Love, Peace - and Community
With the relaunch of its website, the Street Parade Association is focusing on the event's original core content
With the relaunch of its website, the Street Parade association is focusing on the event's original core contentBy Alessandro Monachesi Zurich's biggest techno event has revamped its web presence: For the tenth edition of the Street Parade in August, the site will be reinforced by a community section. Despite the expected mass influx, the Street Parade association is relying on a soft marketing of the website.
Every year in midsummer, Zurich, which has a reputation for being a prudish Zwinglistadt, is transformed into a witches' cauldron. Hundreds of thousands will once again dance half-naked in the city center on August 11, while the Love Mobiles plow through the crowds. The Street Parade has long since become the event of summertime Zurich. Last year the organizers counted 750000 ravers, this year it will be no less.
Such a major event requires an adequate website, on the one hand to inform the masses, but also to get them in the mood for the event. With the redesign of streetparade.ch, the Zurich web agency Netvertising has implemented both requirements.
As much as the Street Parade Committee tries to sell the street parade as a political demonstration, the Street Parade is basically only about two things: music and community. These two life-enriching components are then also the foundations of www.streetparade.ch.
The visitor can create a so-called e-card on the site. This gives them access to all the site's community functions. For example, they can create their own sound profile that plays in the background every time they visit the site, design an icon that can be
identified him, create a personal motto from construction kits with a limited vocabulary, which is projected onto screens at the Street Parade, or he can contact other registered users. The only drawback: Mac users with Internet Explorer only have access to a slimmed-down HTML version.
The redesign is a nice stroke of luck for net designers
"For us, the contract to design the Street Parade website is a stroke of luck," rejoices Balz Lendorff, company owner and project manager at Netvertising. "Since the site has no commercial goals, we are very free in its implementation." Netvertising was also able to convince the sponsors to refrain from using too large logos, as they would otherwise lose value anyway.
Without any declared commercial objectives, www.streetparade.ch also largely refrains from collecting user data. Only for the newsletter and for the planned online game is the e-mail address requested. "Give and take between the provider and user of a website must remain in balance, otherwise the site won't work," explains Lendorff.
Dominik Kaiser, who is responsible for the Internet and recordings at the Street Parade association, expects the real rush on the Street Parade site to start at the beginning of August: "Then we will generate up to two million page views per day. The references on event flyers, posters and in booklets that are available in train stations ensure that enough surfers stop by the site. In addition, the media partners, including Viva and NRJ, are also beating the advertising drum.
Many sponsors got cold feet
But even after the mega-event, the site will not simply lie idle as web space junk on the Internet: "After the last Street Parade, about 500 users a day still visited the website throughout the year," Kaiser reports, "mainly in the afternoon during office hours."
Since the website is primarily intended to cover its own costs and nothing more, the Street Parade association refrains from blanket marketing. The usual banner ads at other locations are out of the question. Instead, the association relies on sponsoring individual offers such as the newsletter.
The task of "soft" marketing streetparade.ch has been taken on by online marketer Banner.ch from Küsnacht. Despite a clearly defined target group and the expected huge rush to the site, however, this is unlikely to be a piece of cake: Last fall, several Internet companies were still interested in sponsoring with huge contributions, Kaiser knows to report. "Today, there is hardly any sign of that," Kaiser reports.
Every year in midsummer, Zurich, which has a reputation for being a prudish Zwinglistadt, is transformed into a witches' cauldron. Hundreds of thousands will once again dance half-naked in the city center on August 11, while the Love Mobiles plow through the crowds. The Street Parade has long since become the event of summertime Zurich. Last year the organizers counted 750000 ravers, this year it will be no less.
Such a major event requires an adequate website, on the one hand to inform the masses, but also to get them in the mood for the event. With the redesign of streetparade.ch, the Zurich web agency Netvertising has implemented both requirements.
As much as the Street Parade Committee tries to sell the street parade as a political demonstration, the Street Parade is basically only about two things: music and community. These two life-enriching components are then also the foundations of www.streetparade.ch.
The visitor can create a so-called e-card on the site. This gives them access to all the site's community functions. For example, they can create their own sound profile that plays in the background every time they visit the site, design an icon that can be
identified him, create a personal motto from construction kits with a limited vocabulary, which is projected onto screens at the Street Parade, or he can contact other registered users. The only drawback: Mac users with Internet Explorer only have access to a slimmed-down HTML version.
The redesign is a nice stroke of luck for net designers
"For us, the contract to design the Street Parade website is a stroke of luck," rejoices Balz Lendorff, company owner and project manager at Netvertising. "Since the site has no commercial goals, we are very free in its implementation." Netvertising was also able to convince the sponsors to refrain from using too large logos, as they would otherwise lose value anyway.
Without any declared commercial objectives, www.streetparade.ch also largely refrains from collecting user data. Only for the newsletter and for the planned online game is the e-mail address requested. "Give and take between the provider and user of a website must remain in balance, otherwise the site won't work," explains Lendorff.
Dominik Kaiser, who is responsible for the Internet and recordings at the Street Parade association, expects the real rush on the Street Parade site to start at the beginning of August: "Then we will generate up to two million page views per day. The references on event flyers, posters and in booklets that are available in train stations ensure that enough surfers stop by the site. In addition, the media partners, including Viva and NRJ, are also beating the advertising drum.
Many sponsors got cold feet
But even after the mega-event, the site will not simply lie idle as web space junk on the Internet: "After the last Street Parade, about 500 users a day still visited the website throughout the year," Kaiser reports, "mainly in the afternoon during office hours."
Since the website is primarily intended to cover its own costs and nothing more, the Street Parade association refrains from blanket marketing. The usual banner ads at other locations are out of the question. Instead, the association relies on sponsoring individual offers such as the newsletter.
The task of "soft" marketing streetparade.ch has been taken on by online marketer Banner.ch from Küsnacht. Despite a clearly defined target group and the expected huge rush to the site, however, this is unlikely to be a piece of cake: Last fall, several Internet companies were still interested in sponsoring with huge contributions, Kaiser knows to report. "Today, there is hardly any sign of that," Kaiser reports.
