Review: Visionaire Group/Xtreme Widgets

The Wheel & Featured Campaigns
We have talked some about featuring other campaigns, and also about a wheel. This is a widget for a tv show made by the Visionaire Group- their xtreme widgets division.,

Click on the bottom right and you will see all the widgets for A&E in a snazzy wheel. You turn the wheel using a slider. Is that the only solution for making the wheel turn?

• Would make sense to offer an org the possibility to feature its own other campaign widgets rather than the featured widgets of other orgs...
  

When you click "view this widget' the content in the widget changes to reflect what you have chosen.

NOTE: when you are browsing through the widgets then (and only then) there is an option to learn more about the team behnd the widgets rather than just the showcased product itself. Click on the x in the bottom center.

I think the functionality is great but the branding is a little too nocturnal.

http://thevisionairegroup.com/cleanerwidget/

Review: Spongecell Widgets

Right now these spongecell features are my faves- so far the only widgets with features worth discussing. They dont seem to be grabbable though as they are ads, so please refer to the website
http://spongecell.com/
They have an example on the home page that shows all the features. If you refresh the page you see different examples, or you can go to the gallery http://spongecell.com/promote/website/ad_gallery

There is a tagline that says "Make participation more likely by capturing the excitement you've built."
I don't know how that idea actually manifests in the ad... sounds maybe more like jargon than reality?

Ultimately what I like is the spongecell functionality that is bolted onto these ads.
There are 4 main features- not all features are on every widget so I guess it is a la carte. :

1. Add to Calendar
Like: You can choose which kind of cal you use and opt to have it emailed to you or downloaded directly to calendar.
We only want to offer the latter as it provides a reason to collect emails.
I also like the simple "it's ok to contact me" opt in box in the ical section.
It is only in the ical section though and I wonder why that is.
Why does it offer this functionality for multiple calendar types if ical is such a universal?

2. Send to Friends
Great functionality and obviously a fab way to help get campaign info out and about- to be able to tell friends about it quickly and easily. Again I like their really simple "we won't ever use your email" message.

What you actually receive is an email to a website with more info - not to the widget. We should encourage orgs to make sure any links lead directly to a campaign related landing page!

3. Set a Reminder
Via email- again with "its ok to contact me." Does spongecell keep these emails or does the advertiser? WHo owns the relationship? Spongecell or the client???

Via sms - enter your cell # and again opt in w/ "it's ok to contact me"...

4. Add to Facebook:
Bit of a misnomer. The link takes you to the client's facebook page and you can become a fan. It's not an app or anything, nor is the ad widget added to your facebook.


General things i like"
Compactness of bolt on. And it's neutral enough and functional enough to blend.
The way the menus appear from the buttons.
The i(nfo) buttons, but I do NOT like when the info is redundant as on the facebook page. The i button says the same info as is blatantly written on the center of the page.
I like how the bolt-on buttons' colors are customizable.

Review: A sprout builder powered by gigya

This widget is made in Sprout builder and viralization is powered by Gigya. I grabbed it from here: http://www.ryanblais.com/www.RyanBlais.com/Airblais.com.html

I LIKE:
The buttons on bottom- very clear.
Video functionality is simple and ovious.
About page is short legible to the point.

I HATE:
How music comes on full blast on the slideshow page. Def a no no.
On info page: Font size is huge and colors look lame- very amateurish and don't match deisgn of widget in other areas.