Microsite Scorecard – Citi, Fidelity, IBM etc. (Part 1)

I picked up the latest issue of Portfolio magazine yesterday. What I couldn’t help to notice is the vast number of companies that are redirecting buyers to microsites. It’s almost as if just putting the URL at the footer is a waste of space.

If you think about it, this makes perfect sense. Unless they are ready to buy right now, most consumers wouldn’t go to prudential.com. But, they may go to RetirementRedZone.com to find out if they are in position for a successful retirement. Consumers crave education and content…and businesses are starting to figure that out.  Here are a couple that peaked my interest.

• Citi – citi.com/letsgetitdone. Good start and interesting play on success and dreams. Just not much content at all.  They try to get you to the product sites too quickly. Also, they might lose people as it takes a while to load up. Grade: D+
• Fidelity – Fidelity.com/ready. Some good retirement content.  Probably best part is the “MyPlan” checkup. It’s a quick survey that gives retirees a good idea of where they are and what they need to do. Grade: B-
• accenture – accenture.com/research. Some excellent stuff on high-performance businesses and high performers. Leverages Tiger Woods (excellent use of celebrity with brand message). Includes a podcast series on high performance as well. Get rid of the cheesy music and I think we have a winner. Grade: B+
• IBM – ibm.com/avianflu. Well, this one really freaked me out. If that was IBM’s goal, mission successful. I never really positioned IBM solutions around this type of topic…very interesting.  First class video, podcasts, charts and research. Very well done (although still freaked out). Grade: A-
• IBM – ibm.com/dna. Focuses on the Genographic Project with National Geographic. This one took longer to grab my attention, although it’s the same format as the Avian Flu microsite. I’m on high speed and the video was breaking up a bit. Content, outside the video issues, seems first grade…just had a bit of trouble with the connection. Grade: B
• Wachovia – wachovia.com/wealth. Initially comes off as a content site, but just says how great Wachovia is and that you should work with them. Big let down. It’s obvious that this is just a redirection to their wealth management services…nothing more. Grade: D

Here is a link to part two of the scorecard, which includes microsites from Shell, Chevron, MasterCard and more.

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