As discussed in prior posts, this Holiday season the intent for our communication messaging is to convey three important ideas (at least we think they are important) . One, you can trust us to always have your best interests in mind. Two, we have a unique take on how technology and entertainment can make your life better and finally, you can always expect to find great prices. Ultimately our expectation is that, you walk out of the store happier, than when you came in.
Our plan is to utilize a variety of touch points in communicating this message, largely television, print, direct marketing, Reward Zone special events and of course the web. In order to give you a flavor for what we are doing, I am attaching a link to “Project Holiday” which is a “digital experience” (sounds funny but I don’t know what else to call it) web site. You can get to Project Holiday in a variety of ways including Bestbuy.com. This site’s primary role is to communicate how Best Buy can help make your holiday traditions happier. Make sure you check out the two web films, “Gift Hunter” and “Operation Ambush.” They each provide an interesting perspective on how to create new Holiday traditions via the use technology. We have two other flash vignettes that convey additional Holiday tradition ideas. The site also houses all the banner ads we are running as well as many of the television commercials that you will see on air starting tomorrow.
Here is “Project Holiday,” and please note it is not completely final (what digital experience ever is?)
www.bestbuy.com/projectholiday
As always, appreciate input and feedback as can always make changes on this round still or we cna do better next time.
A little tricky to judge without seeing the creative that linked us here, but here’s some off the cuff feedback:
* The production values are, obviously, really good. Looks great. Good design, easily understood initial layout
* Technical execution is fine (no lags, video streamed well)
* Love
A couple ideas:
* You may want to surface the main solution focus a bit more. The new tradition element is clear, but it’s not immediately clear that the site will show you how to do them easily. Or, easier than you think
* it wasn’t immediately clear that you could see a video to show how to do, for instance, the scavenger hunt. Though it flowed immediately afterward, some who are impatient, like me, may want to click right away. You may want to “pop” the “How to do it” link a bit more, so it’s easier to see
* You might also want to make a more explicit connection between the ideas and the solution. So, for instance, connect the Geek Squad support to the idea of World Party (Geek squad can do it for you, if you don’t want to do it yourself).
One thing that’s missing (or may come online in the future) is an element where visitors can share their ideas. I like the fact that you have teh blue shirts sharing their stories, but i bet you have some fans that would love to tell you how they’ve used stuff from Best Buy to make new holiday traditions.
Lastly, i’m wondering if the blue shirts in the explanation videos are real employees? If so, you should make that clear. I think it’s a great way to communicate that there are real people, with real energy and enthusiasm and sincere interest, ready to help. We all know that already, but it would be good to emphasize that here. Plus, its a cool callout/recognition for the folks on the floor.
quality and finish are better than past BBY (good)
impossibly slow to watch (viewer problem?)
i’d worry about being too gadget focused.
doesn’t quite sell the product, doesn’t quite sell the experience
benefit should be better life/holiday, not cooler stuff.
not much emotional pay-off, especially with gps film.
story was told in first scene, the rest was just watching.
both need some reward for watching.
Hey Jcuene – thanks for the great comments. I’m the digital lead on this project and hear you loud and clear on all your feedback. We are still working on some tweaks as we speak and hopefully we can incorp. some of them. Especially about the first impression of what we are trying to convey the “how to” with old rituals and making new ones with the twist of technology.
As for the blue shirts they are real and you will actually see some of them in the TV short story ads coming out on Sunday. We do call them out in the Short Stories area on the site and tried like heck to put their names within the videos but the style in which we cut the blue shirt videos with short back and forth comments of each one of them didn’t leave much time to really showcase their names the way they deserve!
Let me know if you have any other questions. Open to any feedback to always improve and make the BBY digital experience better all the time!
Wow really cool stuff, beautiful execution. Overall, love it!
Didn’t quite know what to expect when I clicked the first couple of times… After watching the first video, I thought all were videos (at the very least, WorldParty needs some sound!).
Love Jcuene’s point about having visitors share their ideas; as a quick add, maybe add a topic to forums.bestbuy.com then link from Project Holiday to it?
Also – how are stores set up to support this? Do they have easy access to the concepts & the tools (like the PDFs, ideally, for these and more)? The experience needs to be both online & instore — as a customer, I should be able to start in either place and get a better result when I engage with a blue shirt.
Where are the banner ads? I would love to see those!
Great comments – thank you. As I mentioned before I’m the Digital Lead for this project and I wanted to circle back on some site enhancements we are working on and give some updates. First, we are adding music to the non-vidoe experiences very soon, we have figured out away to add the names/ locations to the real Blue shirts in the videos and last we do have forums.bestbuy.com within the helpful links but we are working on moving it closer to the share this button or more front and center so our guests can share their stories or comments on the spot!
Last, the stores are set up to support and have been educated on the materials (i.e. PDFs) during our Holiday teach outs the last couple of weeks.
I hope this update has helped and always open to all comments!
I love this campaign. The spots are so much fun but they are very difficult to access on the website. Why not give it a more prominent spot on the site. I had a houseful of people to show it to and couldn’t figure out how to find them. I know they are a bit long, but they are so much better than the spots that are on TV.
Competition is thinking! Look at arealguitar.com