I was indulging in one of my favourite lunchtime pastimes today – checking out websites which have won awards. Today’s site, Waterlife, was courtesy of the SXSW 2010 Web Awards.

Waterlife won the award for the Activism category, a sector I find seriously interesting for two reasons. Firstly, I am fascinated by the web’s ability to instill and express emotion, which any good activism website will do, and figuring out how they achieve that heart warming, skin tingling effect. Secondly, the idea a website can change the course of history by making people DO something about political or ethical concerns is simply awesome.

Considering Waterlife is raising awareness of the challenges The Great Lakes is facing in the States, a far cry from the streets of Freo, Western Australia, where I live, it surprised me to feel a lump in my throat as I surfed around the site. How did they achieve it?

I’m not normally a fan of music on a website. I think it can be annoying, impact download speed and feel a little pretentious. Particularly if it’s a corporate website and I’m just trying to get a phone number. But on this site it works. Sigur Ros, Philip Glass and Brian Eno’s tracks all have that etheral, watery quality that supports the site’s topic matter, but also has the added effect of pulling at the ole heart strings.

This watery quality extends to the homepage interactive feature, a fluid animation of images representing each of the different ways the lakes have been affected. Check it out yourself, the screenshot doesn’t do it justice. It reminds me of a couple of Jonathan Harris’s websites – We Feel Fine and The Whale Hunt.

The audio features don’t stop with music. Each content page has a sound bite or two overlaid over the music. Each one comes from people who are touched by the changes there – from commercial fishermen and local residents (“people are saying “pray for me”, I have cancer”) to activists and businessmen.

They have also used video footage as background for text content, and added whimsical animations to the page layout.

The copy works hard too – “the commercial fishermen are noticing it, as are those who simply take solace in a tranquil day out on the dock – the fish are disappearing, one by one.” And I’m a big fan of how they’ve used headlines to intro a section of the site (while it quietly loads in the background).

So I’m pretty much a convert – but how do I act? I search the site and finally spot a small link at the bottom of the page for “Resources / Community Action”. It takes me to a boring list of different community groups.

Disappointing! How cool would it be to have a tool that finds out the best way for you to get involved? In other words, I don’t want to have to trawl through all these community sites myself to find out if they have any way I can get involved considering who I am, where I live and what I have to offer these groups. Build me a tool that does and I will gladly give you my email address so you can keep me updated on the cause (and charge me with the passion to make a difference).

I think one of the big opportunities online marketing has to offer is the facilitation of a brand journey. A campaign or site doesn’t have to limit it’s objectives to awareness raising. Use that awareness immediately. I’m at the site, I know what issues the Great Lakes are experiencing now, and I want to do something about it. Faciliate the next step for me.