Visual Marketing: 99 Proven Ways for Small Businesses to Market with Images and Design

11. Just the Facts, Ma'am: Creating an Interactive Online Quiz Attracts a Target Audience with a Deeper Level of Engagement

Is a “blook” a criminal or an online book? Does a detective need a “Search clause,” or is that something Google would do? Play Web vs. Webb to find out if you can tell if a phrase is from the World Wide Web or something uttered by Jack Webb, the actor who played Sergeant Joe Friday on the old TV show Dragnet. Web vs. Webb is a vintage TV quiz show–style game that may be played online. How does this promote a design firm in New York City?

Creating online games for your firm's website may not sound like a marketing stunt, but when your business does something a little offbeat and completely removed from its core business in the hopes of drumming up attention, it may be just that.

Why It Works

Incorporating the classic design motif from the early days of television, the word game heightens the contrast of the two modes of communication and the two technologies. Web vs. Webb equals television vs. Internet. It gives perspective—what was vs. what is.

An interesting by-product of this project is that the audiences are split along generation lines, as baby boomers readily identify with the “Just the facts, ma'am,” signature lines from Dragnet, while younger generations do not seem to recognize this jargon at all.

Success Metrics

• This site won the American Design Web ...