The Internet can be a dark and mysterious place, untrodden and unappreciated by a species known as “Computer Dummies”. On the other hand, others marvel at what the Web can offer beyond mere information.
The Web has evolved from its early days as a simple document publishing platform into a multimedia rich and interactive medium. Nowadays it contains features allowing greater community participation and advances in Web-based user interfaces which has come to be known as Web 2.0. Let’s see how our local online media is taking advantage of them.
Viral marketing
Viral marketing is the rapid dissemination of a brand or product through active user participation. A very successful viral strategy launched here was 5FM’s “lonely finger” campaign, designed to lure a new and younger audience to the station. Advertising agency Net#work BBDO launched a teaser campaign with short TV ads, classified style small ads on the back of newspapers, club-style flyers and targeted emails containing a sad picture of a lonely finger.
The publicity was aimed at driving people to the Lonely Finger website www.lonelyfinger.com. Created by Gloo Digital Design, it had no branding and presented the audience with a multimedia “scrapbook” of a Lonely Finger character.
The interactive scrapbook was littered with links that shed more light on the plight of the Lonely Finger by way of short animated movies, poems, slide shows and music. The user could subscribe to receive regular emails or download some of the movie clips to their cellphone or computer. They could even engage in a one-on-one dialogue with the finger by sending and receiving emails. These clips served as the viral component of the campaign as they were branded with the website address. They were so cute and intriguing you just couldn’t help but send them on.
The campaign ran for four months in which time the terribly sad finger created an emotional bond that generated 83,300 visits with an average viewing time of 7.13 minutes and almost 26,000 direct emails. At the end of that time it was revealed that the finger was all part of the 5FM experience. In the words of Gloo’s creative director, Pete Case: “This campaign clearly demonstrates that if you provide an engaging and relevant experience to an audience then they will interact with it”.
Multimedia as edutainment
More and more websites are striving for richer user experiences. This is achieved by employing more flexible user interfaces then those created by using simple HTML.
Using Macromedia Flash, new media (online) agency, Prezence in conjunction with creative consultancy, Bright Sparks, has created an animated online adventure game for the Shuttleworth Foundations, Hip2b2. The website (www.codebreaker.co.za) aims to promote STeM (Science, Technology, entrepreneurship and Math) to young South Africans.
Users register to be an agent for CodeBreaker International by filling in a questionnaire that determines their telemetry – a measure of capabilities such as imagination and intellect. As they progress through the various challenges their telemetry adjusts according to how well they complete these challenges and what decisions they make.
The aim is to save the life of scientist Dr Indira Basu and her discovery of the secret to eternal life from a sinister cult called The Brotherhood. The interactive medium challenges people to express their creativity, tackle problem solving scenarios and encourages them to see maths and science in a positive light. The challenges have included a puzzle challenge, a shoot-em-up and a maze.
So far there are 3,600 users registering at a rate of between 50 to a 100 per day. They are encouraged to create teams of which there are currently over 400 communicating via the Hip2b2 website forums.
blogs
A blog is a website used as an online journal. Users can edit and add text, links to other sites and images. Although it can be said that the underlying technology behind blogs is not new, their popularity as a means of communication and alternative to the mass media has had an increasing effect on public opinion.
In countries like America blogs are increasingly becoming an integral part of the traditional mass media. During Hurricane Katrina, blogs became the best way to get first hand accounts of the storm’s destructive path.
In South Africa, blogging is still a growing medium. The Mail & Guardian Online have Blogmark (www.blogmark.co.za). The site generates 12,000 unique visitors and 3,000 registered users. It educates users on how to promote their blogs, provides stats of the current user numbers and most-read blogs. Similarly News24.com launched the Great South African Blog-Off competition (www.news24.com/promotions/blogoff) in appreciation of the growing popularity of blogs. They received 347 entries.
As much as they can be personal, blogs can also be used to encourage debate. The Mail & Guardian along with Rhodes University’s New Media Lab ran a blog covering the recent Local Government Elections (electionblogs.mg.co.za). This was an ingenious use of the blogging medium to get a personal account from the leaders of seven of the country’s major national parties.
Reading them gave a more intimate look into the persona of politicians but also greater insight into the day-to-day running of a campaign. Allowing people to post comments afforded the leaders another avenue of communication with their electorate and fostered heated debate around topics related to the elections that is often found in the realm of talk radio. The site received 3,647 unique users over the period.
Citizen journalism
The Web has also seen the growth of citizen or grassroots journalism. This form of journalism, very much related to blogging, relies on ordinary citizens to actively collect and report information. The first such commercial website in South Africa backed by media house Johncom is www.reporter.co.za.
The content – including news, reviews, columns, features and community-oriented articles from members – is edited for quality control with reporters receiving a small fee for published contributions. They accept content in stories, audio, images or video format.
To improve the content there is a mentoring process with experienced journalists to encourage contributors to learn the basics of reporting such as how to conduct an interview. The rationale is that there are more ordinary people than journalists and therefore they are more likely to be in place for a breaking story. They also encourage stories by way of regular competitions, to challenge their 3,527 registered reporters to write on a range of different topics.
To further popularise citizen journalism and to give readers a personal account of an event, some of the content from the site is displayed on Johncom’s other mainstream sites clearly marked as being user-generated content. Launched during January 2006, the website received 5,769 unique users for the month of February.
Although there are many technical limitations to broader Web penetration, South Africa remains in line with some of the latest technology. The Web is clearly evolving towards the vision of Tim Berners-Lee, a founding father of the platform, who when asked about his future hope for the Web, replied: “I have always wanted the Web to be a more creative, flexible medium with annotation systems and group editors.”