Okay, so the post title may be a little tough to comprehend, but on Monday, a bus billboard made me question the efficiency--even the purpose--of slapping one's website URL on every marketing touchpoint.
Case in point here was the aforementioned bus ad for a breakfast specialty restaurant in my parts called Chez Cora. The ad was a simple one, basically pairing the words "Wake Up Montreal!" with Cora's sunshine logo. That's it. Nothing else.
Conspicuous in its absence was the company's web address...which got me to thinking--at first--that someone had forgotten it.
But then, upon more profound reflection (all this at a red light, I must add), I figured that what benefit would it have added to this ad? Was I really going to grab a pen or my BlackBerry and take a note of www.chezcora.com while waiting for the light to change?
And if by some chance, say I really wanted to visit the company online, today's search engine technology would bring me there, eventually, even if I misspelled the name.
URLs obviously have their place, particularly in "teaser ads" like the one for Moxi in this month's Wired (the headline reads "Stay Interesting," the subhead says "It'll change the way you look at TV," and then there's the URL moxi.com). These ads are mere jump points to a more detailed, more compelling web selling experience.
But as time marches on, most URLs will be irrelevant to plain folk, relegated to become background code, kinda like our IP addresses or our DNA structure (or even telephone numbers, many of which are anonymously hidden behind names or nicknames on our SpeedDial lists). Like a good limo driver, we'll just ask our web devices to take us to our destination. They'll know the address.
In the tradition of the 1989 Field Of Dreams maxim of "If you build it, they will come," today's website slogan should be: "If we wanna go somewhere, we'll find it." Without ever taking note of the URL.
Right now, I'm starving. I wonder if Chez Cora is still open?