Wednesday, July 18, 2007
Where Did We Go Wrong?
My company,
Matter Media, has been co-producing a website called
Chasing Glaciers that follows the trek of two female athletes as they climb mountains in Pakistan to document global warming.
We thought that creating an interactive website that follows the journey of two extreme athletes through blogs, vlogs and photos as it happens would be unique, and we had hopes that the videos would spread virally. Boy were we wrong.
The website has gotten very little traffic, because no one gets that this website is tracking an ongoing expedition -- everyone I've spoken with about the site assumed that it was a documentary about some past trip. So why didn't we get traction? Was the story boring? Does no one care about glacier melt and climate change? Does no one believe that vlogging can be done from 20,000 feet? Is the design that uninviting?
We put the videos on YouTube and MySpace, but got nothing, and the same goes for the press release that we distributed. We thought that with An Inconvenient Truth, Live Earth, etc., and with interest in extreme sports (via free skier Alison Gannett and climber Zoe Hart) that the world would have been ready for ChasingGlaciers.
Please tell me, how did we miss the mark so completely?
By John Gartner at 10:56 AM
|
(3) Thoughts on Where Did We Go Wrong?
Does the tagline under the title state, "Global Cooling Tour"? If so, then your message is 180-degrees (pardon the pun) out of phase with the point of the website. It connotes something completely different from what you intend.
I thought this was to bring attention to global *warming*.
That point not withstanding, I would bet that people are not going to seek out a website about yet another group trying to bring attention to the debate over global warming. It is done in just about every media outlet everyday so my guess is that people simply don't need to follow the daily trek of anyone to learn more about the subject. Once I know what the topic is and what the creator's point of view is, then I pretty much know what is there and don't need to explore it any further.
Comments by Vineyard Manager : Thursday, July 19, 2007 at 10:59 PM
personally, i had no idea what the site was about when i went there. Flash is horrible, and the site feels like it is forced and uncomfortable.
Comments by Kevan : Thursday, July 26, 2007 at 04:05 PM
ah, well for one thing it takes forever to load.
secondly, as the first commenter noted, the topic of glaciers melting everyone kind of knows about, and has seen pictures of. is there anything else they need to know?
thirdly, the content itself. the blog is kind of bizarre and not very interesting. the photo gallery is kind of lame, in fact, none of the content is particularly compelling, and your take action sends people elsewhere.
why should i come to your site.
and videos? what videos? you didn't even post them on your own site?
did you do any marketing? email? go to any outdoor shows?
Comments by adrian : Thursday, July 26, 2007 at 06:27 PM
Post a Comment
Subscribe to The MarketingShift Feed