Picturetown is a microsite from Nikon, that first caught my attention from a recent commercial. I couldn’t remember the web address nor name, so I searched extensively. Finally, I called MWW on Friday and a gentleman named Kevin pointed it out to me. This post is a quick rundown of the site and my thoughts about it. Note: I am a proud owner of a Canon Rebel XT.
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Picturetown opens with 2 concise sentences
Benefit: Simple to use
Proof: Large sample audience (200 residents)
Invitation to explore the story
The Homepage displays a random background photo and centered in the screen is a navigation menu with 4 primary site sections, divided by expandable panes.
The Story
Well executed video about the program
The People
7 stories of people’s lives and their experiences with the camera. Includes video, some photos taken, comments, send-to-a-friend, and photo download option.
The Picturetown Gallery
7 brick walls (pages) with various participants photos.
The Nikon D40
7 main features each linked to one of the 7 people’s stories (very cool)
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In all, it’s one of the best microsites I’ve ever seen. I enjoyed the stories and the social features of emailing and commenting on photos. My only concern is the visibility of this unique campaign. Without the name Picturetown and its address, it was difficult for me to find using Google and navigating Nikon USA’s website. There should at least be some reference to Picturetown on Nikon Digital’s official D40 page. How about better visibility with either standard or sponsored results on a Google search on Nikon D40.
What do you think?
{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Mario, thanks for dropping by the BOF blog to make a comment. I agree with all your points about Picturetown. As socially forward thinking as Nikon appears to be, you would think they would have thought more about connecting the dots. By the way I purchase a Lecia C Lux 1 last summer. Awesome little camera, but now I’m thinking Nikon again for my upgrade camera. Cheers.
Thank-you Geno for stopping by
I’ve heard fantastic things about Leica and the picture quality. I’m not familiar with their digital foray, but I assume it’s great and camera enthusiasts are delighted.
I think Picturetown presents a great potential opportunity for Nikon to use as a platform for promoting the D40 and its advantages over compact cameras namely, rapid response time (click-to-pic). In addition to making more links to Picturetown on the web through various means, I think Nikon should design and print a large number of postcards about Picturetown that it could supply to retailers in their product cartons for use as POS promotional material.
Canon’s Rebel XT and later incarnations, sold very well because of great word-of-mouth on one big point: it was the first digital SLR for ordinary people wanting to take great shots. That was in 2004-05. Fast forward to today, and that reputation is still here…but the excitement is gone because Canon probably took it for granted and hasn’t continued pushing this message.
The D40 has those same elements including a larger viewfinder. I think if Nikon plays its cards right, it can effectively position this camera in people’s minds as the XT did…and gain some marketshare on Canon in the digital SLR market. I hope for MWW’s sake and effort, Nikon gives their work a little more visibility.
Any other thoughts? I’d love to hear at least from Matt Dickman, Mark Goren, David Reich, or CK on this.
Mario, great thoughts on the microsite. I showed it to our Flash developers at Click Here, and they were impressed, too, from a technical and aesthetic perspective. However, to your point, I could never remember the address. To get them to the site, I took them first to chaosscenario… clicked on your blog link, navigated to this post, and then took them to the site. That’s exactly how I navigate to it every time I want to see it.
I really have no interest in bookmarking it, so I suppose that’s how I’ll have to navigate to it from now on. I like that, because it forces me to come to your blog more often, which gives me more opportunities for accidental discovery.
Thanks for the props. I don’t mind the extra traffic
Since the Picturetown site is so easily accessible on stunningnikon.com (There’s only 3 page elements!), the end of the TV commercial should focus on that URL only with at least 2.5-3 seconds of text on screen and a pleasant voice reiterating the address and a short invitational message to listen to the stories.
Hey Mario, my friend, just wanted to stop by and say hey. Have a great weekend. Love the photos.
Love the video, it definitly hits the message home.
Thanks fo the post.
The microsite for the Nikon D40 is nice, I agree. The Nikon D80 site is also pretty neat; you can zoom in on the gallery and then the picture. But I’ll reiterate what I have said on my blog – the camera isn’t the one that takes a great picture, it’s the photographer. On the site, some of the sample residents compare this camera to point-and-shoot cameras. They shouldn’t be compared because they’re not in the same class. Otherwise, I enjoy your review and wish I would have reacted sooner with my response of the campaign.
Do you enjoy your Rebel XT? I’ve been looking at purchasing a Canon DSLR.
Cheers,
Joel
Hi Joel,
Nice review as well on your part, giving a bit wider background.
I know some of the residents compared the camera to point-and-shoots, and although they aren’t in the same class, it is quite a contrast and appropriate to point-out….like going from a Volvo to a BMW. But ultimately on photo quality, it’s the photographer’s skills that make a great shot. Even then, some software manipulation helps a LOT too. Especially in regards to using levels and some quick & dirty dodging and burning.
I really like my Canon. It’s great to take around on trips; I bought a telephoto lens and it’s been fantastic. Now I want even more lenses, after having recently purchased a circular polarizer lens for reducing glare.
My daughter appeared in the photo shoot in Georgetown South Carolina. I would like to have these 7 walls of pictures because it is my home town. And it is a great picture of my daughter. How can i access and save these photos.
Hi Ann,
I wouldn’t know how you could get these photos desired.
Perhaps contact Nikon’s public relations agency.