I use an iPhone app to handle my banking transactions. My sister follows her favorite restaurant’s menu on the restaurant’s Facebook page, which is their only digital destination. My friend, someone who never bought a Tivo, now loves ABC’s iPad app that enables him to watch any TV show at any time in beautiful HD-like quality.
I can’t wait to see Wired magazine’s upcoming iPad publication, which might prove to be the future of publishing. Penny-pinchers eagerly await their daily Twitter coupons. A former colleague of mine views shared imagery from his various friends on his Apple TV. Our walled and password-protected worlds of social environments and content are available to us on a myriad of devices but often are unavailable to search engines. One friend of mine told me a few weeks ago he unsubscribed to all his e-newsletter subscriptions and gets fresher content via RSS feeds on his mobile device.
The digital world is experiencing a dramatic change. People are going to digital destinations to share and receive content on a variety of devices. Forrester ably labeled this phenomenon, which has crept into our world over the last few years, “The Splinternet.” And that is just what it is; the fragmentation of online destinations. For me, it is typified by clients asking: “Should I be spending my allotted Web budget on the corporate Web site, or Facebook?”
Do brands still need Web sites? Yep. One foot in the old world and one foot in the new world will serve most brands well. The time is now to embrace all these new platforms, but only if you are clear that your users/customers/prospects are already there or will be soon.
Mike Tittel
Senior Vice President – Global Practice Leader – Digital
Also posted on Mike’s personal blog http://artistinthefield.blogspot.com/
I can see the Splinternet as a way to get today’s news, since it is (or should be) the most up-to-date. But while this haphazard collection of disconnected and uncoordinated bits of information may be suitable for hitting the high points, it doesn’t work for in-depth research and communication the way a well-crafted website can.
Your metaphor of one foot in the old world and one in the new suggests that websites are going away, and I’m not sure I believe that. I see the digital future as a kaleidoscope of choices. I can imagine a world in which each person’s physiological reactions to information delivery will automatically and seamlessly rearrange and modify it it to suit the consumer.
Thanks for your comment. I must confess that I don’t know where it is all heading. I think brands will always need a logical online destination like a corporate Web site as a gateway or portal into a brand world. But I whole heartedly disagree that corporate Web sites are the only or most meaningful way to retrieve information or experience a brand. In this day and age that is just not the case. One example from our agency is the fact that we are more often than not creating sales enablement tools that are only accessible via mobile devices or Adobe Air applications on portable computers for our business clients. For consumers, the iPad’s ABC app for instance does almost everything their Web site does from a user experience perspective in a more portable and mobile format. It becomes very logical that there will be users who abandon browser based experiences in favor of this new platform just like many have abandoned watching network TV on a TV, in favor of Hulu, Netflix and streaming broadcast.
The Splinternet “theory” suggests a new era where users receive and share information at destinations that make the most sense to their needs. And although traffic on Coca Cola’s or the Gap’s Facebook fan pages probably doesn’t equate to their Web site traffic, it does potentially signal that there might be large audiences that prefer to experience brands on their own terms, in their own worlds and within an environment that lets them share and dialogue with like-minded people.
For some marketers it might be appropriate to hedge their bet and make sure they are putting content and engagement in the right destinations at the right time. Ignoring these destinations is no longer the answer. I for one hope Web sites don’t go away anytime soon. But in the meantime I’m keeping my eyes and mind open.