By Matt Smith
When I read the word “website”, I usually envision some unimaginative, boring sort of template that is more driven by a wire frame than by emotion. Well, I have been proven wrong, big time, by something that popped up at the recent D.C. ADDY Awards.
In the spirit of complete transparency, I was on vacation in Florida during last week’s ADDY Awards gala and was unable to attend the event in person. However, thanks to Twitter and other sources provided by the many wonders of the internet, I was able to see some of the wonderful work presented and awarded.
One of the very best was a website that absolutely blew me away. It was created by Admirable Devil, a great creative agency based in D.C. on Pennsylvania Avenue, for its client Infolock, the data management company based in Arlington, VA.
As Admirable Devil’s own website says: “Admirable Devil developed a new positioning, identity, logo and cinematic new website for the brand that invites users to follow the lifecycle of a single piece of data. It is a story grounded in truth and full of unexpected risk, intrigue and colorful characters. Just like real life.” Indeed. This groundbreaking website as well a range of accompanying work—all equally creative and fantastic—can be seen here.
To call the Infolock site a “website” is actually a disservice. It’s much more than that. I can tell you from experience that making the issues of data management and privacy interesting and engaging is not easy.
But Admirable Devil created an emotional journey that truly captures the train wreck that is file exposure that we all live in today, along with the crazy world we live in, and it makes Infolock the hero.
The agency’s work captures the true emotion, making thoughts and images of privacy “danger zones” and “bad guys” come to life. And the format of the website is pure genius. There is a video, and guess what, it’s terrific but it’s not half as powerful as the overall web experience.
The Admirable Devil team knows what it’s doing, believe me. Their client list—past and present—contains names like Guinness, Reebok, Geico, Gillette, Ford, Johnson & Johnson and American Airlines, to name just a few. And their crowded awards shelf contain hardware from not only the ADDYs, but also from Cannes Lions, the One Show, and the Webbys, along with top honors from both Ad Age and Adweek.
So right here in our backyard, they totally nailed a website and have forever changed the way I read that word. And that is something to truly admire, you devils.
Matt Smith is founder of SmithGifford, and has close to 40 years’ experience as a creative and agency leader at the nation’s top agencies. SmithGifford is a Capitol Communicator sponsor.
You can find Matt Smith’s earlier columns at Oh, That’s Good.
We were fortunate to have a brave client ticked-off by the status quo attitude of cybersecurity professionals and CIOs. They wanted their customers to wake up to the bigger idea of cradle-to-grave data management, and so were entirely open to letting us evolve the idea of what a website should actually do.
Joel, you took that emotion and channeled it to a great thing. Greatness happens when talent can take full advantage of an emotion. Nothing is more frustrating when you see some one miss that opportunity. YOU NAILED IT! It’s not as easy as you made it look.