Thanks to Organic's Three Minds blog for flagging this fun sitelet called "That's Revolting." Agion markets anti-microbial technologies which make a wide variety of products healthier to touch and use (their tagline is "nature's antimicrobial"), and their new sitelet features Florence Henderson whom of course we all remember fondly as Carol Brady, matriarch of America's first blended suburban clan.
In a fun and engaging way Mrs. Brady (accompanied by a family updated to reflect the changing character of America) helps you realize how exposed your home is to germs. Games challenge you to uncover germs on counters, and you can view special "gross endings" to the webisodes that really push the idea of "revolting" to its limits (you've got to see it to believe it). You even a chance to win a giant microbe.
So why is this interesting? First off, this brand probably has low to no awareness (I've never heard of it). So they need to do something bold to get noticed. (Additional challenge - the brand is a challenge to pronounce (it's pronounced "AGE- e - on")).
Second, the problem their product addresses isn't a fun one to think about, and if they presented it in a purely factual, "medicinal" way people might not be motivated to engage. In the spirit of Active Branding Agion is providing value to consumers by teaching them how exposed they are to bacteria (which their product addresses), but using humor as a spoonful of sugar (apologies, couldn't resist another entertainment reference) to make the message go down.
A few things could work harder. The passalong feature is a tad lame - it's basically just an email that gets sent to your friend driving them to the site. Why no personalized message from Carol Brady? I think it would be pretty cool if there were a video (does anyone remember Dr. Angus' interventions from Burger King?) from Carol excoriating you for having a germ-filled kitchen. Also, couldn't they allow people to contribute their own germ horror stories? Photos of their germy sponges?
Interesting approach, very fun, but I'd like to see if go further.
Comments