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One thing that always surprises me with Web Awards is how many of the nominations I’ve never heard of – but it should not be surprising, the web is a big, big place and there’s room for lots of stuff. The Webby awards got announced today, so here’s a look at the brand/commercial sites that won.
Automotive
Winner – Toyota FJ Cruiser, a Canadian site from Henderson Bas Nicely designed site, that strongly ties off-road adventure to the vehicle but it does nothing for me as it’s just a slow way of getting to the details about the model.
The People’s Choice was the BMW Relearn to Drive from Just Interactive. I’ve written about this before and is far more useful to me, with the option to attend the driving school and not just promoting a single product. But that’s just my preference – have all the product information in a format that’s easy and quick to get to and have the fun, flashy interactive stuff there, but in a way that does not obstruct information gatherers.
Beauty and Cosmetics
The winner was the Australian Lynx Effect Site from Amnesia Group; this site hits the same notes as all the Lynx/Axe adverts, treating women as objects and men as lads, but as always, does it well and with some style! Never sure how I feel about that – I appreciate the skills and ideas behind the ads but still hate them. The peoples choice was the international version od Nivea, a pretty comprehensive corporate product site, put together well with content easy to find. From a digital agency viewpoint it can sometimes be too easy to dismiss sites like this, as they can be deemed ‘boring’, but this one is well put together and meets purpose. It’s kept up to date with news and advice, so does provide fresh content regularly, to encourage people to come back
Consumer Electronics
The winner here was the Japanese site for Sharp Aquos from Hakuhodo I-studio. I have no idea what it was trying to tell me (although the info page tries to explain) but it had me laughing out loud with the fun music and graphics. The People’s choice was another TV brand, this time Philips Aurea, an unusual TV with its light show and with exclusive new content.
Food and Beverages
Here the winner is not from one of the big companies but from the California Milk Board. Get the Glass, from Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, is a visually glorious site that is engaging and fun. It’s not a product but a category they are advertising and from the buzz I saw at the time, it succeeded.
Retail
The Canadian Ikea mattress, from Trapeze / ZIG site won both awards in Retail. A surprisingly simple idea, advice on how to choose a mattress, presented in a fun, clean way.
Other Categories
Product sites won throughout lots of categories. Coke Happiness Factory from AKQA got the nod in Best Use of Animation – i love this site and the ad associated with it
Another site I’ve had so much fun playing with is Poke’s neverending site for Orange, which has sooooo much stuff in it. It won the People’s choice for Best Visual Design.
There’s a lot more there, a long, lovely list of what is good on the web, so go and explore.
(all screenshots from their respective websites)
