Telling media the Team New Zealand story

The required media kit needed to represent the team’s professionalism and innovative thinking, and deliver multi-media resources that built on the excitement and pride of the Team NZ challenge while engaging media in a myriad of detailed and technical information. While creating a rich website to house all the history, photo and video library, team and boat data would have been the most obvious (and easiest) solution, what Team New Zealand actually needed required a different solution. Firstly, Team NZ wished to present a ‘tangible’ media kit to media gathered at an important arrival function in San Francisco. And secondly, the data needed to be at hand for the world’s journalists whether they were internet-connected or not – a state not always possible on media craft or chase boats when filing stories.

And so we embarked on a website experience, but delivered on a USB stick, with the same attention to great information architecture and user experience. 

The exhilarating opening sequence captured the imagination, heightened the drama and created an immediate emotional connection with the team. This led to a ‘Home Page’ with fly-out navigation bars providing easy access to key content areas. The site is deceptively rich in stories and details, an extensive photo gallery of the boats and team, and a large number of videos. Despite the depth of content, its well considered presentation allows it to remain accessible and engaging for audiences.

The visual look and feel for the site was informed by high-tech yachting graphics, familiar to those who follow the America’s Cup, featuring dynamic 360 degree views and pop up profiles. And of course, black was the colour of choice.

The team loved it and it quickly helped position Team NZ as one of the media’s favourites in San Francisco.