Getting a consumer’s attention in NYC’s Times Square is no easy feat, but FD kinesis managed to do just that for Coldwell Banker, with an interactive text-enabled billboard. This 150 ft tall billboard – which dominates the pedestrian area in front of the W hotel – instructs passersby to text “Homes” and their zip code (or postal code if you’re from Canada) to a specified number, and within seconds the billboard will display a range of actual property listings in that area.

The Coldwell Banker® billboard encourages people to use their mobile phone to text the word “homes” and any zip code to the number, 30241. Within moments, the billboard will display the highest-, median- and lowest-priced properties in that area. They will also receive a text from Coldwell Banker Real Estate directing them to a link with more information.

“Times Square represents the epicenter of creative marketing, and as people from around the world take in the bright lights of the big city, they can also send a simple text to get real estate information that’s relevant to them,” said Michael Fischer, senior vice president of marketing, Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. “Consumers want quick access to online listings and this campaign reinforces how easy it is to find listings and information, anytime, anywhere.”

Coldwell Banker Real Estate also incorporated elements from its “Portraits” Campaign into the campaign, which features portraits of the company’s dynamic (albeit deceased) founders, Colbert Coldwell and Benjamin Arthur Banker, who started the company back in 1906. The founder portraits will offer humorous quips on the Big Apple and modern-day technology, mirroring the commentary they provide in current Coldwell Banker commercials.

The unique, interactive billboard is the most recent undertaking in a series of industry “firsts” Coldwell Banker Real Estate has initiated. In September 2008, Coldwell Banker Real Estate became the first full-service national real estate brand to launch a customized online platform for iPhoneTM users. They continued to steadily pave the way in innovation by also being the first to launch an application for Microsoft Surface (March 2009). In May they became the first real estate company to launch a branded YouTube channel, Coldwell Banker On Location.

First Branded YouTube Channel to Use Dynamic IP Lookup to Generate Specific Local Results and Help Consumers Learn About Real Estate Issues That Matter to Them

Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC today launched an innovative branded YouTube™ channel designed to offer consumers a new way to search for and interact with real estate information and listings.  Named Coldwell Banker On Location (www.youtube.com/coldwellbanker), the channel was created to more fully tap into the power of video for real estate search and discovery, and to drill deeper into the local insights that consumers want.

To create On Location, Coldwell Banker Real Estate closely collaborated with both YouTube, a Google subsidiary, and Google to develop a customized framework and user experience – offering what is arguably one of the most comprehensive and immersive brand channels on the YouTube platform.  On Location is the first branded YouTube channel to use dynamic IP lookup to search for videos, which automatically serves up local results when visitors first hit the site.

An Emphasis on Video and Local Content

Two areas of strategic focus set Coldwell Banker On Location apart from other real estate Web sites.  First, it showcases the power of video to bring real estate more vividly to life – offering behind-the-scenes looks at towns and neighborhoods, smart tips and timely news on real estate topics, and video listings of homes for sale.  Second, content posted to On Location has a strong emphasis on local information and insights, so consumers can dig deeper into the areas of the country that interest them most.

Supporting this highly localized perspective is one of the more unique aspects of Coldwell Banker On Location – the ability to search for videos through a special map feature that has been developed specifically for the site.  The map ‘widget’ is a prominent feature at the top of the On Location site and the main starting point for consumers searching for a home, a specific area of the country or more information on a real estate topic.

At launch, Coldwell Banker On Location will be the first YouTube brand channel to use dynamic IP look-up, so visitors to the site will automatically be shown video search results from their own area / zip code.  Then by clicking the link “Browse By Map,” consumers can enter the city / state or zip code of their choosing – which will immediately pull up all videos posted to On Location associated with that area.  These video results are displayed as icons on the map.

Each search will return a wide range of video results, including video listings, spotlights on that local community and Coldwell Banker sales associate/representative profiles.  Consumers can click through to view specific videos – as well as connect back to the main Coldwell Banker Web site to learn more about a specific property for sale.

“Video is a critical part of how today’s consumers want to explore real estate, and we intend to use it to an extent never before seen in our industry,” said Jim Gillespie, president and chief executive officer, Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC.  “On Location provides an exciting new platform for our vast network of thousands of sales associates to directly share the kind of local insights and knowledge that is invaluable to consumers hoping to learn about a new area.”

Gillespie noted that the site will appeal to a broad range of consumers.  “You might be a first time homebuyer deciding between a few different towns in your area, someone about to relocate across the country, a Boomer thinking ahead to where to retire, or simply a person who’s dreaming about your ideal home.  No matter what stage you’re at in your life or the real estate process, On Location has the insights you need served up in an exciting new format,” he said.

“Coldwell Banker On Location is about building the Web’s richest array of real estate video content that is also the richest in local insights,” said Michael Fischer, senior vice president of marketing, Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC.  “It’s the combination of these two missing pieces of the puzzle that make this site so exciting.  In addition, Coldwell Banker Real Estate is the first in the industry to put the full power of its brand and network behind a tool that represents the future of real estate – the video listing.”

“Every month, millions of people search on YouTube for real estate content,” said Sam Sebastian, Classified and Local Advertising Director at Google. “Consumers are hungry for real estate-related videos. I’m thrilled that Coldwell Banker is developing such a substantial innovation for real estate video. I look forward to seeing Coldwell Banker build On Location into one of the most active destinations for real estate search, discussion and engagement.”

Some of the video and written content for On Location will be supplied by a select group of content providers, including the Associated Press, CNN, Reel Productions TV, This Old House and TurnHere.  Coldwell Banker On Location will complement the company’s main Web site at www.coldwellbanker.com – including the ‘Learn’ section which features educational content as well as news articles and updates on the real estate sector. It extends the company’s already robust social media strategy, which includes Facebook pages for the brand and its two founders, Colbert Coldwell and Arthur Banker, a Twitter feed (www.twitter.com/coldwellbnkr) and profiles on Flickr and FriendFeed.

In addition to using YouTube as a platform, Coldwell Banker Real Estate is using the Google family of ad networks and channels for promotion of On Location.  This includes both Google and YouTube search ads, YouTube banner promotions and Google TV.

Development of the On Location site was a collaborative effort by Coldwell Banker interactive agency partners, FD Kinesis and Bootstrap Software, Inc.

To see a video about Coldwell Banker On Location please visit:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W1AKZDhUrLY

YouTube is a subsidiary of Google Inc.

About Coldwell Banker®
Since 1906, the Coldwell Banker® organization has been a premier full-service real estate provider. In 2008, Franchise Times magazine’s prestigious Top 200 issue ranked the Coldwell Banker system No. 1 in real estate for the ninth straight year and 12th among franchisors in all industries. The Coldwell Banker System has approximately 3,500 residential real estate offices and 105,300 sales associates in 46 countries and territories. The Coldwell Banker System is a leader in the industry in residential and commercial real estate, and in niche markets such as resort, new home and luxury property through its Coldwell Banker Previews International® division. It is a pioneer in consumer services with its Coldwell Banker Concierge® Service Program and award-winning Web site, www.coldwellbanker.com. Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC is a subsidiary of Realogy Corporation, a global provider of real estate and relocation services. Coldwell Banker® is a registered trademark licensed to Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC. Each office is independently owned and operated.

By Diane Puma

This weekend, I bought my four year old a swing, which was not my intention.

I had done my homework and set my sights on the Mercedes of swing sets – two slides, a clubhouse and a rock wall — which I thought was the coolest thing and would certainly win me Mommie of the year. We piled into the car and drove to Toys R Us to purchase the fabulous swing set. Upon arrival, my son beelines it to a single disc swing (retail price $22.99) and insists this is the swing set he has wanted “all his life”. Disappointed and skeptical, we bring it home, set it up, and he’s happy. So maybe I am still in the running for Mommie of the year…

This got me thinking about the value of consumer research, which tends to get skipped over for a variety of reasons – budget, timing, and the fact that we think we know what the consumer wants. However taking this out of the equation opens up the possibility of a less effective campaign and a missed opportunity.

How many times have you read about an ad campaign that backfired (think back to the Motrin for mommies campaign)? I’m willing to bet most can be attributed to decisions that were made based on assumptions.

So what is a marketer to do? Research can be expensive and time consuming. Not to mention that, in this economy, we all are trying to make every advertising dollar work harder and go farther. Thanks to the internet, there are options that are cost effective and easy to implement.

The first of these options are online consumer panels, which are available through a third party provider. These are people who have consented to answer survey questions on a periodic basis. You can target it against demographics and the like and you are allowed to ask a couple of questions. The result is a statistically significant breakout of consumer reaction to your message.

If you like the idea of an online panel and have a consumer database, you can always create your own panel internally. Which is a great way to see the reaction to your concepts with consumers who are familiar with your brand.

Another great way to gauge consumer sentiment and drive your messaging is through conversation mining. For a nominal price tag, you can track relevant keywords and monitor what consumers are saying about your products online. You can even get involved in the conversation as long as you stay transparent and identify who you are.

There are many other options you can use such as site intercepts and surveys, so don’t be afraid to get creative and try a couple of outlets until you find the combination that works best for your brand.

They say knowledge is power, and my focus group of one resulted in a huge cost savings.

Around 5pm today I decided that I couldn’t keep up with what had become a wildly distorted debate that had its roots in a post I made last week regarding the set-up experience I and my colleagues had on the Microsoft Surface.

In the original post, I wrote about the comical event it was in getting our new Surface unit plugged in and the touch-screen interface launched. I made a point to say that my critique was limited to just the set-up experience – that once launched, the Microsoft Surface unit offered a really stunning user experience. But by 5pm today that discussion had become so chock full of “web-muck” (the online equivalent of the telephone game, where the original message gets lost in the transmission) that it was becoming a huge distraction. So like a ship captain desperate to jettison a fouled cargo, I took it down. No one asked me to, I was just overwhelmed with 20,000+ people wanting red-meat in the tireless Apple vs. PC debate.

To those many thousands of  people who asked some really insightful questions about the Surface experience, I’ll happily post a “real-life demo” of the unit itself (from “on” to “off”) and the application we developed for it next week. As I’ve said, I really love the product and I’m excited to be doing more work on it in the future.

To those impassioned souls who accused me of being everything from a “Microsoft Apologist” to “M$ fanboy” to a “complete idiot”, let me just lay out some facts here:

Fact 1: I’ve been working on a Mac since 1989, I own 2 iMac’s (including the old “flower” model), 3 iPod’s (including a 2nd generation one that’s still singing) AppleTV and an original, day-1 iPhone. We also have a HP laptop at home.

Fact 2: I wrote a blog post based on the faulty impression that our experience was what other Surface customers would also encounter.  I got a call from a guy named Jason who works at Microsoft, who first thanked me for pointing out some areas of improvement to their new product, told me he thought my post was funny, and then pointed out that our experience in fact wasn’t what Microsoft intended. Turns out, in fact, that our experience will most likely be unique, in that all customers should either receive an installation service or two days of training. He directed me to the online Surface “Eco-System Partners” site for additional help, info and community. I thanked him for the call, and we hung up.

Fact 3: By 5pm today, the “web-muck” had grown so thick around the original post (”Microsoft Surface is a useless table”, and other hyperbole) that I took it down and replaced it with this second post. It explains the circumstances around how we came by our experience, and why it is unique. And it being unique, how that undermines much of the first post.

I really, really appreciate the debate about usability – I love the fact that there are thousands of others actively engaged in it as well, and with equal or even greater passion than me. But it doesn’t have to devolve into the Montagues vs. Capulets (happy birthday Mr. Shakespeare!) – or the Hatfields vs. McCoy’s. We live in a multi-tech world, and we seek to create quality user-experiences on whatever platform we work (which so far has included the Internet, the iPhone, the Surface and – coming soon – Google Android, among others). In our office we love our Mac’s. We love our Microsoft Surface. We love running MS Office on our OSX machines.

We also love all this traffic to our previously sleepy blog page – come back next week to get the tour of the Surface app!

My post last week on the  poor set-up experience we had in getting our new Microsoft Surface running has struck a chord. Until last week, our sleepy little company blog could count on about 20 hits a day (thanks Mom!), and as of today we’ve gotten over 20,000.

I should have known what a potent potion I was brewing – world’s biggest technology company + hot new product + usability = lots of opinion.

But I’d like to make 2 things clear to this new, enormous audience -

1) the Surface unit itself is a fantastic touch-screen computing experience (as you can see in this short video), the usability of which is as highly polished as the iPhone – my critique was limited to the one-time set-up of the unit alone.

2) the poor set-up experience I described was the result of a simple error – had the use case that Microsoft envisioned happened correctly, I would never have had to struggle to find the power supply input.

Turns out that Microsoft offers the Surface in two flavors – “Commercial” & “Developer”. The “Commercial” model is designed for businesses that order multiple units to run the same application in different locations, and at $12,500 it comes with a comprehensive installation service as part of the purchase agreement. The “Developer” option delivers essentially the same piece of hardware , but at $2,500 more it comes with additional SDK licenses and 2 full days of training in Seattle for a Designer & Developer. Additional instructions come with this unit, as well as an invitation to an online community complete with helpful instructional videos and articles. It is clearly designed for the use-case we were.

You can see how this makes sense — many units, you just need someone to deploy them in many locations and then teach the people at those locations how to turn it off an on. Just one unit, they train you how to be become an expert operator.

The person who purchased our Surface ordered the “Commercial” unit, but then scheduled the installation service to be performed at the business conference where we were going to unveil the Surface and our application 2-weeks later. Thus, we were delivered a unit designed to be set-up by someone else, in another time and place.

As the  helpful Jason McConnell from Microsoft explained to me on a phone call earlier today, “Your blog post took us all by surprise – it was valid from your perspective, and funny, but it shouldn’t ever have happened.” He then added that  one part of my post that they are looking at addressing is with the initial set-up screen – “We want to add some goodness right there – the user shouldn’t have to wait to be greeted with some of the excitement of the product”.

As with any brand-new product, there are bound to be hiccups. It is reasonable to argue that our use-case wasn’t that far-fetched, that someone along the way should have helped us realize we were going off-path, or that the documentation should have been sufficient to set the unit up without assistance.  That didn’t happen, but with anything as complex as the Surface – and as necessarily big an organization as Microsoft is – it isn’t surprising that this slipped throught the cracks.

However, I really do appreciate the folks at Microsoft taking the time and care to reach out to me and find how they can improve their delivery process and ensure a similar tale isn’t told in the future. And, as I want to stress again, I really do appreciate the fantastic usabilty experience that they have produced with the Surface product. It is a great platform that will be exciting to watch develop in the future.

And thank you for reading our sleepy blog – come back next week when we talk about our love of Tito’s Burrito’s in Morristown, NJ!

Sorry, this post has been updated. You can see the new post here.

http://kinesismomentum.wordpress.com/2009/04/25/wither-our-post/

By Jeff Zimmerman

Anyone who’s been in a room with me longer than 5 minutes knows that I am unabashedly and incurably obsessed with my iPhone. It almost instantly became inextricably integrated into my life. The new anytime/anywhere Internet quickly turned me into a junkie, and I didn’t understand the severity of my addiction until I found myself fighting off the shakes and nausea from connectivity withdrawal during a cross-country flight.

Naturally, when Apple previewed iPhone software 3.0 a couple of weeks ago, I was there, feverishly refreshing live feeds on the gadget blogs. Most of the improvements were evolutionary, which doesn’t bother me. I don’t need to be wowed every year. The additions in iPhone 3.0 are mostly obvious but welcome nonetheless. I was, however, intrigued by the possibilities opened up by one particular feature.

iPhone software 3.0 will allow third party devices to interact with an iPhone or iPod touch via Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, or Apple’s 30-pin connector. At first, I thought “big deal, move along”, but then LifeScan demoed a glucose monitoring app for diabetics (about 43:30 into the presentation). The app collects blood glucose readings from enabled meters and plots them over time. It can also contact someone (a parent, spouse, doctor, etc.) if a reading is outside the safe zone and suggest insulin doses based on what someone is planning to eat.

I thought MY life depended on my iPhone. Integration with medical devices has the potential to improve people’s health and quality of life quite substantially. While considering possibilities, my mind went to my mother and my aunt who both suffer from heart problems.

My mother suffered a heart attack last June. Afterward, she had to monitor her exercise routine and heart rate, ensuring that it stays in the right range for the right amount of time. Initially, she was worried and frustrated because it was difficult for her to know if she was hitting and maintaining the right heart rate. To help her manage this (and give her something to listen to at the gym), we got her an iPod touch and Nike+ receiver. The receiver attaches to her shoe and sends information about her pace and distance to the iPod. When she synchs the iPod, iTunes uploads the information to nikeplus.com. There, she can compare routines and chart her progress over time. This eased some of her concerns by enabling her to compare routines she was doing on her own to those she was doing with rehab nurses at the hospital.

Nike+ app running on an iPod touch and nikeplus.com workout information

She also wears a heart monitor while exercising but has to track her heart rate manually. The device only saves information from your last reading. An iPod touch running iPhone 3.0 could theoretically communicate with her heart monitor and track it for her. It could plot her heart rate against her pace, showing that her heart was getting stronger as she became capable of walking faster and/or longer. During a routine, it could interrupt the music to tell her that her heart rate was too high. She and her cardiologist could look at the data and tweak her routine more regularly. It would virtually eliminate guesswork, which could speed up recovery time.

My aunt has a pacemaker with a defibrillator. The intricate machine requires regular maintenance checks with the manufacturer over a land phone line. A few minutes on the phone per week to maintain a device that is saving your life is hardly something to complain about, but the process isn’t perfect. Sometimes the reading is incomplete because the phone connection was bad. She cannot do the reading if she is not near a land phone line because cell phones create too much interference. If an iPhone could communicate with the pacemaker, it could gather the data and send it to the manufacturer over the Internet or cell network, eliminating these inconveniences.

The iPhone could also alert her doctor of anything out of the ordinary occurs – like using the defibrillator – allowing the doctor to detect problems earlier and monitor them more closely. It could contact my uncle and emergency care with her location (thanks to GPS) if she collapses. It could monitor the pacemaker’s battery level, prolonging the need for surgery to replace it.

Obviously, this is just speculation based not on medical knowledge but on others’ experiences with ongoing health issues. Maybe some of what I’m thinking is already out there. I also have no idea whether or not these devices can interact with computers or other mobile devices to do anything like I’m imagining. However, I can guess that most other systems in place will not be as easy as the iPhone’s. With the new iPhone software, the medical community has the potential to use technology to improve people’s lives, and I sincerely hope they embrace this opportunity.

By Dominic Custodio

April Fool’s day has come and gone. With the usual spattering of tame office pranks (office manager getting rick roll’d on the lobby TV…I swear I was just an accomplice) and the much-talked about onslaught of the Conficker worm on computers around the world turning out to be a non-event, things were actually quite normal on April 1st.

Not of course, if you were making the rounds on the web. The internet was rife with pranks and jokes – some subtle, many in-your-face – and it was hard to escape with even the biggest web names and the normally “corporate” companies joining in on the madness. What better way to use the information super-highway then to spread mayhem and confusion? Jokes ranged from school-yard antics to the high-brow, but a couple, actually provided food for thought about current trends, and if not, at least some interesting and controversial design. Two in particular, caught my eye:

A Newspaper moves to Twitter: Every joke has a sliver of truth behind it as they say. With the print edition of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer gasping its last breath only a few weeks ago and the paper moving completely online, The Guardian was hitting close to home when they wrote their fake announcement about canceling their print edition and moving it all to Twitter. Sample posts from their new offering made it clear what was up (“1940: W Churchill giving speech NOW – “we shall fight on the beaches … we shall never surrender” check YouTube later for the rest) but the Guardian’s playful jab at Twitter had quite a few readers fooled. Commenting users toyed with idea; indeed, with all the newspaper closings recently, there was a nugget of plausibility there.

Print has a lot of competition these days with digital penetrating our daily lives: blogs, tweets, RSS feeds, not to mention digital readers like Kindle delivering daily editions of newspapers to the paper-saving/eco-minded masses. Print will find its niche, but the Internet has definitely changed how it operates. It is in fact reinventing itself by taking on the qualities of the web in interesting ways. Time Magazine, for example, launched an experimental magazine called Mine that allows users to pick and choose content, much like what you would do with your iGoogle or MyYahoo page. After choosing from a couple of themes (Fashion, Sports, etc.) your content would be compiled into your own personalized magazine, delivered also in your choice of print or digital format. I signed up for free a while back and am curious to see how it turns out.

As for a 140 character per story newspaper? That’s tough to imagine – for the mean time at least. For now, the joke remains an interesting marker of changing times.

What happened to my site?:  Sites often use a single page containing a fake press release or announcement to play these jokes. It’s safe and relatively harmless. Companies like Google and Qualcomm recently, go a bit further with full sections of fake content safely tucked away from their real site. But the few, brave ones go all out and drastically change the user experience of the whole site – with interesting ramifications. YouTube flipped everything upside down for example. The programmers, thankfully, left an easily readable link to revert back to the old layout, avoiding a potential firestorm (btw if for some odd reason you actually LIKE viewing upside down text and videos, add “&flip=1” to any YouTube URL).

There was less uproar on YouTube compared to what was going on over at Reddit. Reddit took a dig at rival news aggregator Digg, (no pun intended) by switching the whole site’s interface to Digg’s layout, leaving the page essentially broken. Many users were baffled and ultimately annoyed as you can see in the picture below.

Digg’s layout (the pop-up is their April Fool’s prank)

Reddit copying Digg’s look. And disgruntled users.

A joke taken too far? With the layout mangled and users looking to other users for the solution, it definitely left a sour taste with some. Taking out usability, even for one day is a risky move, and while it won’t alienate your loyal fan base, it might be enough to turn-off fickle users.

Final words: Many pranks confirm trends and induct names/things/ideas into popular culture. Many are just plain silly fun and give your company a human face. And then some may be too controversial for their own benefit. Something to think about the next time you go joking around online.

Interested in how other sites around the world handled the April 1st? A comprehensive compilation can be found here.

Enjoy!

By Larry Latore

Most known for his work with the consumer electronics company Braun, Dieter Rams is one of the most influential industrial designers of the late 20th Century. His fundamental principles of good design aptly titled “The Ten Commandments” are for a designer, words to live by.

Good design is innovative
It does not copy existing product forms, nor does it produce any kind of novelty for the sake of it. The essence of innovation must be clearly seen in all functions of a product. The possibilities in this respect are by no means exhausted. Technological development keeps offering new chances for innovative solutions.

Good design makes a product useful
A product is bought in order to be used. It must serve a defined purpose – in both primary and additional functions. The most important task of design is to optimise the utility of a product.

Good design is aesthetic
The aesthetic quality of a product – and the fascination it inspires – is an integral part of its utility. Without doubt, it is uncomfortable and tiring to have to put up with products that are confusing, that get on your nerves, that you are unable to relate to. However, it has always been a hard task to argue about aesthetic quality, for two reasons.

Firstly, it is difficult to talk about anything visual, since words have a different meaning for different people.

Secondly, aesthetic quality deals with details, subtle shades, harmony and the equilibrium of a whole variety of visual elements. A good eye is required, schooled by years and years of experience, in order to be able to draw the right conclusion.

Good design helps a product to be understood
It clarifies the structure of the product. Better still, it can make the product talk. At best, it is self-explanatory and saves you the long, tedious perusal of the operating manual.

Good design is unobtrusive
Products that satisfy this criterion are tools. They are neither decorative objects nor works of art. Their design should therefore be both neutral and restrained leaving room for the user’s self-expression.

Good design is honest
An honestly-designed product must not claim features – more innovative, more efficient, of higher value – it does not have. It must not influence or manipulate buyers and users.

Good design is durable
It is nothing trendy that might be out-of-date tomorrow. This is one of the major differences between well-designed products and trivial objects for a waste-producing society. Waste must no longer be tolerated.

Good design is thorough to the last detail
Thoroughness and accuracy of design are synonymous with the product and its functions, as seen through the eyes of the user.

Good design is concerned with the environment
Design must contribute towards a stable environment and a sensible use of raw materials. This means considering not only actual pollution, but also the visual pollution and destruction of our environment.

Good design is as little design as possible
Back to purity, back to simplicity.

Many of these principles, although stated for design, can be translated across all parts of our industry and all too often these fundamental principles get overlooked in the hurry to get the job done. So a note to everyone, take a step back and examine these principles with what you are producing. If it aligns, then you’ve done your job.

Source: http://www.vitsoe.com/en/gb/about/gooddesign

By Amanda Sackawicz

The topic of my posting changed drastically this morning as I went to check the weather and encountered the banner below. There was nothing over-the-top about it – no fancy animation or flashing text – just a series of static images naming cities around the world with simple, straightforward copy placed just above the fold.

So why did this no-frills banner grab my attention? Quite simply – it was curiosity and the allure of what would happen when I did click on the image. I must say I was pleasantly surprised by what followed. Upon clicking, the banner switched to a live feed from high above the streets of New York City – there wasn’t an offer, a phone number or a catchy call-to-action. Visa wasn’t trying to sell me anything; instead they offered me another view of the world at 5:35am EST and, for a moment, they let me escape to a place the sun was already shining.

So why is Visa doing this? And why is the word “go” emphasized? As it turns out, this inventive little banner is part of Visa’s first global marketing campaign, entitled “More people go with Visa.” The campaign debuted globally on March 2nd and has been grabbing attention with both traditional and online advertising. Creative executions focus on the concept of “going” and making the most out of everyday life; and while Visa products are highlighted, there is no mention of spending more or being extravagant. Rather than focusing on the sell and trying to get more card members, Visa has taken an interesting position of suggesting that current card holders simply use the card more in their everyday life.

This notion has also been carried through to a microsite – http://go.visa.com. Upon entering the site, you are immediately engaged by elements entering from off screen to form the word “go.” Once the page has loaded, you are invited to click around and explore; in doing so, you learn that the elements on the page range from fun facts from around the globe to pictures that have been submitted by users via a partnership with flickr.

As you go through the site, each section requires a different form of interaction from the user; this not only engages the user but also re-enforces the spirit of the campaign. The “go explore” section provides ideas for activities and getting out an about with links to helpful sites. A wide range of categories are provided and users are invited to submit their own ideas. In the “go save” section, merchants discounts are provided to help the user save on everyday life. It is only is this section that the user will encounter mention of Visa products since the merchant discounts are dependent on their use; however, this is not done through a flashing banner asking you to “sign up now” or anything of the like, just body copy and a logo.

But will this get Visa the results their looking for? They have a strong start and a concept full of possibilities, but in the end it’s up to the consumers to buy into the idea. So watch a commercial, play with the site and see if Visa makes you want to “go.”