Best Buy’s Summer Hub
June 19th, 2008 by Jeff LanctotTags: Best Buy, David Deal, Facebook, Summer Hub
I can’t do better than David Deal’s rundown of Best Buy’s new Summer Hub (as David notes in his post, Best Buy is a client of AA|RF). Three things I really like about Best Buy’s effort:
1) The primary focus is how technology can make your summer better, not on the features of the technology itself. You’ll find things like tips on showing backyard movies, podcasts on learning a new language, and ideas for entertaining kids in the car.
2) They make the “Blue Shirts,” Best Buy’s in-store sales people, a part of the web experience. It’s a nice consistent brand experience from web to store. On the Summer Hub, the Blue Shirts offer suggestions on how to use gadgets and technology throughout the site, but are never screaming “buy now.” It works.
3) Instead of asking users to come back to Best Buy to keep a digital journal of their summer travels, they link to a Facebook app that allows users to record and share their adventures. It’s a great app, and having it live on FB is clearly much better than trying to put a fence around the Summer Hub. 
The Hub is being supported by a media campaign that is running across a variety of travel, video and technology sites.
I’d love your feedback on the Summer Hub, as well as other recent marketing efforts that have caught your attention.
2 Responses to “Best Buy’s Summer Hub”
It’s a great strategy since in a world where the consumer can be overwhelmed with the amount of technology out there, they often could ask themselves “What would I really need that for?”. This site does an excellent job of answering that question. For instance, I would never really think of getting a digital projector, however the prospect of having movies in my backyard on a nice summer night is great and actually somewhat practical.
The FB app is a nice touch, definitely relevant since it allows you to interact with your friends. Would be nice to have a feature where you could send out requests for advice on what to do in a particular city. Not being able to add more than 1 destination on a given day is a little weak.
This would be a great mobile/iPhone application and some integration with major review sites like Yelp could also be handy. I think having a recommendation angle from sources like Yelp and your friends would be a big plus. Overall the site is definitely solid and provides a unique and engaging brand experience…great stuff!
I guess that bug with adding more than 1 destination on a given day was fixed, seems to be working fine for me (it was in the reviews). Overall it’s a really great user experience, great UI, fast and smooth transitions, what more could you ask for?