How To Tell The Story Of Our Time
At LaunchSquad, we love seeing companies communicate their vision in an engaging and innovative way. Recently our friends over at Sequence helped Chevron do just this with the redesign of their corporate website – Chevron.com. Last week I headed over to the Sequence offices on Potrero Hill and chatted with them about this project.
Last month Chevron launched a massive marketing campaign around the theme of “Human Energy.” The message of the campaign essentially boils down to “Yes, we are an energy company. But we are also human beings who live on this planet with everybody else and we all need energy to live so we’re just trying to provide in the best way we can.” There were several components to the campaign, including a series of emotionally charged television ad spots, and Sequence handled the redesign of the corporate website.
This website is a great example of how to put your message front and center. The homepage is relatively simple and very clean, showcasing the slogan “The Power of Human Energy – Finding Newer, Cleaner Way to Power the World,” with a few provocative images – a mother holding a baby, an old man walking a bicycle, a reporter covering a protest. The message accompanying these images reads: “It’s the story of our time. More than 6 billion people on the planet. We all need energy to live.” The user is then prompted into the site by clicking on phrases like “Where Will It Come From?”
The idea behind the campaign is honesty and humanity, and Sequence’s design captures this with the straightforward presentation and the “speak when spoken to” approach to users’ interaction with the site. Using dynamic presentation tools such as AJAX and Flash Sequence created an environment that encourages the user to request information by rewarding them with rich, dynamic content and interaction. Throughout the site, text pops up as the user scrolls over it, giving them information without requiring them to click further into the site.
The site also feels very educational. There is an entire section on all the different sources of energy Chevron is tapping and exploring. They don’t play down the importance of oil, but also describe their efforts with renewable sources like geothermal and solar, and the research they are doing with emerging fuels like hydrogen. For this section Sequence developed a series of “interactive stories” integrating video and other content, such as original illustrations, compiled in Photoshop using Illustrator, Flash and other tools. They created the framework for the stories using XML so that the stories are flexible and dynamic, and can be updated as Chevron’s story changes. The result is a series of vignettes that not only give users information about how various parts of Chevron’s business works, but also conveys the flavor of the company as approachable and eminently human. Often, these sections are paired with a section that highlights the humanitarian or ecological efforts Chevron is making. For example, the “Ultradeepwater Drilling” section has a section on the ocean floor’s flora and fauna. These elements reveal Chevron’s softer side as educator and partner.
Chevron is the sixth largest company in the United States, with a massive global presence. In many ways they function like a small country, deeply involved in financial, political, ecological and humanitarian issues around the world. Telling this kind of story is obviously a challenge, yet this campaign captures it with concision and clarity, allowing Chevron to invite discussion about their company, their industry and all the issues surrounding it – communicating their story with transparency, authenticity and humanity.