So, the 2017 season 7 of Game of Thrones is coming out on July 17th. Are you excited? Because I certainly am.
At least…I was until I visited the UK HBO website to get further information.
Now, because of the disappointing HBO Website and this slight, I will drag you into the world of Website Design and explain how a good TV Network Website should be created.
The basics of Website Design.
Let me begin by saying that the HBO and Warner Brother Websites are definitely not the worst out there (want to bleach your eyes? or be scarred for life?) but they seriously do not use their Website potential to the maximum.
Let’s start by asking ourselves what makes a good Website Design?
According to Barbara Kahn (2017) most theories state that a good Website must steer clear of complexity and visual overload; this is further confirmed by eye-tracking techniques which have allowed neuro-marketing technology to flourish in recent years. Such techniques clearly and efficiently direct and guide consumers via the use of categories or filtering.
This is because, unlike physical stores which provide a full sensory experience, Websites are both part of a multi-channel marketing effort but also more direct and focused in attention.
According to Forbes only 1-3% of Website visitors buy on their first visit. As a result nurturing the remaining 97% of visitors must be seriously considered for the future.
A method to do this is to design Websites with Relationship Marketing in mind, as per my previous Blog-Post regarding the topic.
As Verma et al.(2016) point out amongst the elements website visiting customers find both good quality information and the website design to be important features.
Additional elements indicated in the paper were that thanks to relationship management Word of Mouth (WOM) and Customer loyalty, together with the expectation of continuity in establishing this relationship, were significantly important elements for marketing purposes.
Considering this, what can the TV industry do to make their Websites engaging?
What is good Business Marketing Practice in the TV Industry?
The Blog WhatPixel -a specialist blog in UI (user interface) and UX (user experience) – suggests a good TV Network Website must have the following:
- Show current/upcoming shows
- Check current TV Schedules
- Stream video clips or full episodes
- Promote Company news/press releases
- Supply resources such as shop or App
An example of this is Comedy Central, that exploits all of the above and uses its Website to both promote their popular shows but also to re-direct visitors to their other content.
Furthermore, if you were to look for other areas of improvement, History Channel’s option to directly stream on the Website is an interesting strategy.
Another option, if aimed at a younger audience, is to provide a show-reel of programmes using the logo/face of shows; similar to that of the Disney channel Website.
Comedy Central also uses this approach when looking for episodes of content to watch.
Perhaps unexpectedly, it was History channel that won the 2016 award for Best TV Website both for their shows “Curse of Dig Island” and “Vikings”, having also won in 2015.
Web Awards provides examples of interactive and engaging Websites that get people talking.
On the whole, experts of the industry encourage the creation of content that draws in and retains the visitor, via engaging and visually stimulating content while still not dominating the overall User experience.
We wouldn’t want the BUY NOW pop up to appear constantly on the screen, would we?
Consequently, an effective and well designed Website, especially a TV Network one, will work by providing a slick, clean, well-structured Website combined with overall user simplicity; this will draw customers further into the site without overloading or confusing them.
A referring theme in my blogs is that: to being daring and different and not follow the norm reaps its benefits. However, it seems many are not on this path.
And, once again, I believe it’s crazy that HBO has not followed these strategies.
The HBO Website’s effectiveness and appeal, and by extension that of the HBO brand suffers from:
- the separate and non-localized websites,
- the scroll down menu that is so archaic in look
- the lack of engaging content, be it on their Website or their UK distributor SKY
and finally difficulty of finding further information.
I seriously hope that HBO wakes up to and faces these issues, asap, because they are one of the best TV show producers out there and I know they could do better.
If you enjoyed this post do feel free to read and further comment about the topic in the links given and tweet me @Akeengancu