Microsite Scorecard: BT’s Bigger Thinking, Toyota’s Why Not? and Siemens’ Answers

I had some time to review the latest print magazine issue of Fortune and managed to find a few new microsites to take a look at.  Here are the ones that peaked my interest.

• BT Global Services. www.biggerthinking.com.  This video rich microsite focuses everything on thinking outside of the box and innovation. This has a strong focus on global issues, with their video series featuring a number of outside experts from the states and internationally. Excellent production value. I’m impressed by the lack of sales material on the site (other than the logo, which I believe works in this situation).  It seems that they are really trying to get leaders thinking about these key global and political issues.

• The “Is the World Flat?” series is a must watch. Looks like they are working hard at trying to build a discussion, and getting some decent responses. They need to provide more interactive content to really get this going, as right now it’s pretty much just a bulletin board. Perhaps adding comments to particular videos and articles would help. It also looks like they aren’t quite getting the traffic they would expect. An expert blog could really get this site moving. Grade: A-

• Toyota’s Why Not? toyota.com/whynot. Focuses on their commercial “Harmony” and its making. In both the making and the actual video, Toyota is clearly promoting responsible environmental manufacturing. Both the commercial and the “making of” presents the case well. The site also includes brief case studies focusing on responsible manufacturing, hybrid technology and green operations (with links to other Toyota sites). These are a bit hard to navigate as you have to use the scroll bar they provide.I think there is an opportunity here to take the videos they’ve created and integrate them together like a traditional media site would. That, and some additional articles on these key issues from industry experts, and you’ve really got something here. Overall, it’s a great start. Grade: B+

• Siemens Answers for Life. www.seimens.com/answers. There is a lot of really good information here, but there are some organizational issues. First, the site loaded way to slow on my hi-speed connection. Then, the questions shot up too fast to see what the answers pertained to. Okay, it may be just me…so I’ll move along.  Once I got passed all that, I realized that this site is separated into three parts: life, the environment and industry. When I went to the industry site, the article highlighted key words with robust information for each one – links to articles and videos. Unfortunately, much of this content just links to pdf articles, probably from their custom magazine. They lose a lot of interaction here. I also signed up to something called “Siemens Answers”, but I’m still not sure exactly what it will be.  Can’t wait for the surprise.All in all, there is potential here, but they really need to organize it for web use. Can the pdfs and go with html. Also, I’d make it clearer that there are three vertical sections of this site, so people can quickly go where they need to. Remove a bit of the Siemens pitch, and you may have something special.  Grade: C-

One big conclusion here…notice how these companies are still organizing these sites more like commercials and big, in-your-face graphics.  If they would take a minute and come at this from the perspective of a publisher, would the results be different?

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