded in the email itself. You/we want the recipient to click and ultimately do the desired response
The conservative nature of email programs, like Outlook, are blocking our images and thus not reporting email opens accurately.
Mobile and handheld devices like the Blackberry are great for instantaneous delivery and action. However, an open on a Blackberry is not reported as an open.
Most reported open rates don’t take into account bounces. If you send out 10,000 emails and 1,000 end up as hard bounces, you have a net delivery of 9,000. We should key off of 9,000 and not the 10,000.
Spam filters have gotten so aggressive that many emails end up being seen as junk mail even though they aren’t. Most of those recipients will never open that email.
I’d really like to see us move away from opens as a metric and look at the following instead:
Total Distribution - Fairly self explanatory.
Net Delivery - this shows how accurate your list data is. If you end up with a lot of hard bounces you have some serious data accuracy challenges.
Total Actions - whatever your desired action is, let’s report on it. If you want 10,000 completed surveys we should use that as the metric.
I think if we focused on the end result instead of the steps in between we could be smarter and ultimately more strategic about looking at results.
Just read some exciting news about Google Android. Apparently it’s in beta, the SDK has been releases, and people are starting to monkey around with it. I’ve been praying for an iPhone killer and Google has the muscle to pull it off. The initial screenshots of the Android operating system look fantastic.
Love this new spot from Audi. It started running at the beginning of the Olympics and has continued to run. I love how they continue to present themselves as the alternative to Mercedes, BMW, and Lexus. Keep in mind, that’s coming form a BMW owner. The commercial was so good it got me to check out an Audi A4 today. And they say TV isn’t working
We took Cora to the Como Zoo and Conservatory today. We took her to the Omaha zoo several times, when she was an infant. But, this a whole new experience. She ran and ran and ran…the girl has got some serious stamina. While she enjoyed the animals, especially the monkeys, she really enjoyed climbing “things” and playing in the water. After checking out the zoo we explored the conservatory and finished the day with a carousel ride. Not too bad!
I’ve started reading Dan Roam’s blog, The Back of the Napkin. I’ve found it to be one of the best blogs out there. His approach to visual problem solving is something I’ve always tried (not necessarily successfully) to bring to the table. This example to problem solving, call the <6><6>> Rule is similar to Ideo’s philosophy, but his taken on it is quite different.
<6><6> Rule
If I continue to find value in Dan’s blog, I think I just might pick up his book. My friend Carlos Abler recommended it.
Came across this little graphic/banner this morning when I was getting ready to print off directions at Google Maps.
Google Maps Go Green
While I have an iPhone and don’t really need printed directions, I had a sneaky suspicion the cab driver would need them. The place I’m going to is brand new and most people in the area are not familiar with it yet. What I love about this call to action is that Google can come across as being eco-friendly, when in reality all they really want to do is increase the penetration of Google Maps on mobile devices.
