TMW Ideas

It's becoming like a regular thing, this. Maybe I should add a category…

Well, here's two nice examples. Thomson Holidays have relaunched their website, and there are a few interesting things about it. Mainly, they seem to have embraced digital in a way that most traditional holiday providers haven't. First, by recognising that people are moving away from package holidays, and deciding to live with it - they offer individual elements as well as packages, and make it easy.

Second, they have recognised the whole social side, and embedded Google Maps and Flickr into their site. Granted, it doesn't seem to work brilliantly at the moment, but I'm not going to criticise them for trying. I think it's great. (An interesting take on user generated content - they stream slideshows from flickr, so use a site where people are already generating content, rather than starting all over again and attempting to “own” it)

Secondly, here's a nice little thing from BA - we didn't do it but it's still good. As part of their sponsorship of “Taste of London” they have built a wee microsite. There is a “culinary maps” function, which looks very much like a customised Google map. They thing I like about this is that they haven't bothered with the whole user generated thing at all - they got experts to contribute. Which, given that it's a short-term site for a specific event, makes perfect sense. It's a little bit rude to ask someone to submit their thoughts and recommendations as part of a six-week campaign, then deleting them all.

Finally, a Google maps apps - A guide to worldwide flooding if the seas continue to rise.