"This is one of my favorite pieces in the whole show. It makes the complex simple, is as well-executed as any commercial communication out there and is really informative and helpful. From the first true-to-the-product sound to loading visual to the content demo, it's inspiring, informative and engaging." —juror Brooke Nanberg
"The unique features of this line of printers are clearly and smartly brought to life by the microsite. Refreshing in its simplicity, the true essence of what is 'cool' about the printer is captured." —juror Nikolai Cornell
Overview: How does a company convince an increasingly paperless public that there's still value in owning a printer? If you're HP, you reinvent the entire category with the world's first Web-connected home printer. The site was part of a larger campaign—that included television, print, online advertising and extensive PR—to educate the public and generate excitement for the new printer. While most advertising pushes products, this site introduces a completely new technology and demonstrates it by mimicking the functionality of the printer's touchscreen interface. Included are an intuitive navigation, scrolling menus with realistic-looking hand reflections, custom 3-D renders, hi-res videos and a fully-interactive product demo.
• The site's multi-region build allowed for languages that are written right-to-left such as Hebrew and Arabic.
• A browser-based navigation and backup HTML make the site SEO-friendly and deep-linkable.
• The XML-driven site allows for customization and translation; the focus of the site can be easily switched to an alternate printer model with key imagery and video to match.
Comments by Rob Katzenstein and Drew Ungvarsky:
Is the audience you're targeting a particularly difficult one to reach? "Aside from the fact that the world at large is printing less and less, HP tasked us with creating a Web site that could not only engage an international audience, but that was also modular enough to easily include additional languages and products. To deal with this unique challenge, we built the site to be entirely configurable by XML. Regions around the world were able to easily launch translated versions of the site, and they could select and configure the modules and products that were applicable to their customers—even the site's imagery and videos are swappable with the flip of a switch."
Did you learn anything new during the process? "Working on a product as complex as a Web-connected printer taught us the importance of simplicity. All too often, Web sites make users jump through hoops in order to get basic information. This project made it clear that engagement and ease-of-use are not mutually exclusive."
How did this project compare with others you've worked on in the past? "Most advertising deals with simple parity products with equally simple messages. This was an entirely different beast all together. Not only were we introducing a new product, we were introducing one that was fairly complex and difficult to explain. While it seemed a bit daunting at first, it inevitably proved to be overwhelmingly rewarding."
