July 2nd, 2010 
Journo I had visions of well produced, unique video content, fresh stories about the team and drivers, perhaps blogs, and areas for fans to interact. What we got was a rehashed version of what they already had.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about, take a look at the ‘new’ Roush Fenway website.
Don’t get me wrong, the site is pretty. It’s much better than what they had before, and it’s nice to see all the links work and actually have content on them. That said, after an article in Sports Business Journal, and what was reported as a $500,000 spend on the site (that includes a relationship with the Barbarian Group, a broadcast studio in the shop, and reassigned team executives) I was expecting something great – something I had never seen before. This I think I’ve seen.
The site was built to serve two purposes – business and competition. On the business side, I think they’ve done a pretty good job – it’s certainly more than anyone else in the sport is doing. The cheesy photos of their business development team notwithstanding, that part of the site has a lot of good information. I would imagine there are locked portions of the site that offer additional helpful information for the team’s corporate partners too. It’s the other half of the equation that disappoints me.
The competition part doesn’t look or work any different than any other team website. They’ve got replayed press releases on the front page, minimal video content, and driver/team profile pages.
In the video department I was expecting well produced, innovative content (check out this QVC style sales video they made for Ricky Stenhouse Jr.). Instead what they’ve got are essentially video pre and post race reports. While they are reasonably well produced, the content is not so innovative. On top of that I wonder about the format. If you’ve got the studio, why not do a weekly interview style show with one driver/multiple drivers (instead of a bunch of spliced together soundbites)? And what’s the deal with that sunset background?
Maybe I’m being too hard, too early – perhaps there is more, better content to come – but I’m pretty disappointed with what I’ve seen. NASCAR teams have neglected the power of their websites for too long (I wrote about that here), and I thought Roush might be the one to change that. I guess not.
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Journo…. it could be worse, much worse, it could be a clone of Turner’s trash-heap they produce for NASCAR.
Oh, and a half mil!!!
Come-on I did mine for free. Not the greatest but hell it’s cheap at half the price.
Maybe I should go into race team website design, yeah that’s the ticket!
Any takers… 100 G’s and it’s yours.
Wow – Seriously, thats all the RFR empire could come up with?? I made it thru 24 seconds of that video – ANNOYING! Not a high dollar sponsor grabber, but mabey they will get someone to donate some cheese……………..
I’m curious Journo, what you think of the videos on Speedfactory.tv? I’m admittedly biased, being a Robby Gordon fan, but these seem to be far beyond any other race-team created video productions.
I don`t see what your problem is with the RoushFenway website.
I think it is pretty neat and a lot better that most other teams.
Maybe you just need something to write about and not fond of Fords and Roush.
Right now, their new site is more sizzle than steak. I’m going to call it a good first step, though. With the right creative team managing their content it could end up being great.
If they truly embrace the notion of social media, we’ll start seeing frequent “insider” updates with unfiltered opinions, stories, etc.
They need dynamic, compelling content to bring me back to their site every day. It’s not quite there yet.
Ok for those ABC Modern Family viewers, in the “cheesy” linked photo of the business development team mentioned above, is that not “Mitchell” (played hysterically by Jesse Tyler Ferguson) w/ the coffee mug sitting on the desk??? Next to Ryan Newman’s sister (seated). I’m guessing if Roush Fenway hired “Mitchell” to mention the team on Nat’l TV, that’s worth at least ½ mil of exposure! This crew must be doing something right to sell ads when their cars and drivers haven’t won since….well frankly I forgot when.
Not a bad website though. Except for the “this week in history” tidbit claiming “Roush Fenway is a two-time winner in 2000. Jeff Burton claimed victory at Daytona in the Cup Series while Kurt Busch won the Truck race in Milwaukee.” Funny, I thought Jeff and Kurt just drove just for “Roush Racing” back in 2000? I know, I know and Richard Petty last won the “Sprint” Cup back in 1979. Winston who? Now I’m not into cigarettes, but why bother including T. Wayne Robertson as a HOF nominee if all reference to his good works for RJ Reynolds (Winston) are “converted” into Nextel Cup, or is it Sprint Cup?
They paid a half mil for that?? They got taken. That site is worth $100K max… And you’d think if they were going to fork out half a mil for the paint job they’d maybe have the sense to spend, oh, maybe $10K on a decent engine (server) for it? Or maybe get a decent hosting service? That site is a pig with lipstick on it as far as performance is concernered… Nothing worse than a pretty site that’s slow (I’m viewing it from a corporate net with 10M/sec bandwidth and it’s still slow). But then their cars are slow too. Maybe they should have taken the half mil and spent it figuring out how to get their cars up front? Just a thought…
MS- It was for the site (and a relationship with the Barbarian Group), the construction of a studio and the reassignment of team executives. Still it does seem like it was a lot.
You are correct. I am not sure what they are trying to accomplish, but maybe the $500,000 could have been spent in a better way to accomplish it ….. maybe just pass out money ; )
Websites do not have to utilize fancy newfangled apps to be great. Content is king and imuho words are still the best content. http://nascarinsiders.com/ is a perfect example of how informative and easy to use a website can be without using high tech or having a bunch of clutter. Pictures can be worth a 1000 words, but just having 1000 words is fine too, as long as the objective is met ,and you can can always link to pictures and video.
Besides clutter, another concern is when website become so advanced that normal folks (maybe surfing the web on older equipment) may no longer be able view the site. When websites do upgrades it is important that they allow potential viewers an option to see the site in low tech without FORCING potential customers to upload/ download/ upgrade a bunch of new aps when the site used to work just fine.
One of the companies involved in the innovation of high tech web aps (and the owners of Flash) http://www.adobe.com/ has always offered viewers an optional low tech method to view their site. The odd thing is some websites using adobe products to upgrade their website do not offer a low tech alternative. Why shut out people out when the site is upgraded whne you can offer an “alt” view and not lose that potential.
Weak sauce. $500 is too much for that site.