image credit: factoryjoe [Flickr]
For digital marketers, it pays to be opportunistic. Wherever there is a jarring or unsatisfactory experience, just as in the real world, there is often a chance to build in a message that suits a brand mission. Take 404 errors for example. Sooner or later someone is going to either click on a broken link from an email, mistype a URL, or a developer will write bad code that somehow makes it through QA. The user experience sucks, but sometimes a bit of good clean fun can come from a common moment of frustration.
We have to give a nod to whoever came up with this display advertising campaign for The Alliance for Climate Protection and their purchase of the Washington Post’s 404 error pages. Here, an environmental lobbying group seeking to call out opposing the energy sector’s efforts to promote “clean coal” as just so much hot air.
It redirected an otherwise bad experience into a memorable point.
More fun 404 pages here. (Organic did the Geek Squad one, BTW).
Michael Beavers