YouthBuzz™ Blog

Interactive done right: "Comcast Town"

Roughly a month ago, according to the fine folks at AdverBlog who keep track of these things, Comcast unleashed a veritable torrent of new advertising.  The cross-platform campaign, which includes at least ten 30-second TV spots and a robust interactive website called “Comcast Town,” was dreamed up by San Francisco-based Goodby, Silverstein and Partners (who have previously produced media-worth-watching for HP, Doritos, and Denny’s).  The commercials, which you’ve likely seen by now, combine live-action footage and progressive animation to create a surreal, transfixing effect.  It’s like some kind of visual cotton candy — you’re not sure it’s good for you, but you can’t stopping watching (or giggling happily).  (Click here to see all of the ads, which AdFreak has helpfully aggregated.)

The commercials have a decidedly Gen-Y tone — they’re filled with dead-pan irony, semi-absurd humor (like the guitar-playing squirrels) and music that sounds like a chord-for-chord knock off of the Juno theme.  The tone of the advertising is also inherently Gen-Y — it’s optimistic and aspirational (they depict a better, brighter, cuter world) while being totally unsentimental.  These commercials feel like the very best of the internet brought to life — they’re fast and colorful, densely layered and attractively weird.

“Comcast Town,” their recently launched interactive website, is a visual marvel as well.  From the moment the page loads, you’re more or less overwhelmed with beautiful, seamless, Flash-based animations.  Objects fly on and off screen, the illustrations are painstakingly hand-rendered, and color is everywhere.  Comcast Town is designed to be like a very small SimCity or Second Life — the “point” is to “build” a virtual livingroom by selecting furniture and adornments from the “Company Store.”  Once you’ve personalized your room with objects from the store — including HDTVs, minimalist couches, wallpaper, fish tanks, modern art sculptures, sports equipment, pets, gramophones, etc. — you’re invited to submit your creation.  The winning submission will be given a real-life entertainment center worth an estimated $30,000 (according to the fine print).

Now, if Comcast had told me that they planned to create an interactive website that would allow you to fill a virtual livingroom with pixel-based furniture, and that they were expecting web surfers to participate in droves, without paying them, I wouldn’t have been optimistic about its success.  But I have to take my hat off to the fine creatives at Goodby, Silverstein — the site is so smooth, and the visuals are so captivating, that it really works.  The sound effects, the hand-drawn icons, the adorable graphics, all of it combine to make a site that you just want to click around on.  This is a concept that lives or dies by the “cool factor” of the design — and it passes the test with flying colors.

Comcast Town also wisely employs Facebook Connect, which allows a first-time visitor to create a username and join “the town” with minimal hassle (though you are still forced to give your email address).  Importantly, the use of Facebook Connect means that many users will end up advertising the fact that they signed up on their Facebook wall — thus, greatly growing the sites reach.

One frequently overlooked factor in creating an interactive campaign is the challenge of getting the word out.  So, you’ve spent all this money on a fancy-looking site — but what’s your plan for actually driving traffic to the site?  One approach that Comcast took was to sponsor BoingBoing, a very popular blog with the digital set, and to have BoingBoing serve as a judge for selecting the winning room design.  (BoingBoing was also invited to create icons that you can use to personalize your virtual room; BoingBoing made a carnivorous plant, a steam-punk computer, and a Flying Spaghetti Monster statue, which should give you some sense of BoingBoing’s sensibilities).  On the one hand, this is sound move: BoingBoing is the kind of blog that influences other influential blogs.  What BoingBoing writes about is essentially guaranteed to spark conversation and a few zillion links.  But there’s an element of risk here: BoingBoing’s readership is unabashedly pro net-neutrality, and virulently anti-Comcast.  And BoingBoing’s relationship with Comcast has caused a pretty fierce debate among its regular readers.  It will be interesting to see how this develops across the next few weeks.

Overall, I would say that this whole campaign has been money well spent for Comcast.  Comcast has had its PR problems in the past, but I think this campaign takes important strides towards softening the perception of Comcast in the eyes of the public.  This is a fresher, brighter and cooler Comcast than we’ve seen before — I, for one, am impressed.

What do you all think?

Merry Thursday,

Paul

P.S.: I’ve been adding a post-script to my last few posts about my recent arrival on Twitter.  If you’re one of the Twittering Millions, check me out at www.twitter.com/paul_himmelfarb.