Microsites Move Offline Eyes Webward

I take it back.
Maka-Maka is not the worst Web name to date. It’s Android.

If you don’t
know what that is, well, as Roudy the last living American cowboy would say,
“god bless ya’.”

Google’s big
announcement about their open mobile service platform that will be implemented
in the second half of 2008 was definitely the big news of yesterday, and it was
splashed all over the news. And I’m not going to honor it much by talking about
it here. Not even a link, mind you! You can find it yourself.

The only thing I
have to say about it is I’m not surprised. Let’s recap, shall we?
Apple =
products.
Google = services.
Why would they make a G-phone when real telephone
companies, like Motorola and Samsung, have already jumped onboard and started
creating competition for the iPhone?

So, instead of
creating more print about a platform with such a displeasing name and quest for
world domination global presence,
I’m going instead to talk about something completely different.

Duck, duck,
duck, goose. Macro, macro, macro, micro.

Maybe you
thought microsites were just a fad. A product of an overactive imagination that
would fade. Well, think again. Used in the right way, they can be extremely
beneficial. Paul Smith wrote a brief
article that outlined some of the ways you can use them “for fun and
profit.”

1. Explore new technologies. In other words, play around without screwing up your whole website.
2. Smaller, but better, faster. Quickly put in place, so you can be on top of trends. Also, room to experiment with creative that you might not want to use on your website itself.
3. Targeting. Take, for example, MTV’s 300 microsites for specific shows. Imagine the measurement you can get from that. “A focused message can mean a focused audience,” says Paul. Video-ad microsites, I think, will also emerge as a trend this year.

And with the
holiday season looming, many marketers are going to be throwing microsites on
the table as possibilities for offline campaigns, as a way of bringing people
to the Web. The New York Times article Movies,
TV, and Magazines Work Together in Web Campaign details some of these
methods, noting that “the taste in the marketplace is strong” for campaigns with
significant online presences. Being careful, of course, not to “litter the
world” with too many of them.

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