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uk sky - Pop Idol on ITV1 |
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 Pop Idol illustrates how easily the core programming of the UK's main commercial broadcaster, ITV, can lend itself to interactivity.
Despite supporting the Pop Idol programme with a simple and fast-loading application that enables viewers to gossip around the show and participate in the vote on Saturday nights, ITV’s execution of the application does seem to lack something in terms of its creativity and design.
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By coming to the market later than other channels, ITV have a great opportunity to differentiate themselves and showcase some great applications, however this Pop Idol application is a little disappointing.
This starts from the very entry point. The rectangular Press Red for Pop Idol ‘call-to-action’ lacks branding (in stark contrast to the branded and rounded call to action of the BBC's Fame Academy interactive icon) and clearly does little to combat the growing ‘Red Button Fatigue’ that is has been noted by many in the industry.
The application performs excellently, despite the MPEG background being a little too ‘busy’ for my own personal liking.
Looking at navigation, the colour coded menu options at the bottom of the screen should be much bolder so that viewers can clearly see that the colour keys are active and can assist viewers in navigating around the application.
However, the most disappointing feature of the Pop Idol application is the Nestle sponsored ‘ChocIdols’ section. This area invites the viewer to ‘Press (Yellow) now to join the search for the nation’s ‘ChocIdols’, taking them to a separate area where they can vote at 25 pence for their favourite ‘ChocIdol’ characters e.g. ‘Nestle Double Cream’, ‘Mint Aero’, ‘Kit Kat Chunky’ etc. and enter a draw for Pop Idol tour tickets.
Disregarding the value of the prize draw, it is disappointing to see that ITV haven’t really had the time to think creatively about how to integrate their sponsor into the application.
Its pretty clear that instead, ITV have chosen to reuse the same creative concept with Nestle that they provided to Procter & Gamble earlier this year as part of the Brit Awards.
The Brit Awards application also took viewers off to a separate area which allowed them to browse ‘Pringle Pop Stars’ characters and ITV's has not moved forward significantly.
Clearly, Nestle products are not the same as P&G’s, but to use virtually the same creative idea for Nestle is surely a disservice to both companies?
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