Worldwide Weather Widget

UNIQLO, the Japanese clothing brand, are well known for using Flash in creative ways on their Web site. If you’ve never heard of UNIQLO and want to see for yourself, then simply check out some of their previous promotional sites such as UT Zoom, UNIQLO Jump, Grid or the Tokyo Fashion Map.

What’s so outstanding about their Flash productions is the way they simultaneously engage the user and promote their fun and feisty brand.

Worldwide domination

Not content with having stores throughout the entire world (China, Hong Kong, South Korea, United Kingdom, France, United States, and Singapore), UNIQLO have now decided to reach out to the entire globe by creating and sharing a rather spiffy new Flash widget that you can embed on your Web site or blog to show the weather wherever you are. For example, here’s the widget for Melbourne, Australia where envato are based:

Value for money marketing

What’s so inspirational about the calendar is not just how good it looks and how the visuals and audio pull you in, but it’s also a reminder of how effective marketing and viral tools are one of the cheapest and yet powerful ways to promote a brand and sell products.

User interface

My other favorite part of the calendar / weather widget is the actual Flash interface the user interacts with to create the customized widget:

Winning formula

It’s simple, it usable, and despite the array of options and variables (countries, cities etc…), it’s hard to go wrong or screw something up. You can even choose the size of the widget to fit your Web site. In a matter of seconds you can customize your own widget and get the code you need to embed it on your blog, your Web site, or even your Facebook page.

The UNIQLO Calendar is free to download and use on your own Web site.