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Wallace & Gromit Engage Fans Between Flicks

CAMPAIGN INSIGHT: The success of Wallace & Gromit, a clever, cheeky British stop-frame animation film duo, helped bring claymation comedy back on the scene and jump-started a career for its talented creator, Nick Park.

"Curse of the Were-Rabbit," -- the first W&G feature film, sometimes billed as the first 'vegetarian horror movie' -- has prominent placement throughout the site. Users also have plenty of options for checking out news or watching clips of other films and projects in the Aardman oeuvre, like the Oscar-winning short, "The Wrong Trousers."

Notable components of the new site include a Community section that includes fan forums, a downloadable kids' activity pack and a kit to help fans create their own W&G fan sites. Wallaceandgromit.com is also the place for fans to find out what Aardman projects are coming up, including featured events like a recent U.K. screening of "Were-Rabbit" at London's Bristol Zoo.

As for budding claymation artists, the W&G site offers a chance for them to strut their stuff -- a Creation of the Month competition, where they can model their own W&G interpretations and enter videos and photos of the clay creations for a shot at a Nick Park autograph and a spot on the site to show off their work.

To help build a lasting relationship between the Aardman brand and younger fans, there's also a link to crackingdevices.com, which provides classroom and student resources that encourage creativity and innovation among grade school-aged children.
-- Jodi Harris, managing editor, iMedia Connection

PANEL REVIEWS:
I love Wallace and Gromit. They always make me laugh and I was looking forward to spending some more time learning about them.

The overall look and feel is homey, with a retro-TV as the video viewer, a warm background and a nice texture that mirrors the handmade feeling of "Wallace & Gromit." Other characters from the different films are scattered across the page as well.

The greatest part of the site is the community features. "Wallace & Gromit" has inspired a whole new generation of stop-frame animators and creators, and they get to create characters and upload them to share; people can rate and comment and talk about "Wallace & Gromit." A few members have even made short animations. In the community, there is a forum where people are talking about anything W&G related, from what type of modeling clay to use to how to bake a W&G cake. There is also a link to another site that has ideas for activities for schools, and a link out to a "Wallace & Gromit" shop.

As I spent more time with the site, you come to realize the challenge the designers had addressing multiple target audiences. You have young kids coming here, as well as long time fans of "Wallace & Gromit" and creator Nick Park. The need to have it fun and exciting as well as information rich has been balanced well, but may have added to a bit of the clutter on the home page. I would have loved to have seen some of the longer written content targeted to the younger audience as well.

I'm not quite convinced of the need to log-in or register from the homepage, so the big log-in on the homepage seems a bit of a waste of real estate. I know that you need to register to post your creations and take part in the forums, but they could have saved that until the visitor wanted to join in that activity.

My one gripe is with the user experience. I get bounced all over the place. In the W&G Films section, if I am exploring a film and click on downloads it bounces me into Downloads; if I am looking at the "Characters" section and choose a character, it bounces me back into W&G Films; if I choose to watch a trailer, it sends me to "Watch Online" and out of that movie content. The content for Community HQ, Your Creations and Forum seems to very cross-linked and could have been very easily condensed into one section.

Overall, it's a fun site with a lot of content that may have benefited from a little more time thinking about the user experience, how to target different audiences and a little QA.
-- Kalie Kimball-Malone, VP, creative director, Worktank

Sometimes you want to commend a site for its excellent use of video, intuitive navigation, boatloads of content and fun use of subject. Other times, simply letting you know that a site was able to capture my attention for more than hour, during which I watched as much "Wallace & Gromit" as is legally allowed without paying a tariff or developing an English accent.

This is a great site for old fans and new fans alike. It puts the content front and center and is as easy to scarf down as a plate of Wallace's cheese. I only wish the video was capable of fullscreen viewing.
-- Bradley Werner, director of marketing, The Fifth Network