Widgets are the latest digital tools in a marketer's armoury.  Kris Griffiths downloads a global selection.


In the beginning was the website. The website was the repository of all content and every marketing action was designed to drive traffic there.
 
In a Web 2.0 world, however, the challenge is to transmit your information as widely as possible, through as many channels as possible, often relying on consumers to act as the distribution channel.
 
A key tool that enables marketers to do this is the widget. Although there has been some debate as to where widget’s ends and applications begin essentially the current consensus definition is pseudo-application or functionality that can be embedded on desktops or plugged into HTML-based web pages such as social network profiles or blogs.
 
The widget has essentially developed from basic functions such as clocks, calendars and calculators into self-updating branded tools that sit on your screen or profile page 24 hours a day, continually communicating back to its central website and refreshing itself. Widgets are “a marketer’s nirvana”, a little bit of branding that consumers chose to use.

They are also attractive due to ease of development – many can be created with just a couple of images and a few lines of XML/JavaScript.
Big brands are now recognising the massive potential of widgets to deliver their messages by allowing consumers to customise their own web experience.
 
The key to success is that widgets cannot simply deliver a message, their efficacy lies in being a practical extension of the brand, a service delivering the same brand promise.
 
Successful examples include a desktop widget from global couriers UPS that delivers up-to-the-minute information on the exact whereabouts of customers’ packages; or a range of travel-planning widgets from STA Travel that users can embed on MySpace and Facebook profiles and thus advocate the brand through their own social spaces.

Record labels are also getting in on the act, promoting acts with embeddable widgets offering visitors a range of multimedia options.
 
With several billion widgets served every day, and every social network planning to create a platform for them by the end of the year, the widgetisation of the web is well underway.