Microsite Scorecard – Chevron, Shell, FedEx, Mastercard (Part 2)

Yesterday, we discussed some of the content web portals, or microsites, that are being promoted in print advertising specific to Portfolio magazine. Here is an overview of the rest, which weren’t covered yesterday.

• Chevron – willyoujoinus.com. Gets attention immediately by counting down the amount of barrels of oil consumed during your web visit. They have a game called Energyville that is definitely interesting. It’s very similar to Sim City. I tried stocking up on wind and solar power, but my city couldn’t survive without Petroleum. Go figure. They have an excellent archive of information on all genres of energy issues. I did not join the site.  Membership just didn’t seem compelling enough. Overall, very interesting site, but always a challenge for an oil company to influence consumers that they all aren’t after selling more oil. Grade: A-
• MassMutual – MassMutual.com/GetThere. Their “Top 10 Questions” saves the value of the site. That’s pretty much all they have here.  Way too much of a push to contact a financial representative…it’s everywhere you look. Grade: C-
• FedEx – fedexstories.com. Took over a minute to load on high-speed. Not good. Once you get into the site, you understand why it takes so long. Extremely impressive display and graphics. You can click on cities around the globe to go to a FedEx story of your choice. Top-notch video and presentation. That said, I’m not sure how inviting the stories are. As a buyer, I’m not sure why clicking on any of these cities or videos will help me run my business better. They have the content on the site, they just need to light the path a little better. It’s clear that they are trying to position their employees as partners and professionals. Grade: B-
• Ameriprise – ameriprise.com/mydreams. You enter the site with a very user-friendly survey. Good survey, but I was looking for content directly. Once you take the survey, it gives you very targeted content to help you in your situation…just not enough content. Again, like we’ve seen in other microsites, the move is too quick to the sale. Grade: C
• Ameriprise – ameriprise.com/redchair. Makes you sit through a presentation on the “red chair” that I couldn’t find the skip button on. The other two links take you to either a representative or the MyDreams microsite we just discussed. Grade: D
• Shell – shell.com/us/realenergy. Sometimes it’s the simpler sites that just draw you in. After presentation sites and high production-value video sites, we come to a table of contents page. Thank you Shell! I’m not saying their content is any better, but at least I have some options. Includes video, games and case studies. Grade: B+
• Merrill Lynch – winningsolutions.ml.com. I’ve discussed Merrill’s microsites before (see this post). Almost everything I see from Merrill involves great content marketing…except this one. When you get to this site, it’s all about Merrill.  What about me? Grade: D
• MasterCard – priceless.com. Lots of great video content featuring Peyton Manning of the Indianapolis Colts, which can be personalized to your situation. Tons of specific content targeted to golfers, food lovers, travelers and more. MasterCard has been doing this type of content for a while, and the format seems to work. Grade: A-

Overall, the difference between the good and the bad when it comes to microsites or web content portals is the focus on the user. The good ones have very specific content to the target buyer. The bad ones disguise content to get you quickly to the sales pitch.

If you are considering launching a microsite initiative, be sure you understand the needs of the consumer, and create valuable and relevant content to fulfill their content needs. Seems like a simple concept, but as we’ve just discussed, many businesses just aren’t there yet.

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