[rant] $1.5M spent in an art exercise (26)
Tourisme Montréal unveiled today a new version of their website, with a focus on slick videos and an innovative user interface.
I see the logic on producing videos, the featured video here certainly gives Montréal a modern/european/vibrant look. But I find the whole idea wrong on many levels.
There are lots to be said about the flash interface, which is reminiscent of the late 90’s era, when “designers” who felt much smarter than the rest of the population wanted to create their own user interface. But those user interfaces actually break people’s expectations and pretty much everything else. Here is one example how they broke the navigation at Tourisme Montréal:
It sucks to use flash for the user interface; for accessibility, usability, seo, and so many other reasons.
But my biggest concern is that the project is reported to cost Tourisme Montréal $1.5million, with the project work awarded to Sid Lee and Cactus. I can’t help thinking that the management team at Tourisme Montréal must have missed the train about user-generated content. We are in an era where everyone and their dogneighbor are gladly taking pictures and videos, remixing content, sometimes doing (very) stupid work, and sometimes producing gems with a quality beyond what you can get with a profesionnal design agency.
Compare this for instance to the Montréal network of public librairies which held a simple contest, asking Montréalers to send their own videos how they like librairies. (from fagstein) Here is the video that won the contest
I find this video as powerful as the one produced by Sid Lee; the main difference being that it didn’t cost the libraries a cent. And it isn’t the only good video, 93 other videos were submitted, uploaded to Youtube, and will certainly have a much greater impact on the long term than one proprietary non-embeddable video with fancy buttons.
For $1.5m, I can you list 10 other wonderful projects that could have been done, with a much better roi. But hey, I guess digital artists have to live.
To be fair, the website doesn’t break as many of the rules as those all-flash monstrosities do. Their URLs are well-formatted and they’re used properly so you can bookmark pages. It just seems to have a weird case of backbuttonphobia.
As for the library video, there was a $5,000 prize given to the makers of that video, plus $8,000 in prizes for runners-up. It’s small by comparison, but it’s more than a cent.
ok ok ok. thanks for the details. but still $1.5 million …
While I agree that use of Flash should have been limited (I hate being told I can’t or shouldn’t use my back button) I don’t seem to think that 1.5 million is a lot of money on that project.
Even if it’s far from web 2.0 and doesn’t create a community around Montreal I’m just glad that people are spending money promoting online. This should be considered a small budget in a few years.
gary,
ok let me rephrase what I wrote. I think what they come up with was not the most efficient way to use their budget.
They would get more results by inviting people to send videos about Montréal. Or maybe let Montréalers send over articles or pictures. Or let them have a profile and have a blog.
The whole website just seems to be a big giant flyer. And a flyer that costs $1.5m is expensive to me
Anyway this Hochelaga-Maisonneuve neighborhood seems really hot
Tout a fait d’accord. “montreal in 2 min” c’est le temps que j’ai attendu pour télécharger l’animation… et un autre 2 min. pour essayer de quitter… et finalement choisi “back” pour revenir sur Montrealtech, Ouf ;-) Sorry tolerance “0″ for my time.
I think you hit the nail on the head. $1.5M is expensive for what amounts to be a glorified flyer. User-generated content would’ve been simple via the use of YouTube or Flickr. A Upcoming.org-esque RSS feed would’ve been useful too.
so who’s to blame on this case: the client or the agency ?
I agree that it’s seems expensive, and may be kind of old school… but I’m not sure UGC would be the right answer. For exemple, what about legal questions and moderation issues ?
Doing 2.0, for doing 2.0… I am not sure it’s better.
nick,
the client is to blame in my opinion here. it’s their choice
Mox Folders,
there are known ways to make sure user content stays appropriate. it takes a decent amount of time and moderation, but the effort is worth it. see the time spend now on online videos compared to time spent on front of the TV, which is shrinking in North America.
Yes, but you don’t have to administrate a website as much as you have to administrate an UGC website.
In my left hand I have a web site “clef en main” (old school but without any surprises), in my right hand I have trendy UGC website 2.0. What will it be in 6 months or 1 year about this last one ? I don’t know, I am the client (I see you blame him) and I don’t like not to know what will happen in 6 months. Would I a have to hire someone ? How many people ? I know Human ressources is expensive… and if it doesn’t work, what would I do ? etc….
I’m agree with you, but I understand how it happens.
[...] Heri rants justifiably about Tourisme Montreal spending $1.5 million on a yet another crappy flashy brochure website. [...]
The site is supposed to be appealing to people outside of Montreal (unlike the library) and it does a great job at communicating the different vibes of the city to a WIDE range of people and in what I have found to be a pretty navigable way.
And remember ….
“Montréal welcomes more than 10 million visitors annually, who contribute some $2.8 billion to its economy.”
I think that puts $1.5M into perspective !
Bang on. Your article brings up the chasm between crafting a marketing message and letting people expressing their thoughts on a given issue. Both powerful, but the latter much more credible to the viewers (as they can identify to the submission).
That’s what happens when you mix non-tech upper management and kids with flashy stuff. As much as we like to rant about it, they got the contract and someone’s on the beach now, probably laughing about all this.
The winning video for the library looks and feels a lot like the TD Bank advertising platform…
-niko
Did you actually ask for permission to link to their website? They have a disclaimer saying you shouldn’t prior to obtaining permission.
Or are you just that daring? :D
Well, there seems to be some form of UGC features on the Web site (see My Montreal Planner). These features seem they might be of value for tourists. I wonder if the content created is only to be shared with friends or if it can also be published on the Web site too.
I saw some itineraries associated to restaurants created by users from Tourisme Montreal. I wonder if these can be created and published by any user.
I’ll have to try these features to give an fleshed out opinion.
As for the videos, I think they look very good and give a good vibe about Montreal. For that kind of content, I don’t mind the Flash.
However, for the rest of the content, like the directories, the Flash interface gets in the way. It also breaks some things for users (other than the Back button). For example, some Apple-like drop-down menus can only be clicked on the arrows. When you click the text area, it does not drop down as we are used too in HTML drop-downs. In any case, the Flash navigation is unnecessary for these parts of the site.
This site is what Montreal needs (not sure of the URL…) and is worth 1.5
Just think of the talent and rights fees are probably around 100K. Now think about the rendering, 3D animation, editing, flash development, cms platform, hosting, coding, account servicing, creative development, photo shoot, helicopter ride…name it…all elements for a big production are there.
Profitability: a good digital agency like Fjord or Sid Lee will try and be very tight on budget (huge scope and analysis document) to try and generate 15% net profit on the project.
Now the question about is this a good tactic to attract outside visitors to Montreal? Because the city’s web site and any other local city site are not exactly very sexy and nice, the answer is YES. You need a main driver who can ‘brand’ the city and be open to any kind of individual who might be interested in coming to Montreal.
We can all criticise usability functions but they can always make the experience better and easier.
My 2 cents: it’s just like Sid Lee’s visual experience of the MGM Grand…and they will win awards for this. http://www.mgmgrand.com/
Jerome and Mathieu,
I think the video doesn’t belong on the frontpage, taking all that space.
It’s great for the first time, creates a big impact, etc. But it’s actually a problem for repeat visitors. Like a TV ad. You see it once, you are convinced and that’s it. you don’t want to see the TV ad ever and ever again when you go back to the website. repeat visitors will want to get the details of a hotel, or get details about a monument.
The video is very effective though, and I can see it very well in a landing page, in a subsection of the website; used for a campaign.
Brem,
No I didn’t ask permission. The Internet is a public space. It’s not possible to forbid people to link to your website. It’s the equivalent of asking people to ask permission before they can look at a public building.
Nicolas Ritoux,
you’re right… and i thought it was an original idea…
I personally think that the site is very well built and makes an impression on people. If the objective of this site is to promote our city to people outside then it certainly doing its job.
This site is totally worth 1.5 mil in my opinion.
As an SEO guru I do agree that use of flash should be reduced to its minimum but in any case this site is very SEO friendly and got lots of HTML content for crawlers to index, perfect link structure, great sitemap http://www.tourisme-montreal.org/Site-Map. Some work to title tags should be considered.
One more thing, I think the video on this site is very viral which makes lots of people forward links to their friends outside Montreal.
[...] autre critique envers les vidéos viens de Heri entre autres qui trouve que le site aurait du être plus “crowd sourced”, plus média [...]
[...] de mes anciens profs viennent d’obtenir une subvention de deux millions (pas de blague sur Tourisme Montréal SVP) sur sept ans pour financer ce projet qui se veut entre autres (c’est le bout qui me [...]
[...] Michelle Blanc - Enbruns P.S. Heri Rakotomalala, développeur à Montréal, a trouvé une fonction très intéressante sur le site de Tourisme Montréal, lorsque vous utilisez le bouton “back” de votre navigateur [...]
I was so disapointed to think we spent all that money for such a bad video, the pixels are really bad…maybe it’s better with a brand new computer but I have an iMac and this is the only video that I ever ever seen that is so blury.
Sid Lee should resubmit a new one that does justice to Montreal and rebuilds his reputation.
Renee
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