Microsites are so, like, 2005

I read an article in Adweek a couple of weeks ago essentially questioning whether microsites were in the process of dying a quick death. Based on what I am seeing in the marketplace, I don’t think it’s happening yet. In fact, microsites make up a lot of the work that you see highlighted in this blog. Because so many clients and agencies are still creating fantastic—and fantastically expensive—microsites. But based on what my clients are telling me, and what the measurement and analytics folks at Digitas tell me, I believe we will be seeing fewer and fewer microsites. And I think this will happen sooner than later.  

As loyal readers of Attention Shoppers!  know, we have long been an advocate of placing your messages (or, better still, offering something of value for your customers) where consumers are already hanging out, as opposed to trying to come up with something that’s interesting enough to get them to leave what they are doing and go to your website—fabulous though it may be. 

So while there are still a ton of consumer packaged goods marketers trying to drive consumers to microsites through online campaigns (with a clickthrough rate of less than .05%), smart marketers and agencies are doing deals with Facebook, iVillage, Yahoo and AOL. Not to mention tons of other sites where hundreds of thousands, or millions for the big names, of consumers go every month. CPG marketers are either attracting consumers’ attention on these sites with clever banner ads (which do what TV and print ads do from an awareness perspective) or offer much deeper experiences with a content partnership deal with the site or rich media banner. 

Of course, that’s not to say that all websites for CPG companies are a bad idea. Product sites are a must. And some of them are working harder than ever to build brands. But that’s a subject for another night.