The Tendo View

Smart’s microsite for the U.K is designed to guide the user through a series of quizzes and scenarios designed to dispel misconceptions about the diminutive Smart Fortwo—namely that it is unsafe, too small to be practical, low on features, and tight on interior accommodations. While the site could have come across as defensive, preachy, or sales-y, it avoids those potential pitfalls and remains both informative and entertaining.

BRAVO

The microsite is the online equivalent of the car itself—small, thoughtfully organized, well designed, and fun.

Visitors can view the site accompanied by a John Cleese-esque narrator and/or with letterbox subtitles, making it suitable for both home and office viewing. It opens in a garage with the arrival of a pair of Smart Fortwos. The user can continue in a linear manner through the various chapters—comfort, safety, space, fuel economy, and features—or experience it chapter by chapter through tabs at the top of the page. Regardless of which method one chooses, the scene transitions are especially slick as the site flows from one chapter to the next with lateral screen wipes from scene to scene.

The quiz elements and visuals are surprising at times, and captivating enough to inspire multiple viewings. In addition, the entire experience runs just a few minutes, even if viewed through to its entirety from start to finish.

Extra credit goes to the production team for the voiceover interruptions in which the narrator takes a call and orders tea or lunch when the screen is left idle.

TRY AGAIN

The major shortcomings of the site, to the extent that these can be characterized as such, are its regionality—the call to action to arrange a test drive or request a brochure only apply to U.K. residents—and the fact that it lacks the requisite social media tags to give it additional viral impact. Ideally, the site would have been set up to reconfigure the final call to action and sub links based on the IP address of its viewer, so that North American buyers, for example, could also request a brochure or set up a test drive. With no additional tweaks, the site would work as is for English-speaking countries, and it would have been relatively easy, given the voice over/letter box format, to translate the experience into additional languages.

Further, while the site has made the rounds on various automotive message boards and blogs, it could have had wider reach if it was set up for easy social tags like Digg, Delicious, and Facebook.

Overall, the site hits a bull’s-eye for its target demographic, leaves a striking impression of how far off base some of these misconceptions are about the Smart Fortwo, and reinforces the brand voice for Smart.