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Photoshop Support posted an interesting article this week highlighting how Adobe CS4 software, and predominantly Flash, were effectively used to help rapidly design and deploy the new Fast & Furious movie Web site.

Record Breaking

What’s most interesting about this particular movie Web site is that it received unprecedented, record-breaking traffic. So much so in fact that the entire Web promotion is being applauded as a major contributor to the fact that Fast & Furious went straight to the top of the box office last week with an opening weekend of $72.5 million. Just to put that in perspective, that’s the highest grossing movie of 2009 so far. Furthermore, it surpasses the record for best opening weekend for a Universal Pictures movie, previously held by the $72.1 million grossing Jurassic Park 2: The Lost World, way back in 1997.

The role of the entire Web promotion is made even more impressive by the fact that the entire site was developed and delivered extremely quickly:

“Our goal on Fast & Furious was to develop the most compelling creative content and Adobe Creative Suite 4 delivered way beyond my expectations, while doing it in half the development time.”

JP Richards, Digital Marketing VP, Universal Pictures

Reasons for Success

So what were some of the contributing factors why the Fast & Furious Web site was a success, and in particular, why is Flash being hailed as the ultimate winner?

Firstly, the people behind the Web site knew their audience. This is always the single most important aspect of any Web or Flash design. Know your audience and target what they want and what they need. Not necessarily who you are or what you do, but moreso, what you can do for your audience.

Visionaire Group, the design agency behind the Fast & Furious Web site, are no strangers to movie site development. Previous movies they have worked on include The Watchmen, The Spirit, and Transporter 3. What they did with the Fast & Furious Web promotion was throw absolutely everything they could at their target demographic. They knew that their audience was predominantly male. They knew that the largest part of their audience were aged 16 - 30, and they knew that their audience were heavy users of social networking.

If you take a look at the Fast & Furious Web site, you will see that all bases were covered and no stones were left unturned. The designers built the site around their audience.

• Facebook app.
• MySpace themes.
• Downloadable Adobe Air desktop widget.
• Downloadable wallpapers.
• iPhone tailored Web site.
• AIM buddy icons.
• WinAmp Skin.

The Power of Flash

Meanwhile, Flash was the only ever choice to deliver this high octane online digital experience. Only through Flash can you rapidly design, develop and deploy a game (Desert Run Racing Game), a three dimensional navigation menu, an image gallery, an audio player, and a way to integrate video and motion graphics. Flash was the perfect vehicle (pun completely intended) to promote this kind of movie to ensure it reached out to the intended demographic and audience.

“Saved 25% of the Web site development time using the 3-D transformation capabilities in Adobe Flash CS4 Professional. Instead of coding, developers used the transform and rotation tools to animate 3-D objects on the timeline, which helped speed the understanding of how the navigation was being structured.”

The entire branding and purpose of the Fast & Furious Web site is that it is an immersive experience much more than just a visit to a Web site. It’s a constant reminder and engagement through widgets and gadgets and almost information overload via technology.

Other facets of the Fast & Furious Web site that were successful reasons for its success were:

• Free iTunes audio track upon purchase of movie tickets
• Ability to purchase exclusive, discounted DVDs
• Share This With a Friend feature

The Digital Evolution Continues…

As Web technology evolves, we are able to design and develop much more efficiently. We are able to communicate across multiple platforms and speak directly with our customers. And we are able to take advantage of faster internet connections in order to deliver high quality digital content. The Web experience is slowly but surely catching up with what we see on gaming consoles. But on the Web it’s free; it’s happening in a Web browser, and it’s happening because of Flash. So if you can do all of that relatively quickly and affordably and help contribute to the success of a $72.5 million movie, you start to understand how powerful a tool Flash has truly become.