Landing Page or Launch Pad?

At the end of his Mobile Insider blog post today, Steve Smith posed a question that bears repeating:

"Why is a 'landing page' a 'landing page?' Shouldn't it be a launch pad to a [story]? Why would you want to have your audience lean back to watch a clip, when they could lean in to interact with a visual story?"

Well put, Steve. Intuitively, we know that a website landing page is not meant to be the final resting place of the viewer. It is meant to draw the viewer into your website. A landing page is akin to the cover of a book, or the trailer of a movie. It attracts attention, gives a preview of the content, and draws the viewer in. A landing page should do three things:

• intrigue the viewer


• inspire curiosity


• generate involvement

Intrigue the viewer:
A landing page should convey the personality and purpose of the brand in a creative way - without using gratuitous, flashy animation and sound. As the adage says, "form follows function." A landing page can feature a cool Flash animation, but not simply for the sake of having a cool Flash animation. Design for the sake of the viewer, not for the sake of the designer's ego. Be tasteful. If you must use sound, include a sound on/off button; don't build something that takes forever to load; create your design with a purpose that serves the viewer and makes him want to continue.

Inspire curiosity:
A landing page should give the viewer a hint of what on the site is interesting and relevant to him. The viewer wants to know why it is worth his time to continue to browse your site. So convey information about "what's inside". And allow some mystery to remain - make your viewer want to continue through your site to "find out more."

Generate involvement:
Make your landing page interactive (as the rest of your site should be). Help the viewer to customize his experience on your site. Show him where he can explore relevant (not gratuitous, remember) videos, or photo albums, or virtual tours on your site. If you use animation, let the viewer control what he sees; use mouseovers, hotspots - something to let him click and direct and see more. Allow the user to comment on something, or build a sample, or take a poll. Make him feel like he is engaged with the brand, and make him want to continue that active relationship.

Let your landing page be a launch pad to your brand's story.

Marketers, just do work.

One month ago, I graduated from college. With a degree in marketing. Wanting to do interactive advertising.

Which means that, over the past few years (and even more over the past few months), I have been digging through job postings, prowling through lists of "The Top ___ Ad Agencies," and trekking through dozens of agency websites. I was quite impressed with the first several ad agency websites I explored - especially those for interactive* agencies. [for those of you not quite sure what "interactive" means, see my definition below]

Beyond the "coolness" factor of the clean or eclectic, minimalist or avant-garde, always esthetically pleasing, full-of-white-space-and-streaming-video, often Flash-driven sites, I especially loved the inspiring "our philosophy" sections that I would discover on these sites. Wow! these agencies "got it" - they understood things that we had been talking about in my marketing classes. They understood that marketing isn't just about shouting messages at consumers and convincing them to buy stuff so that companies can make money. No, it's about building relationships, and creating value, and partnering research with creativity, and having an integrated strategy, and being remarkable, and earning fans, and starting conversations, and developing trust and transparency.

I was so excited to discover that agencies have this fresh and original look at marketing!

Until, a few days ago, after wading through the millionth obligatory "marketing philosophy" page, I reached an exasperated conclusion: ALL of the advertising agencies that are worth their salt "get it" already. ALL of them understand the current approach to marketing, such as I described above. ALL of them have, basically, this same core philosophy. THEY'RE ALL SAYING THE SAME THING. Which means that none of them are really original any more. They don't need to keep saying the same thing that everybody knows already.

So, my fellow marketers and advertising professionals, quit talking and just get back to marketing. Take your lofty philosophies (most of which I agree with, by the way), and use them! Do marketing! And do it with excellence and effectiveness, and be remarkable, and earn fans for your clients, and stop trying to use your philosophy to prove that you're different. Just do great work.

Yesterday I stumbled upon this article on MediaPost.com, describing the website of NC-based agency Boone Oakley. Boone Oakley seems to be saying the same thing I've been thinking (just in slightly different words than I would have chosen). And actually, their "website" isn't a website at all, but rather an interactive (haha) YouTube video. Check it out: http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=107402

*definition of interactive advertising (by Haley) - advertising that involves two-way communication between a company and its customers, rather than the traditional one-way communication found in media like tv commercials, radio spots, billboards, magazine ads, etc. To do this, interactive advertising agencies often use tools like public relations events, customizable products, Internet ads, company websites, online contests, customer review sites, microsites, blogs, text-messaging, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, iPhone applications, etc. Hence the website of any agency that does any interactive work at all is typically very creative and...well...interactive.