Red Vs Web 2.0
This is kind of a tangent to my current exploration of political party websites, namely my Red Vs Blue comparison of how both Labour and The Conservatives use their main web space to engage the general public.
This post delves a little deeper into the Labour marketing strategy, especially their current upscale in social media and what could loosely be called ‘web 2.0′ style sites. This kind of political marketing is really ramping up after successful implementation of similar strategies by Obama in the US, it seems our politicians and strategists are realising it is a highly underused medium for political engagement over here.
Red Vs Blue – round 3
This post is part of a series – read all the Red Vs Blue articles here
After having a look at how the Labour Vs the Conservative party site compare with their usage of front pages and supporter statements to engage their audience, this round explores how they present their policies. They are, after all, the most important thing a party can do to gain support from the voting public and how they show thier vision for our futures. So how do the two sites compare?
Red Vs Blue – round 2
This post is part of a series – read all the Red Vs Blue articles here
This post examines the support pages of the sites and how the parties leverage the support of the general public and engage them.
First off – how do we get to these sections on the websites from the front page?
Nice clean website background generator site
I spotted a site called bgpatterns earlier today and was impressed with the nice clean implementation of such a simple idea.
The site allows you to generate your own website background tiles by choosing colour, texture, pattern and rotation. It also lets you preview the effect by viewing your tile and also by applying the background to the page you are on, so you can see how it looks. You can then download your tile or (if you like) you can create a login and save/share your creations with other users.
The perfect cup of tea…
How to make the perfect cup of tea or coffee has long plagued the English – as we insist on putting milk, sugar and all sorts into the stuff in varying amounts and calling the end result tea/coffee even though the eventual content of that particular aspect is minimal…
Some clever guys at the inaccurately named www.suck.uk.com have come up with these handy tools to help you make the perfect cuppa – I particularly like the pantone-esk design of the mycuppa ones -I am tempted to buy them even though I don’t drink tea.
Red Vs Blue – Round 1
This post is part of a series – read all the Red Vs Blue articles here
The recent Labour spoof of Cameron on their website aroused my curiosity. It has been a long time since I had a look at either parties website. Political design is always interesting as it has to be so much so so many people. It has to entice new supporters, retain current ones, portray an every changing way the party wishes to be perceived and the values they represent, to convey a lot of information to those who understand the jargon of politics and want in-depth knowledge and also to those who care very little or have very little political understanding… it is a pretty tough brief to meet and those are just the ones I can think of off the top of my head.
So I had a more in depth look at the Labour site and had a look at the Conservative equivalent as well – to see how they are both approaching the medium.
What goes through your mind when someone says "Let's go for a drink"?
A friend sent me these the other day – genius.
The next big thing? Cadbury saves bored commuters…
After the move towards projected video adverts on the underground and animated bus stop adverts I had been wondering where the next step would be – and Cadbury may have made it with their interactive bus stop Creme Egg game. The only other similar interactive advert I have seen is a Nokia memory game bus stop advert.
Video of the game (the only video I could find with working embed code is sideways, so please tilt your head to the left now):
Red Vs Blue
This post is part of a series – read all the Red Vs Blue articles here
I spotted an article recently about Labour’s new spoof take on Cameron and his shadow cabinet’s methods of dealing with the current global economic downturn. The page contains a fake webchat via an instant messenger service in which the cabinet try to decide their policies and who to blame over the state of the economy.
The creative, made by Labour’s new media agency Tangent One, has caused quite a stir; with some praising their having a sense of humour whilst others claiming it is the digital equivalent of childish name calling.
Burger King gets people to dump Facebook friends for free Burgers…
Having worked on a little Burger King recently this article on Brand Republic amused me:
Prove your love – Burger King bribes people to ditch Facebook friends
Burger King has put out some interesting and quite unusual viral campaigns recently such as the “Whopper Virgin” and the “Subservient Chicken” site, but this one has gained attention recently for the glee with which it pokes a little fun at social networking whilst using it as a medium for adverting. And very successfully & publicly documenting their brand loyalty.
