Awards:
'Outstanding Achievement'
codegent is a full service web development new media agency, based in clapham, london, uk, that delivers well-designed content managed sites, microsites and flash games supported by robust technology and integrated marketing solutions including search engine optimisation, pay-per-click and html email.
Nickelodeon needed a way to showcase all of their summer content on one site. The summer content is fairly disparate (a cartoon aimed at young boys, a blog aimed at teenage girls and a toys, games and movies section for varying audiences).
In the past Nickelodeon has had issues with short retention times and low page impressions. With all of this in mind we knew that we needed to create a site that was fun, compelling and engaging, whilst also being easy to navigate.
We wanted to incentivise users to travel through the site, whilst keeping them engaged with the content. We decided to reward positive user behaviour, such as commenting and interacting. To do this we devised a points system, whereby users are awarded points which, when accrued, unlock 'goodies' on the site, such as Nickelodeon wallpaper and MSN Messenger icons.
We have 'hidden' cards around the site. There are 5 cards to collect in total which can be downloaded and printed out by users. 4 of these cards display a 2d message from a SpongeBob character, the final one displays a 3d augmented reality SpongeBob which the user can interact with using their webcam.
Given the fact that the average visitor would be under 10, we needed to think carefully about how much interaction and personalisation is appropriate. With this in mind we decided that we would allow them to personalise their own avatar but in a way that would not allow too much information to be conveyed. We devised a badge creator where visitors create their own badge and personalise with colours, username and patterns. These badges are then displayed when they comment on content in the site.
Finally, the blog is written from the point of view of on-air TEENick presenter, Olly. She leaves regular video and written posts which users can then comment on. Olly then directly references these comments and questions in her subsequent posts, not only does this add to the personal tone of the site, it increases the likelihood of return visits.
The augmented reality and personalised response to blog comments have proved to be a really effective way of engaging the audience, by offering them something new and exciting in return for their time and attention. Initial stats suggest traffic has more than doubled compared to a similar site launched by Nickelodeon this time last year and similarly the amount of time spent on the site and page impressions have increased significantly.
Nickelodeon were keen to "try something new" and the Augmented Reality addressed that need. Take a look below to see how it worked.
