A killer campaign that was almost just another boring form

Forms can be boring. On paper we spend time carefully filling out tiny boxes hoping that the person (or machine) that’s receiving them can interpret our handwriting. Online we hope that our browser can remember enough of our personal information to get us at least half way there. We can’t get away from them but that doesn’t mean they have to feel like a chore.

Take this campaign for example. Its run by a bank so you would expect something fairly old fashioned with lots of fields and painful validation. Not the case.

At its core it’s your standard competition entry mechanic:

Tell us about your goal in 50 words or less.

Boring.

But what it does with your words is actually pretty interesting. It analyses your input as you type, checking for key words that it can match against its list. Using these key words the site then draws an overly simplified, but kind of cute cartoon of you achieving your goal.

It uses HTML5 canvas elements and pre caches all of the imagery and animations so the experience is nice and quick, instant even. But what’s really impressive here is the number of words it picks up on. You might expect a small list of trigger words, perhaps just enough to make a user think “huh, that’s an interesting touch”. But the creators of this campaign have gone one step further. The list is long, and it incorporates hundreds of synonyms for each trigger word as well. A considerable amount of effort has also been put in to the art work. You’ll find that there’s a visual representation for just about any every day noun and verb you can think of. It even identifies swear words!

These increasingly rediculous goals demonstrate just how extensive the list really is:

 “Start a business and make lots of money”

 “Sit on the beach and read books all day” 

“Move to Mexico and become a bodybuilder” - Not your average goal

“Bungee jumping in Antarctica with my grandmother” - How far can we push it?

“Get plastic surgery in Thailand” - Too far!

Its fun. Its easy. Its instant. And you even start to forget that you are filling out a form.

If you looked at my visit in Google Analytics you’d likely see a session time of 25 minutes plus. On top of that I also shared my experience with friends, colleagues, and now you. This is the kind of interaction that online marketers dream of and I’m sure the team behind this one is celebrating their success as we speak.

So next time you need to build a form, think outside the text box and make it a memorable one.