Alan's musings ... some personal views and rants

on this digital marketing malarkey

Websites made easy?

This article refers to a 2007 ad campaign by Yell. In some ways it is dated - but, sadly, I still see ads on TV that are very similar in nature. Some are worse in that they imply that a ***** [insert advertiser here] website will make your small business successful. Oh dear.

Let me start by making clear that I understand what Yell is trying to do with this series of ads [which I have seen off- and online] for their website development business. I also understand [I think] why they have taken this course of action.

Which makes my critique of Yell's ad campaign something of a paradox in that I think it is a good campaign - but at the same time I think they have got it wrong.

My main problem is that it is simply perpetuates the common misconception about the skill sets required for developing effective sites. OK, so I accept that 'experts' in online marketing are not usually my age - but I do bring to the table a wealth of marketing knowledge and experience which - with all due respect - young folk do not have. That the youngsters in these ads all seem to be IT 'geeks' and not professional marketers does not help. 'Geeks'? - I think that Yell deliberately make them look that way to folk my age - because Yell perceive that business owners who are the target of this marketing are my age who think that websites are an IT thing and not a marketing thing. If I'm wrong on this, why are the pictures not a mix of 'geeks' [for the IT stuff] and - how shall I put it - 'smart' youngsters [no, I don't mean suits, just 'business-like']. And what about the occasional older person? After all, the ad text does talk about a team of developers [which is exactly as it should be] - so where is the person who brings a bit of marketing experience to the table? Oh, and by the way ... over the years the students who achieve some of the best marks in both my marketing and digital marketing modules are female - so why do 'boys' out-number the 'girls' in this series of pictures? Could it be that Yell think us older folk perceive all the best IT 'geeks' to be boys? And white?

UPDATE September 2019 - I think that if the ads aired now, gender representation would be equal, and there would be representation of black, Asian and minority ethnic workers.

In the first ad [below] we're told that Shaun understands what makes a 'great business website'. In my opinion, no one can say what a 'great business website' is. But before they did, I'd want a definition of 'great'. And therein lies one of the key problems. I prefer the term 'effective'. And I would judge effectiveness against the site's objectives. And those objectives will be marketing related. I wonder how skilled and or experienced Shaun is at strategic and/or operational marketing? And my experience tell me that he would equate 'great' with the site's aesthetics, not its content.

These ads - and any one of the dozens that have been produced since they aired - are symptomatic of non-marketers in digital marketing.

How to cite this article:
Charlesworth, A. (2007). Websites made easy? Retrieved [insert date] from AlanCharlesworth.com: https://www.alancharlesworth.com/Alans-musings/websites-made-easy