Digital ghost town
Friday, October 24th, 2008
Mick Greer, a Manchester based advertising copywriter, mentioned a new concept today: digital ghost towns.
(I suspect digital media professionals like Simon Wharton are familiar with this term and I am just pre-empting a comment to that effect).
Digital ghost towns are big corporate websites that are essentially static and dull and receive far fewer visitors than they should.
Mick referred to the Scamp blog, written by a creative from advertising giants BBH, which gives some light on the subject. But better still there are two awful examples of companies with powerful budgets producing static unengaging sites that are mentioned: Budweiser and Texaco.
Scamp actually mentions BudTV, but I came across the Budweiser UK site first, which I have linked to above and is duller. I guess it doesn’t help that I like real ale and view Budweiser, Fosters, Carling, Strongbow as tasteless mass produced piss. Sorry I put it like that, I should be harsher.
The thing that gets me is that content, whether traditional PR, online PR or digital media or pieces that cross over, is king. Of course the distinction is not always clear nor can it be most of the time.
I believe we will see more businesses using their web more constructively, especially if we have to fight harder for business.
But there will still be plenty of digital ghost towns, or should I say villages, populating the web for small enterprises that need to punch above their weight in the harder times we have now.
