The other day, I clicked through on a ‘video sponsor’ ad spot — not something that I think I’ve ever done before. Yet there was something just a bit different about this site that made me make the jump. There wasn’t any audio or motion, just a chalkboard with a URL for holidayinn.com/mba. Interested, I clicked.

Down the rabbit hole

Once you make the jump, a minisite starts immediately playing a video spot featuring actor Philip Baker Hall (what’s he’s doing here is beyond me — he needs a new agent). The video runs for nearly 1:30, and is filled with pauses and rough lines that makes it feel like a rehearsal take for a much shorter spot. Of course, what Hall is saying isn’t particularly interesting either.

The entire campaign, crudely lifted from TV, is built around the idea that Holiday Inn’s rewards package is great, but we’re all too dense to get it, so we have to go to ‘school’ to get educated about it. At it’s best, the concept is trite — at its worse it’s just annoying and condescending.

Like Microsoft Bob, but worse

The video ends on an off note, with Hall just looking at us all and smirking. There’s a somewhat prominent ‘start exploring’ link that fades in, so I click that button. Ahh, a blast from the past — it’s an interface straight out of MS Bob, with a pile of stuff lying around a cluttered hotel room, that you can interact with. And by ‘interact’, I mean you can click on it, and then watch more poorly done video spots!

Step back — what’s supposed to happen on this site? Where’s the real information and what’s the action? Being charitable, it’s about rewards points right? So I click the (relatively small) “Register Now” button, only to be taken to this page. A long, confusing, wholly undesigned signup page that further confuses things by pitching baseball ticket discounts.

We do things on the internet

I could go on and on about the (many) design mistakes, the lack of creative direction, or the thin marketing strategy for this site, but it’s not instructive. None of these mistakes are unique to this site — they’re everywhere on the internet these days. What’s really interesting is the root cause of all this dissonance — marketers are crucially misjudging how we behave on the internet.

We’re not watching TV, strapped to our sofas like dolts, we’re doing things. These activities probably might very well be totally inane (Twitter, Facebook, etc.), but we’re still doing something, and we shouldn’t be interrupted. And if we are successfully distracted by an ad, we should be given something of shining, glistening, and undeniable value.

It’s all about value

How do you do this better? Surprisingly, looking at Motel6.com gives some solid answers. First, their main site is refreshingly simple and well organized around obvious actions 1) finding hotels and 2) booking rooms (contrast this with holidayinn.com). They also have a “pitchsite” at goin6.com. The differences are immediately apparent — the site is organized and focused around offering value by helping you plan trips. While it’s not the most useful site, it is at the very least, trying to help.

Do the right thing

What’s insane to me, as both a designer and a user, is how easy it is to do things right on the internet. You don’t have run around in a circle till you nearly blackout, dreaming up ‘social’ or ‘viral’ strategies. If you just focus energy and budget into the core, functional aspects of your business’ websites, it will repay in spades.

Have a difficult to use website? Pay any great interactive agency to help you re-design it (or talk to me). Trying to get more traffic to you site or drum up new business? Offer a clear pitch of new services, or web-only discounts. You don’t need a “MBA” to understand the power of offering value, and treating your customers well.