Melbourne Design Awards nomination for Have a Holiday On Us
aug. 15 2011
Understanding that our clients and friends have screensavers of beautiful tropical paradises on their computers at work. Why? Because that's where they'd rather be.
Our design challenge was to come up with a simple, fun site layout and immersive experience online that allowed us to achieve this.
Created to showcase August's technical prowess, our execution was to double as a client communication and leave lasting impressions. (A reasonable challenge we thought - but then again, we love a good challenge!).
The solution came from marrying an understanding of August’s clients, with a creative use of new technology. 'Have A Holiday On Us' was born. Our time poor clients and friends were treated to a virtual holiday where they were fully immersed in the experience – without even having to leave their desks.
An innovative Australian first was the application of digital facial recognition (via webcam) being used on moving footage to control the users' viewpoints. This way they can explore the holiday scene of their choosing in a way never seen before.
With thousands of visits and over 600 holidays taken so far and counting (and yes, “Tropical Paradise” is most popular!), we wanted to make our mark as innovators, but more importantly create an emotional connection that puts smiles on faces and has so far seen 'Have A Holiday On Us' featured on social media and websites from Sydney to South Korea.
Small touches like the postcards you can send to friends of your holiday and share via Twitter and Facebook, the 'Lost & Found Department' (where users can submit items they 'lose' on holiday and have them mailed to them in the post... yes really... sunglasses, camera's you name it!) and even a complimentary August Airlines website completed the campaign picture.
We hope you enjoy having a Holiday On Us. If you do, it'd be awesome if you voted for us - as we just got nominated for the 2011 Melbourne Design Awards.
