Porsche have outdone themselves with the new Porsche Cayenne ad (requires flash — yes more on the below). I have absolutely no intention nor means of buying such a car but their ad is impressively engaging and a thing of beauty. It is engaging and its integration of Porsche branding within user goals (such as ‘Experience for yourself’ which uses Google maps along with aspirational branding imagery in a really beautiful way. No I can’t link to it because its FLASH see below).

But they could’ve done better — why can’t I promote it?

The fact that its basically impossible to include any media or graphics here is somewhat of a glaring oversight. Even a simple video with the highlights plus the great music would be enough. They had ‘download wallpaper’ and ‘recommend on Facebook’ but I just want a little pic in this blog entry. On principle I’m not scaling down the enormous wallpaper pics because they don’t suit my ‘viral social media’ needs.

Flash only?

Despite being just gorgeous this ad shows some cracks in using Flash. My biggest complaint is

• the somewhat arrogant ‘take over the screen’ philosophy which this presentation has, along with the

• complete inability to bookmark sections — its all one flash app
• Popup madness. Why so many popups? My computer is a mess afterwards.
• Doesn’t work on the iPhone. Well maybe they have a special iPhone version but I suspect not. No flash means a big lost opportunity here.

It’s still completely gorgeous though. I’ve watched the ad three times already. It is truly a thing well made, with an extremely talented design team who has also spent a huge amount of time thinking about user experience. My hat off to them.

Oh I thought this was about the car. Is the car well made?

Yeah I’m sure it is but my policy is only to advocate things I have direct experience with and.. well unless you out there happen to live in London and have a 2010 Porsche Cayenne you don’t mind lending me for a weekend… it’ll have to be just about that ad