We’re all about local here, but when there’s a good lesson or two to be learned from a non-local site, we like to pass it along. And today’s lesson comes from National Geographic, which has won AdWeek’s magazine website of the year award. What does the site do so well?
“The site opens with a rotating series of stunning photographs, which were made more prominent by a January relaunch. Recently, it highlighted shots from the Chile and Turkey earthquakes; a church in drought-stricken Venezuela re-emerging from underwater in an area that had been inundated for a dam; and the blood-red waters of the Japanese dolphin fishing village portrayed in the Academy Award-winning documentary The Cove. Along with the amped-up photo presentation, the redesign introduced flyouts along the site’s navigation bar that show the breadth of content, including news photos, videos and stories.”
There’s another lesson here that goes beyond content and presentation. We all remember National Geographic from childhood – the stacks and stacks of it gathering dust in the basement. The brand has reinvented itself. It’s known equally well-known as “NatGeo,” and it’s multiplatform. Sure, there’s still the magazine but there is also a TV channel and this terrific website. We encourage you to take a look at the site of the year and see if there are any takeaways you can find to apply to your own brands.
