8 Great Microsite Designs that Enhance Brand Awareness

When companies want to focus on a specific part of their brand, they put microsites into action.

Microsites are an ideal content marketing tool for campaigns, new product launches, promotions, or other events that brands want to bring attention to.
They often sit on a URL that's independent from a company's main website, but it’s not uncommon to find them as subdomains.

So, how do you actually go about structuring and creating one? What, exactly, makes a good microsite? We've pulled together some wildly creative microsite designs to help you get the most from this versatile content format.

What Makes a Good Microsite Design?

As their name implies, one of the key differences between microsites and regular websites is that they are smaller. This limitation works in their favor. By granting content less space, microsites make it possible to get information and messaging out there in a way that’s clear and immediate.

This makes microsites a great tool for grabbing visitors’ attention. Interactive elements, creative typography, flashy color schemes, and concise messaging engage with people and guide them through all of the content they have to offer.

The Power of Microsites

Microsites allow content to be presented in a way that’s focused and targets a specific audience. They give visitors specialized information they may be looking for and puts them on the path to reach the goals or conversions you have set out for them.

Brands also love microsites because they offer a low-stakes way of testing out new marketing campaigns or pushing a brand’s identity. Since it only takes a shorter amount of time and fewer resources to put microsites together, companies are more inclined to experiment with both messaging and visual aesthetics.

Finally, let’s not forget search engine optimization. Content that’s crafted for a single purpose contain a wealth of terms, keywords, and other phrases that give them a boost in organic searches. You can really hone in on a subject and push all the right SEO buttons.

Microsite Designs to Inspire Your Own

Now that we’ve covered the basics, let’s check out a few microsite designs in the wild to explore how you can use them to amplify brand messaging and reach distinct audiences.

Lego

With playful colors, linear shapes, and a spacious layout, this Lego microsite is right in line with its brand identity. This space is divided into four sections, each holding information about Lego’s commitment within its company as well as the greater community.

Microsites are an effective way to break out content that has a particular focus. Instead of trying to fit all of this into the main design, Lego consolidates this information about sustainability into a single space, giving them plenty of room in communicating this aspect of their brand values. You’ll find many microsite designs that build awareness about companies’ commitments to environmental or social causes.

Blindsight

Based on a novel, Blindsight is a computer-animated science fiction short film. This microsite gives an in-depth look at the creative process that went into it. It’s beautiful in a dark and surreal way.

What’s engaging is the microsite's unique take on digital storytelling. Through horizontal scrolling and visual conversation bubbles between the author Peter Watts and the artists working on the film, we get a behind-the-scenes look at the ongoing dialog as well as how the visuals of the film were developed.

This microsite steers away from direct marketing. Instead, it communicates why we should watch this film by showing us the creativity and imagination that went into making it.

Lyra

Lyra, purveyors of fine chocolate, crafted this microsite to show off the gift packages and branded chocolate products that companies can purchase. There’s a pleasing color scheme with dark green and complementary pink, as well as softer shades of chocolate like browns. Text is sparse, communicating the main points about the delicious options that are available to companies.

Many company microsite designs occupy specialized niches, and this example from Lyra plays an important role in targeting a specific audience of potential customers.

Splaaashes (Recreation)

We put together this microsite recreation of Splaaashes by LS Graphics to demonstrate the creative possibilities of designing in Vev. This microsite promotes the Splaaashes range of illustrations available to use. Like most microsite designs, we kept a single focus with this design featuring the dreamlike swirls of color and shapes of the abstraction elements.

We used just a few different calls to action guiding visitors to download the series of designs, with "Splaaashes Free" offering abstractions at no cost, and a paid level called "Splaaashes Pro". As with this example, microsites need to keep things simple and guide the viewer to the end goal with as few steps as possible.

Oreo

We always like seeing things like Pride month honored in ways that feel authentic. This microsite design not only educates people on topics like pronouns and why they matter, but also gets the word out about the Pride packs of cookies they’ve put together to honor Pride.

Part of brand awareness is showing where your company is aligned on social causes. Oreo makes it clear that they support the LGBTQ+ community in this informative and well-designed microsite.

Snickers

Most of us have all indulged in a Snickers bar, but did you know that they also make ice cream treats? This design is full of Snickers’ brand colors as well as big photos of its namesake ice cream treats. If you weren’t hungry for ice cream before you landed on this page, you’ll want to run to your nearest store and grab some Snickers by the time you’re finished scrolling.

Adobe

This microsite centers on the design tools that are a part of the Adobe Creative Cloud. The layout is everything you would expect from Adobe, full of colors, textures, and shapes. They communicate the creative value of their software, as well as display all of the design products and pricing plans that they have to offer. Some of the most impactful microsite designs are from companies marketing specific product lines, and Adobe does a great job featuring its software here.

Burton Mine 77

Microsites are an effective way in bringing attention to specialized product lines. Mine77 from Burton has a more boutique and bespoke feel than the rest of its snowboards, soft goods, and hard goods. This microsite design gives them an opportunity to communicate what makes this line special in a space distinct from the rest of the main website.

Design Brilliant Microsites with Vev

Vev makes designing and publishing immersive microsites ridiculously simple. With an extensive library of pre-coded design components—from scrollytelling and animated text, to advanced animations—you can create your concept just as you imagined it without needing to code anything. Publish your microsite anywhere when you're ready.