As the 2006 competition draws to a close, I
look back on the outstanding entry field in
awe. Simply put, I am blown away at the level
of work that is out there and how designers
and developers continue to reinvent new ways
to use technology to achieve their marketing
and communication goals. As a tribute, we conducted
interviews to share more information about the
winning individual or firm responsible for creating
the best of category entries in the 2006 competition.
SOAP
CREATIVE WINNERS INTERVIEW
Q. Give us a background of your company.
Soap Creative came screaming and kicking into
the world back in 2002. Since then it’s
grown from 2 guys in a bedroom to a core unit
of 16 special individuals, each possessing their
own unique superpowers, collectively known as
‘The Soaperheroes’.
We classify ourselves as an online agency.
We do all kinds interactive stuff, from pure
strategy, banners, desktop applications, games,
through to fully integrated campaign sites with
competition mechanisms.
Q. What is your approach to developing
interactive media solutions?
Our approach is about ideas. Without ‘the
idea’ it doesn’t matter how cool
you make something look. We start by getting
ideas down on paper. These emerge from team
brainstorms, sketches, research and some office
email tennis.
When the idea repository is full, we cull out
the ones that won’t fly and select the
best two or three to present to the client along
with budgets, timeline and deliverables.
Once an idea is signed off there’s usually
an initial scope period where the idea is fleshed
out completely. Then designers and developers
work in tandem to build the chassis and the
engine, bouncing ideas off each other and the
rest of the crew through the development phase.
Q. What was the creative inspiration
for your winning project?
The creative inspiration was partly the Mambo
brand itself. We all grew up with Mambo and
it has this real persona of a cheeky aussie
larrikin. Being that way inclined ourselves,
we felt a genuine affection for the project.
Since Mambo has such strong cultural relevance
to Australia it was also important we made the
site feel Australian. The use of Aussie icons
for navigation devices, like the Hills Hoist
for the clothing section, was a sweet way to
get inspired by our national pride.
Q. What technologies were involved
with making the project?
The site is 95% flash aside from the odd HTML
page here and there. There’s also some
XML and SQL action going on in the back-end
to allow the guys at Mambo to update the news,
competitions and clothing sections of the site.
An EDM system manages subscribers and email
correspondence.
Design wise we took loads of digital photos
around some of the more iconic areas of Sydney
– Bondi and the inner west. There was
a lot of manual treatment in photoshop to bring
them all together.
Q. What were the biggest challenges
to making the project and how did you overcome
them?
One challenge in terms of design was just staying
loose. You can start trying too hard to make
everything perfect and then it just looks contrived.
One of the things we discussed early in the
job was that the site needed to look like it
just happened...like some sort of happy accident.
The design was generally pretty easy because
we'd nutted the whole site out fairly well on
paper before we even touched photoshop or flash.
When we did work our way into a vaccum it was
overcome by hitting the streets armed with digi
cameras and snapping inspiration in the forms
of textures, people, objects and buildings.
Q. Did the project achieve its goals?
Yeah we think so. It got loads of good PR for
Mambo with numerous awards and it’s been
published in a few magazines and a book on Australian
culture.
The business goals were to increase the email
database and to increase site visitors to 50,000
unique visitors a month – which it’s
achieved. The guys at Mambo are also really
proud of their online presence now.
Q. Where do you / your team turn for
creative inspiration?
Many an idea is discussed in our infamous Friday
afternoon BBQs. http://www.soap.com.au/bbq
We also have an internal ideas blog where we
post up any random ideas we come up with.
Q. What trends do you see in interactive
media production today?
Flash sites are going crazy and we’re
loving the full screen sites. It’s nice
to see some of the big corporates embracing
flash and dipping their toes in the water.
Q. What are some of your favorite websites?
Tools
http://www.flickr.com/
http://thesaurus.com/
http://del.icio.us/
http://www.colorblender.com/ |
Design
http://www.leoburnett.ca/
http://www.bannerblog.com.au
http://www.adverblog.com |
Weird:
http://www.boingboing.net
http://www.b3ta.com
Fun:
http://www.miniclip.com |
Q. What projects are you working on
now?
Currently redesigning the 3 Mobile Australian
site.
Just finished X-Planet for 20th Century Fox,
a flash portal integrating google maps for X-Men
fans.
http://www.xplanet.net/
Also just finished a naughty pinball game for
upcoming movie Beer League. (Note we didn’t
do the site – heh!)
http://www.beerleaguethemovie.com/games/
