Only 400 200 100 25 Miles Until The Thing!
So, just how do you get people to visit your web site, much less stay (and buy and/or act) when they get there?
I remember seeing a long progression of billboards about “The Thing!” on family road trips here in the wide open western spaces. We were literally out in the middle of nowhere, on a straight two-lane road…with nothing to look at…but those billboards. They started with cryptic one-liners, then moved onto questions, “Is it…?” By the time we reached the tourist trap where THE THING was, I was begging my Dad to stop. We never did. So, yeah, they got our interest but the person controlling the wallet knew it was a hokey c’mon.
As an all growed-up marketer, I can fully appreciate the teaser approach in the billboards. However, wide-eyed little me was a captive audience. I really had little else to look at and I was forced to follow the sequence of messages they laid out. (There were also still some Burma Shave signs around when I was a child - which were also a great use of billboards.)
And so we come back to web sites. The old Mad Ave “they’ve got no choice but to read/listen” methods don’t work anymore. People can (and do) come into your site on any page. And, they get info about you from multiple sources, with a two-second Google search - not just what you want them to know. If you build your site (or so you think) to force people to go through multiple pages before they get to the real business, you’re falling into the old billboard mentality. The Web isn’t a straight two-lane road and your site visitors can choose where and when they engage with you, if at all. And, they can exit any time they darn well feel like it.
P.S. Anybody know what “The Thing” was???
Tags: marketing, marketing troubleshooting, emarketing, web development
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July 15th, 2008 at 7:35 am
For those of us who grew up on the East Coast, it was South of the Border. They kept your attention with risque slogans. Fun for the family! “Mommy, why does it say the room s are ‘heir conditioned’?”
It’s on the NC/SC border but I think the signs started hundreds of miles ahead.
July 15th, 2008 at 8:51 am
It is a mummy:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/d/dd/Thethingtouristtrap.jpg
July 16th, 2008 at 7:52 am
John, Wow, that’s rather surprising in this day of political correctness (the guy in the sombrero, sleeping next to a cactus???)
Thanks, Bruce. You thrill killer. I also seem to recall something else like “It” out here in the desert spaces with the same type of billboards.
July 16th, 2008 at 8:01 am
For us Michiganders, it’s the “Mystery Spot” near St. Ignace, just over the Mackinac Bridge in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.
You spend years resisting it (or as Mary more accurately suggests,having your parents resist it for you.) Then, once you are a young adult, you say “of course it’s a silly come-on and a waste of money” but you do it anyway, because you CAN! And you take your own kids later, because it makes you nostalgic and you decide a little harmless, quirky fun is all too rare in childhood these days!
As for Bruce’s comment - “it IS a mummy”- you mean “The Thing” is still there? All right, a new vacation destination!!!!!
July 16th, 2008 at 2:04 pm
Mike,
And such things are far more fun when you can drink adult beverages before! I still fondly recall the Salem Witch Museum (with mannequins covered in cobwebs) after a lovely Bloody Mary filled Sunday brunch. While the actual events were truly tragic, you just cannot take the museum seriously - it’s so incredibly cheesy. Sonorous voiceovers while little spotlights hit cheapo department store mannequins dressed in old clothing.
July 18th, 2008 at 6:20 am
It’s totally offensive. I was really surprised it was still there, just as I remembered from childhood, when I did that I-95 trek for the first time as an adult back in 2001.