Remember when 'This Website is under construction, please come back real soon! Email our Webmaster here" followed by a crude .gif was a common phenomenon all over the Internet? Well, that era is over. Or at least it should be. There is no excuse for a major brand's website to be "Under Construction" today.
I recently started drinking Ketel One Vodka. Why? Because it makes an exceptionally smooth Vodka Soda, and it is cheaper than Grey Goose. (come on people, C.R.E.A.M) Anyway, as of today, Ketel One's website is under construction, and this is wholly unacceptable. How does a major brand, especially one associated with liquor/spirits giant Diageo, get away with such an egregious marketing violation? Let's do some research.
A quick Whois query shows that the domain name has been registered since 1995 (actually, surprising forward looking given the time), but the domain is curiously set to expire in November of this year - pending intervention by the parent/registrar. Basically, this means that Ketel One has had at least 16 years to get it's shit together, and at least 13 years before the Diageo partnership.
Next, the WayBack Machine will prove that Ketel One has had a functional website since 1996. It had a background texture, grainy images, incorporated several links, and got to the point quite quickly: Ketel One is...the smoothest vodka imaginable. This website ran through 1997. From 1998-2000, things got a little more better, fixed width layout, more graphic navigation, martini recipes -- even a 'free video'. 2000-2008 brought various version of a flash based/intro-ed website. Post 2008, the WayBack Machine has no data, but the copyright/last update date on the current website is from 2009.
Ad Age reports that Grey Worldwide took over the Ketel One account back in 2009, and launched the 'Gentlemen, this is vodka" campaign back in Q2 of that same year. So then, perhaps there was a time lag associated with the changeover. But wait, the website copyright hasn't changed since 2009, and the copy on the website reflects the current campaign. I am going to hypothesize that Grey has been in control of the site since they got the account. Does that mean the site has been under construction for almost two years? [Since I don't have the WayBack Machine to prove my case for 2009-2011, I'm appealing to all of you for the facts]
If Grey were my agency , and they tried to sell me on a placeholder website for any longer than a month, I would have fired them on the spot [nothing personal against Grey!]. I acknowledge that according to the Diageo website, Ketel One is not a 'Global Priority Brand' -- but still, the marginal effort to create a decent website (flash based or not) is quite low. How can you afford not to have something up to date at all times? With social/Internet connected shopping becoming a reality, if you are going to put your URL on your bottle, make sure it leads to something useful. There is no value in investing in QR/mobile/WAP/apps/whatever if you don't have the content to back it up.
And that's the whole point isn't it? Either you have a website or you don't -- and with the abundance of social media outlets and web savvy professionals - is there really an excuse to not have an up to date web presence? Even a basic Twitter/Wikipedia/FB strategy would be sufficient to keep me engaged. There is no currently official Twitter page, and Ketel's Wikipedia game is pretty sparse. The site does direct users to a Facebook fan page, but is not making use of Facebook's integrated features or even the Like button.
Now, I've seen the print/tv/outdoor ads. I totally dig the "Gentlemen, this is vodka" campaign, but how on Earth are you calling yourself marketers with such a newbie move? Keep your old website up until the new one is ready --- or don't introduce the new campaign until all of the collateral is ready! Worried about scaring people off? If you have been collecting emails and gaining fb/twitter fans, you have plenty of ways (don't write off RSS either!) to inform customers about your new site and keep them engaged.
My hastily drawn conclusion: Diageo/Ketel One, call up your account exec at Grey, or any one of the myriad web shops out there and get a real website.
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