One problem that we've discussed at PostAdvertising.com is, once you've built engaging media, how do you get the word out and get people to see it in the post-advertising age? Unfortunately, for now, the answer is advertising. There are two pre-requisites for success in this venture. (Don't worry, there's a video down there somewhere...it's not all gonna be boring words.)
Here we have a fairly interesting website (UnscrewAmerica.org) that encourages Americans to switch to LED lighting, replacing incandescent bulbs.* But once this great site has been built, how does it get seen? How do people find out about it? Two things have to happen. First, Unscrew America has to advertise. The commercial spot below is one of many examples of this advertising (as well as the impetus for this article). The second pre-requisite for a successful campaign here is that the content at UA has to be good.
And is it? Cool music: Check. Interesting graphics: Check. Good information: Check. Terrible organization: Check. Super clunky and frustrating interface: Check.
So, even though UA has built its own original media and has done advertising around it, the sites traffic has continued to plummet since its peak in February 2008, the month it was launched. We discussed this in an earlier article, noting that traffic had fallen from 30,000 UVs a month in Feb to 12,500 in June. The site's traffic is hovering around 5,000 UVs this fall.
I wish more people would visit the site and fight through its clunkiness to read its contents. But that is not the way of the world and not the way of the post-advertising age. Enjoy the latest UA spot (Via):
*A note about Unscrew America: It's hard to determine just who is behind it. The site said it was created by ad agency GSD&M, but I doubt it's random and pro-bono. My guess is that the client is Phillips, a company that makes LED bulbs. This being difficult to determine possibly brings up some authentcity and receptivity issues. Moving on.