If “Nobody Goes to Websites,” What Else Is "Nobody" Doing?

Everybody knows that direct mail is dead. Print also is dead. Email might be dead (at the very least it’s terminal). Now some are saying that websites, too, are approaching the Big By and By. Where are we going with all this?

Kathy Hanbury’s great blog post “The Future of Content Marketing: 4 Tips to Help You Prepare.” really grabbed me -- especially the point made by her 17-year old daughter, who reportedly claimed that “Nobody goes to websites.”

Kathy thinks the statement may be premature and I suppose it is in 2011. But in the next couple years? I’m not so sure. I mean it, folks! Sometime in 2015 it’s entirely possible that people won’t go to websites. It’s likely that the “internets” will simply be a gathering spot, a sort of digital waterhole.

I probably wouldn’t have reacted so strongly to this teen message if I hadn’t this very morning happened upon Say Media’s “website.” I spent about 20 precious minutes there, running around the site, trying to figure out what the heck I was watching.

Is it entertainment? An advertisement? Promotion? A celebration of color and video and art? If this is a website, it sure doesn’t act like one. Now consider that Say Media is doing this in 2011.

So, yes, I think Kathy’s daughter is right. Nobody goes to “websites.” But “nobody” does go to Facebook, the mommy blogs, Polyvore and sneakpeeq.

We’re in the thick(et) of the new “non-website” Internet and I need to get with it.

TrendCentral seems like a great place for the uninitiated (me) to start. This appears to be the motherlode of websites I never heard of … which drags me to my (growing) list of other non-website eventualities that marketers should be contemplating:

1. Nobody shops in stores. [Note: A U.K. retailer is now offering 90-minute order delivery.]

2. Nobody goes out to vote.

3. Nobody goes to the movies. [Netflix video streaming is up 45% over last year.]

4. Nobody drives to work.

5. Nobody phones the police.

6. Nobody goes to school. [75% of college presidents say online learning is the best way to solve budget problems.]

7. Nobody “reads” information. [Those watching more online video is up 83% this year.]

If these “nobodies” reflect the future, then most of tomorrow's marketing activities will also be “on screen” and most will be extravagantly visual. Like Say Media ...

-- scrubbed by Marketing Brillo