MTV Goes Old School

MTV just redesigned their web site. The entertainment giant launched an all-Flash web site in October of '06 resulting in frustrated users, slow load times and loss of traffic. The new site is lightening fast and HTML-based. Smart move if they hope to maintain their "engagement" strategy.

According to MTV Labs:

"At MTV, experimenting is just something we do. We've got more than two decades of that under our belt. So, about nine months ago, we went all Flash with our Web site. It was a technical marvel and it was indeed flashy. But, it was also something of a headache for a lot of users, so we were told."

The response from bloggers and fans has been enormous. Although most web users resist change of any kind, this group seems to be relieved by the simplicity of the new site:

"Very little flash makes the pages super fast to load. I remember not visiting specifically because the pages loaded so slow. The bigger news might be that they got rid of full page interstitials… my god I hope that becomes a trend."

I hope this is a sign of things to come. Flash is only useful in some instances. Rare instances. It is rarely amusing or helful to the viewing audience, and often the brainchild of a creative talent with too much time on his (or her) hands.

Simplicity is key when your goal is brand engagement. Make it easy. Make it fast. Make it fun. Sometimes going old school is actually a step forward. I'd say that's the case here.