Website Of The Week – WPP

http://www.wpp.com

Certainly the most exciting thing about the Website of the ‘largest communications services company in the world’ is the rubber band/tea-bag/licorice allsort/paperclip man who jumps around to greet you on the site’s homepage. From this page in, however, the whole things slips slowly downhill. From a company that claims to be the biggest of its kind in the world you would expect a lot more content, a lot more information and a lot more purpose. A criticism which can be levelled at Websites with disappointing frequency is that they actually provide very little service above and beyond that which often already existed in another medium (in this case WPP press releases, promotional literature and financial results).

All that WPP seem to be offering here is some brief information about the company itself (their pitch), an archive of their press releases (not updated since October), and some ‘Marketing Insights’ on the industry itself (the only real substance here). The Insights feature a number of essays and research studies on topics such as marketing, building brands, research, managing and the work of advertising. There is also an extensive study on the current market conditions in India. These two Marketing Insights sections are pretty much the extent of substance on the site. The other main offering, a live media newsfeed from Reuters, is currently not running.

The visuals of the WPP Website though, are a different matter. A heavily conceptualised monochrome affair, the site’s art work is intriguing if not a little enigmatic. Backdrops of noughts and crosses written in condensation, strange blurs and subliminal faces confirm that WPP seem to have plumped for an exercise in form over content. However, the site’s masterstroke is a Manic Miner/Frogger-type game in which you have to guide your character around town collecting the necessary ‘ingredients’ for a successful PR presentation. Mind you don’t get knocked down now.