Commercial Websites: Ask Jeeves, Inc. "Branded Animations"
 


Ask Jeeves.com frontpage, including Branded Animation advertisement for the movie Castaway
During the release of the movie Castaway in theaters, the marketing agency tasked with promoting the film approached several prominent websites, including Ask Jeeves. After a contract was worked out, the Design department was given the assignment to integrate the theme and feel of the movie with the search engine's front page. The goal was to drive people to the Cast Away promotional website and to encourage them to purchase the home movie.

My part on this project was to merge the illustrations of Marcos Sorenson, who illustrates the character, with shots of the DVD & videocassettes and elements of the film. In talking with the film's marketing agency, it was unanimously decided that the volleyball, which Tom Hanks' character adopts as his companion, was the most striking and visually captivating icon to use. Marcos would create a background that would help integrate the site and the advertisement with an illustration of the deserted island, and borders around the normal Ask Jeeves promotion boxes which brought to mind the raft that Tom Hanks' character built to escape the island.
View each of the Branded Animation projects in full; click the thumbnail images for each campaign below:

E.T. 20th Anniversary *
 Microsoft Windows XP *
 Nissan Altima "Cure for the Common Car" *
Travelocity 30 cruises
for 30 million members *
 Cingular Wireless 2001 stocking stuffer *
 Pep Boys Brand awareness*
McDonald's New Breakfast Menu *
 AT&T MLife campaign *
 Castaway Movie publicity campaign*
* These advertisements all run for one week, then are taken down, per contract. Shown here are the final pages just as they were displayed live on the front page of Ask Jeeves. These are demonstration pages only, and are nonfunctional in terms of answering questions.
I set out designing the page, incorporating elements from the movie with the Jeeves character on a background simulating the deserted island in the film. I was restricted to standard HTML, without the ability to use Macromedia Flash, increasing the challenge to complete the project. The volleyball was made to bounce across the screen through DHTML layers and a javascript-controlled timeline.
Almost immediately, other offers for sales of this new advertising medium came through the sales department at Ask Jeeves. More and more companies were interested in creating eye-grabbing ads that weren't restricted to tower and banner sizes, which many people automatically ignore as a blind spot.

 After more of these Branded Animation advertisements, stricter guidelines were put in place separating the normal B.A. product with a "Plus" product, which had the ability to change part of the background to integrate with the advertisement. We created specs for the size of the landing area, travel paths, and brand guidelines determining it was not appropriate for the Jeeves character to interact with any advertisement, which would dilute the respectability & trust returning users have with the company and its "mascot" character.
©2004: All rights reserved by the artist, Christopher T. Merkel, except where otherwise noted.
Any reproduction or distribution of the artwork presented here without the prior consent of the artist is strictly prohibited.
All brand names mentioned here remain the property of those companies. Artist claims no rights to any registered trademarks or service marks.