Great commercials finally find a home with Firebrand

“What is this?” I asked as my wife and I began to settle in for the night. While channel-surfing near the midnight hour, I had encountered a rather interesting program on the ION network. It was commercials. It was all commercials, streaming, all the time. Funny enough, with no commercial interruptions. Because, as I said, it was all commercials. It was Firebrand.

Unlike previous attempts such as Funniest Commercials of the Year, hosted by Kevin Nealon on TBS, this collection of commercials actually captured my attention. Instead of poorly contrived banter showcasing mundane examples of “brand-washing”, it was a queued up database of the best TV advertising that we actually enjoy watching. This is a similar, but less interactive format that coincides with Firebrand.com.

According to the press release, which is always dated as today, the debut on ION was the previous evening I had watched. However, I may be a bit off the mark with this Web site analysis and review, since the date printed further down the release is November 26, 2007. This appears to be the date the Web site launched, which differs from the date the program launched on ION. If someone could provide clarification in the comments, I would appreciate it.

The Consumerist posted a brief synopsis on December 21, 2007, which has elicited a mixed bag of reactions, from visceral disdain to curious interest. Whether or not this venture will sustain interest by continually posting interesting commercials, past and present, has yet to be determined. If ridiculous dances, Miss America flubs, and obsessed Britney fans on YouTube can grab our attention, there is certainly room for Firebrand.

Regardless of the appeal, I want to take a serious look at Firebrand.com, which is the counterpart to the TV program. Since Flash is the medium of choice for video, it is not surprising that the entire Web site is built with it. The usefulness of Flash is always a hot-button topic, but most of the issues with the technology are due in part to concerns with usability and accessibility. This is also the case with Firebrand.com, which could benefit from several adjustments in the information architecture.

Technical glitches

Surprisingly, the site was solid, with only two technical glitches, one of which might be OS related. I experienced a memory leak when trying to leave the “Live” stream of commercials. If I click a branded or categorized commercial for play, it would hang, and I would have to use the task manager to quit the browser. Admittedly, this did not happen at work, and it is an issue that has plagued me in Firefox and IE on other sites as well. You can see from the screenshot that the memory hovered around 150-180,000 K.

The other issue was with full screen mode. In order to return to minimized screen, the directions state that you need to press the escape key. Doing so only returned the screen partially to the original state. I finally discovered that I had to also click the video for this to work properly. This might not be technically relevant, but it is an issue irregardless.

Usability Enhancements

One of the first improvements that I would make with Firebrand.com is to better utilize the available space. Even though the videos, text, and components were easy to see, the live stream strip was cut off at the fold. Clicking the navigation on the left or right of the video would also push other components outside of the viewing pane. Although not broken, that was the illusion it gave. Overall, the design could benefit from some color, possibly the ability to skin the interface.

A few of the usability issues are minor, but do add up to an average user experience. The first is that you never know the current rating of a video. It could simply be that most videos have not been rated, but that should be better communicated. Text indicating the number of reviews would be a simple, unobtrusive solution.

When I add to my favorites, unless the favorites tab is open, I get no confirmation. In the same sub-navigation, two buttons are always inactive — a permalink, and a shopping cart. Even after registering I could not click them. These should not even appear on the interface. If the goal is to communicate functionality soon to arrive, then I would suggest placing a link in the footer, and calling it “Upcoming Features”.

The scrolling mechanisms are very poorly designed. Up/down arrows should be clearly indicated, as well as the scrollbar. As much as developers and designers understand the paradigm, drag/drop is not a well-received interaction in this instance. This goes back to a better use of space, and it could drastically improve how users respond to the interactivity.

The final suggestion is to ditch the Firebrand Live concept on the Web site. The CJs (Commercial Jocks) would occasionally reference Firebrand.com, as if you were watching TV, which was confusing. I understand that the stream of commercials is dynamic, but entering mid-stream, and then being subjected to instructions on how to use the Web site is unnecessary interruption. The CJs should stick to interesting tidbits about the commercials themselves.

The highlights are here

Two components that were very well done was the categorization of commercials and the search functionality. The integration into the interface was seamless, and the division into “Brands”, “Spots”, “Playlists”, and “Favorites” was appropriate. My only caveat would be that I would move Spots to the top of the list, and call it “Videos” instead. The term Spots is marketing-speak, and has zero emotional appeal for the general audience. The navigation is otherwise intuitive, and the taxonomy for the categorization needs no improvement. It is well placed, and requires little thinking to understand.

The search was incredibly accurate in my experience. This is a big plus, since most full Flash Web sites have very poor search capabilities. I searched for commercial titles, director names, agency names, and most importantly by keyword, and these all yielded the proper results. Some searches for older spots were less successful, but as the number of available classic commercials grows in size, this will likely change as well. This will also be a feature that keeps users coming back for more.

There were no restrictions on leaving the live stream, which was a welcoming feature, and the real commercials are intertwined without hindrance. eBay appears to be a major player, and some product spots were followed up with a CJ touting the goods on eBay.com. These are short-lived though, and I was happy with the decision not to lock a user into advertisements. This has long been a complaint with videos that force you to endure a commercial before getting the goods.

Providing the agency and director information is significant, since it prompts users to search for more spots by a specific director, or coming out of the same agency. Occasional sidebars open up, revealing fast facts about the commercial or brand, but these are less enticing and have a tendency to distract. If they were more information laden, and led off to Wikipedia or a similar site, then a user might be more likely to read them.

The real surprise was the unobtrusive component housing the offers and contests. Although savvy users will skip this entirely, it demonstrates a willingness to recognize people want the videos, not a constant barrage of brands and advertisements. However, the contests are still a bonus, and from the looks of a few, an effort is being made to provide enticing offers. What might drive some serious traffic, is to start Firebrand.com giveaways and contests. Watch commercials, answer trivia, and win prizes.

New features for the future

A few features that I would like to see Firebrand.com introduce are commonly found on other video sites. The business model here is fairly unique, and this additional functionality would solidify the Web site’s position in a quickly growing space. The first two are comments and tagging. Even though I take issue with unmoderated communities, they are here to stay, and in order to be successful, you had better be ready to embrace the madness. The tagging would help to strengthen the search as the site gets larger, and it will help to determine how much users are willing to embrace the community aspects, if at all.

The final feature I would suggest is the ability to create custom streams from my favorites. I want to be able to send out a permalink, and if people visit, they get My Firebrand. This undertaking could be a technical nightmare, but it would position Firebrand.com as a Web site that understands the current trends, and is not caught up in the old age of advertising. I enjoy watching these commercials, and it can be a fun diversion, but this alone will not sustain the company. This Alexa graph points to a disappointing trend, and I hope they can pull up the traffic, and pull in the users they need to keep Firebrand.com going.

• Posted by Brian
• January 11th, 2008