(TL;DR – it’s not a bad website at all; I like the layout and there’s some stunning photography, but there are some simple bits of content strategy that Lamborghini should heed to ensure its impressive content is showed off to its fullest.)

What could Lamborghini improve?

Copywriting and formatting needs improvement

It feels silly to concentrate on the words straightaway when Lamborghini is so famous for the visual.

But this feels like an area where improvement can be made.

Look at the screenshots from the Huracàn product page below. The subheadings are about as uninspiring as it gets – does ‘overview’ get the blood pumping?

The other subheaders aren’t much better (’emotion’ for example). And look at the copy itself, just block paragraphs that are difficult to read.

lamborghini website

lamborghini website

Sadly, this is the story throughout quite a lot of the website. Check out the accessory page, which is majorly lacking copy.

There’s also a problem with large chunks of text on mobile being even more unreadable.

lamborghini website on mobile

There is a some hope, though. Take a look at the concept car product pages and the subheadings are a big improvement.

The formatting of the text could still be better – even within a fairly rigid template, line breaks are a must.

lamborghini website

design

Data capture needs improvement

I spent a bit of time trying to find a way to give my email address to Lamborghini.

‘Contact us’ is right at the bottom of the page and includes mainly phone numbers, as well as a contact form.

But how do I subscribe to updates, or register my interest quickly from a product page?

Header menu needs improvement

For quite a simple menu (shown below), the header drops down a long way when you scroll over it.

Spreading the dropdown categories horizontally would allow Lamborghini to reduce this big overlap with page content.

The menu font is grey on grey, which is not ideal at all, making it quite difficult to make out the categories in the dropdowns.

Furthermore, though one can click on ‘Models’ to go to a category page, this isn’t immediately obvious and perhaps a ‘see all’ option should be introduced to the menu.

Lastly and perhaps most importantly, for such as visual-led brand, I think thumbnail images of the models should be included in the header menu.

It must be said that no major supercar manufacturer website has managed this (as far as my research leads me to believe), but I believe it would aid easy navigation.

Compare Lamborghini’s header menu with BMW.

I think a compromise between the two would be ideal for Lamborghini. It should be noted that on mobile, however, the menu text is much clearer.

Lamborghini header menu (please note that my GIF quality makes the menu font ever so slightly fainter)

lamborghini header menu

BMW header menu

bmw header menu

Lastly, take a look at the ‘Experience’ tab in the header menu.

The categories within are pretty opaque – Esperienza and Accademia – but they include fantastic driving experiences.

Lamborghini could do with adding some copy in the menu so this is made clear.

lamborghini header menu

Search function needs improvement

Not much commentary needed here, just a screenshot of search results.

Some tidying up is required. Other languages are returned in results, page titles are missing (‘False?’) and the descriptions aren’t presented as nicely as they could be.

Additionally, a search bar within the homepage would be preferable to the current button which summons a light box.

lamborghini website

What has Lamborghini done well?

Scrolling experiences are done well

Automotive websites have quite a bit of content in them and that’s why I like it when they go for long scrolling pages.

A scrolling homepage gives lots of room to link off to other pages with content blocks, lots of room for imagery and for text.

I don’t think it’s overstating the point to say that the experience of scrolling through car photography is a lot more enjoyable (even sensuous) than, for example, the static and click-heavy pages that Mercedes uses (see below).

mercedes website

Product page imagery and video are done well

The hero imagery at the top of each product page is great.

lamborghini product page

Each product page also has an extensive gallery, which often includes neatly embedded videos with the option to subscribe to Lamborghini’s YouTube channel.

lamborghini product page

For all the faults of this website, it nails this most important factor – showing off the cars.

Some of the photos may be slightly photoshopped, but they portray the cars in a stylised fashion that is hard to argue with.

Social is done well

There are plenty of social icons on the homepage, and a tesselation of latest posts from various accounts (below).

social media lamborghini

Homepage featured content and events is done well

The homepage includes little content blocks that link through to news items, as well as upcoming events and experiences.

There’s also a large gallery on the homepage and plenty of features highlighting various pages on the site.

The homepage is the website in microcosm – the imagery is great but the copy could be improved a little to make it more coherent.

However, I particularly like the Lamborghini World news items – these blocks link to simple blog posts with hero images, and they add some topical flavour to the site, something that many manufacturers neglect.

The ability to publish to quickly to an automotive website helps content strategy (working in tandem with social) and keeps everything fresh.

lamborghini website

What is up for debate?

‘Find a dealer’ could be more obvious

The ‘find a dealer’ content is quite a way down the homepage (almost at the bottom) and is also a bit hidden in the header menu.

Perhaps this could have its own tab at the top level of the header menu.

Homepage sliders are not everyone’s cup of tea

There are three hero images at the top of the homepage that rotate.

Though this slider gives the opportunity to pack in more content, some people find them distracting.

Personally, I’m not a fan, but others may argue a bit of dynamism is no bad thing.

The sliders are carried through to mobile, but there is no way to manually move through them on the smaller screen.

More focus on technical detail?

Should there be more focus on technical detail and performance?

There are specs on each model product page and some small photos (see below), but I want to see a beautiful high definition photo of an engine I can get excited about.

There is a page about carbon fibre technology, but perhaps this should be better integrated in product pages.

lamborghini website

Car configurator is a bit lost?

You can customise your own Lamborghini through the configurator.

You can’t do this for all models, but I still think it warrants inclusion somewhere on the homepage.

At the moment there’s a CTA on each relevant product page, but a customised Lamborghini is surely something that people will share once they have created it, so why not make it more of a bit of marketing than a product page tool.

The configurator is a new feature, so perhaps Lamborghini is going for a soft launch here.

lamborghini configurator

The same page template can get a bit repetitive

This is the one downside of scrolling templates – each page can feel samey.

I don’t think that’s a massive problem for Lamborghini here, but it’s something that could be improved by the occasional interactive element in product pages.

Conclusion…

There’s lots of potential here. Lamborghini has added content, some of which we haven’t covered (Museum, History etc.) and the website is very browsable (despite search and menu deficiencies).

All in all, the rich media, publishing capability (news) and the new configurator make for a website that should blend well with social media strategy.

Some tweaks, particularly on data capture and copy formatting, would make a big difference.

What do you think, car lovers?

More on automotive:

Lovers of cars and digital marketing can see speakers from Nissan and Jaguar Land Rover at the Festival of Marketing 2016, October 5-6. Get your tickets here.