Read Coke

Coke is revamping their Website last redesigned in 2005. It spells, I hope, a turn towards creating Websites that are less corporate and just plain dull. I'm hoping non-profit organizations, B Corps, and companies with sustainable products take a cue from the big guy.

So what's Coke doing?  Strategically the change rests on a more "consumer-focused philosophy" and to underline the intent to re-present the corporate Web site as an online magazine, it will, as far as I can tell, look and function like a customized version of the Huffington Post.  Called Coca-Cola Journey it will feature, according to Stuart Elliott of the New York Times "entertainment, the environment, health and sports, including longer pieces given prominence in the same way that magazines play up cover pieces. Interviews, opinion columns, video and audio clips, photo galleries and blogs also will be featured."

You don't have to like Coke to learn from them and implement a citizen-focused philosophy.  When I talk to organizations about private labeling our site and content, voices of sustainability video library, which we can do for sustainability-related brands as the Huffington Post* is doing, but not necessarily for Coke, I discover the idea of a Website as an educational tool that moves beyond a single issue, a single organization, a single producer is still too new, too outside the box. 

Websites will change and move more towards storytelling, rather than advertising and be more user centric in design and use.  Video will win out over text or at least come into balance, half and half.

So, how old is your site design?  Do you use a content management system for self manage? Who curates the content? Is it still all about you?

Ruth Ann Barrett, Digital Savvy, November 12, 2012, Portland, Oregon.
 
* The company, part of AOL, has been talking to ad agencies and marketers about helping them build websites for brands and subsequently aiding in content creation, curation and distribution to consumers.