Microsite.com

I would like to apologize to Eric and Allyson, the spokespersons for the Budget Rental Car “Flip for Budget” contest, featured on the flipforbudget.com Microsite.

I have to admit I completely missed your tongue-in-cheek charm and the Microsite's kitschy design for what it really is.

Not that there weren’t obvious signs. Really bad clip art and phrases like “Wow! What a contest!” and “Thank you. You are the best!!!”? (That’s three exclamation points, people!.)

Now in hindsight, as I go back through the site, Eric and Allyson, I love it! Wow! It’s the best!

For folks unfamiliar with the Microsite, the “Flip for Budget” contest solicited short videos that demonstrate how the average Budget car renter can live the budget-savvy lifestyle while on a vacation or road trip. The person who produced the video Eric and Allyson judged most original, creative, well organized, and imaginative would win $25,000. Smaller prizes included a Flip camera – hence the seemingly incongruous title for the contest.

The Microsite ingeniously looks like it was designed, written, and built on a shoestring budget. Bravo!

I love the tawdry template design, which looks like it came directly from Microsoft’s Front Page. And the clip art, sprinkled randomly throughout the site, just exudes 1989.

And the writing. Oh, the writing. Brilliant!!! It reads like a 19 year old’s thank-you note for a wedding gift. “Thank you so much for putting your time, effort, creative juices, and video-making skills (not to mention reluctant friends and family members) into some truly fabulous videos.” That’s great stuff. And Eric and Allyson make it seem so genuine.

The challenge for me, however, is the viewer comments. Clearly many are faked. Right? Or did almost everyone decide to write in the exact same style and tempo. The phrase “fun stuff” is used perhaps 100 times. Then there’s Margie, Susan, and Diana who wrote in sequence, “Great.” “Great… I love it.” And “Great. Very well done.” Really? Three women in a row had pretty much the exact same thought? I think that’s called seeding. But I digress.

I love the site. It’s great. Really great. I just love it. Very well done.

The tally: 64 videos were uploaded. A couple hundred comments were posted. And the whole site cost 14 bucks. Now that’s how to deliver a positive ROI on a budget!!!!!!! Oh, and the $25,000 prize money. Hmm. Let me rethink this.