Rich Media Maven

(Content courtesy of Will Frome, Buisness Technology Consultant with Preferred Tecnology Solutions, email: Will.frome@preferredtechnology.com)

Ah synchronicity! What fun, especially when it connects you with a former colleague. When Will was just a pup in the film/video business, he location managed a music video for me more years ago than either of us will confess to! So I send him some promotional material for my Craftsman bungalow that I market for location shooting, because he’s still listed in our local professional directory as a location manager.

But as it turns out, Will is now consulting for the hardware installation of those incredibly beautiful, wide plasma monitors in the waiting rooms, lobbies, and retail stores that greet us more often everyday.

The medium is called digital signage. And for the monitors that serve no more function than to be cable feeds for CNN, that’s an appropriate label. But for those monitors with split screens and customized programming featuring the product, process, or profiles of the businesses where people wait, or consult at the point of their purchase, I call this rich media. It is rich media that can market you and your business to the easiest customers you can attract — the customers that are already in your business locale.

Will described it as “marketing within your walls”. These monitors are popping up everywhere…department stores, boutiques, malls, doctors’ offices, attorneys’ offices, ad and PR agencies, and soon, elevators in tall buildings. I just read an account a few days ago of the surge in New York to capture the attention and use the time that commuters have while getting to the office. And that includes those long rides up elevators to their offices.

We are in a schedule-driven culture. Therefore, “time is becoming the new currency” according to David Little of Keywest Technology. So “compelling” and “engaging” are the key descriptors of content creation and content is the key to credible marketing within the walls of a business or even an elevator!

I ran into a bank a few hours ago to deposit a check. The widescreen monior in the bank had the Animal Planet channel on (and I thought piping in CNN was a waste!)…Why?…This nationally known bank had nothing better than that to broadcast? What about home loans, equity loans, new acconts, student accounts, travellers’ checks, ya-dah, ya-dah, ya-dah?

I go to an eye doctor who is already extremely market savvy. i can’t go in there to have a pair of glasses adjusted that I don’t get a follow-up survey inquiring as to the speed, service quality, and superior treatment by the staff. He also has 3 widescreen monitors that display in a graphically pleasing, animated presentation the services offered by his practice. Yet i have approached his organization to consider interviews with the doctors, opticians, and technicians regarding services, alternative vision corrections, and information regarding abnormalities, diseases, and tests to check for these situations. They are interested. They like the sharing of information.

I encountered an attorney at a networking event who’d been at another attorney’s office for a closing. That office had three monitors with awards, personal interview profiles of the partners, and the specialized services of the firm. So he’s interested as well. His office has nothing like that.

I’ll talk more about this subject later. But think of the alternative uses for this kind of information!

1. Post the information on the business’ web site.
2. Put the information on a CD or DVD and hand it out to a patron to take home.
3. Use the information on CD or DVD to hand out at a trade show.
4. Use the information on a monitor in a booth at a trade show.
5. Strip off the audio and edit for a podcast online or on a CD for distribution.

The investment of originating that kind of promotional and informational content can be re-purposed to maximize a business’ marketing in several categories.

Rich media can help make a business “rich”!

Posted on July 30th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Rich Media Basics | No Comments »

As Joan would say, “Can we talk?” According to the Wharton School of Business, some experts are calling new media, that is audio and video components online, Television 2.0. It’s part of doing business in the 2.0 environment, that is, on the Internet.

I talk to many businesses who are perfectly happy with what they have online-sans new media. Their business is good and that’s wonderful for now. “Why change?” they ask.

I reply diplomatically with a chuckle to soften my response, “Oh, pullease!”

Your crystal ball doesn’t require much visionary steam to see that rich media on the web, or Television 2.0, is part of doing business on your online platform.

Short Term ROI

Adding rich media such as video intro/elevator speeches to your site when it loads, podcasts or videos telling your story of a process, product, featured employees, and customer endorsements, will raise you above the dine of your competitors.

It makes your site “sticky” in that there is more to check out and more to learn about you and your business. So there’s a reason to “stick” around and check out your site.

Longer Term ROI

In the next 12-24 months with corporate Web presences multiplying to MySpace and YouTube, Television 2.0 on your business sites will be expeted.

Chatting casually with a Boomer at a recent gathering, I was informed that if a site did NOT have media, there was reason to question the business’s ability to keep up with current business trends in general.

I don’t know that I would pass that severe a judgment at this point in time. But I do think the Day of Rich Media 2.0 Judgment is not that far off.

Introduce Yourself, Your Passion and your Business

In 2003, I launched my ADD Coaching site, www.katherinelisti.com. I have a video intro that begins when the page loads. I would change it drastically if I was producing it in 2007. But for 2003, it was very cutting edge!

My reasoning at the time was that coaching has a personal component to the business relationship—more personal than your usual business transaction. So I wanted potential clients to meet me right up front for a meter reading. They were either going to like me or not, so let’s get it over with.

Today in mid-2007, I would describe an online video introduction as a way for potential customers and colleagues to meet you and shake hands across town, the state, the region, or the country. Visitors to your site get a sense, a feeling, an inkling about you when they see you introducing yourself and talking about your passion and your business. They observe your persona consciously and unconsciously. If they like you, they may contact you. If they don’t like you, it saves both of you the stress and strain of withdrawing from a non-match.

So an online video introduction can act as a “filter” for future contacts. But that filter will encourage more than limit. And as soon as I can find some decent statistics on that, I will share!

But in the meantime, no matter the generation – Boomer, Gen X-er, Gen Y-er, or Millennium…We’re all products of the motion picture/television culture. And therefore, rich media or Television 2.0 is going to make for a more dynamic web site for potential customers, current customers (coming back for more), and colleagues, than flat html!

Posted on July 11th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Rich Media Basics | No Comments »

Checked my local Apple store for the throngs of customers waiting to get their hands on the new Apple iPhone. How I envied them! I am an Apple devotee and a gadg-aholic. I’ve been carrying a Treo 650 for 3 three years now-not the same one, you understand-lost one in the Albuquerque airport last year and got to upgrade. (Keep up those $4.95 insurance payments to your cell provider! Once I cancelled the insurance, promptly lost my current phone, and it cost $300 to get the most boring basic cell phone you ever saw!) So when I sprang for the Treo when it came out, the insurance was a no-brainer.

Back to the iPhone–talk, listen to music, surf the net, map a location, send/receive email AND YouTube viewing. “iPhone delivers the best YouTube mobile experience by far,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “Now users can enjoy YouTube wherever they are—on their iPhone, on their Mac or on a widescreen TV in their living room with Apple TV.”

All the iPhone applications were designed according to Web 2.0 internet standards which makes them more interactive and easier to use. That means third party applications using Web 2.0 standards can be added to the device without hampering its functionality.

So for those of you whose iPhones are activated, party on! For those of you still waiting for A T and T to catch up, the wait will be worth it. Hang on for the ride. If I know Apple, there’s more to come!

Posted on July 2nd, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Rich Media Hardware | 1 Comment »

Rich Media is anything that moves or makes sound. Most frequently, rich media refers to audio and/or video and animation on the Web.

Wikipedia categorizes rich media and multimedia as synonymous:

Multimedia (Lat. Multum + Medium) is media that uses multiple forms of
information content and information processing (e.g. text, audio, graphics,
animation, video, interactivity) to inform or entertain the (user) audience.
Multimedia also refers to the use of (but not limited to) electronic media to
store and experience multimedia content. Multimedia is similar to
traditional mixed media in fine art, but with a broader scope. The term
“rich media” is synonymous with multimedia. Multimedia means that
computer info can be represented through audio, graphics, image, video
and animation in addition to traditional media(text and graphics).
Hypermedia can be considered one particular multimedia application.

So examples of rich media for a person or business’ Web presence would be:

1. Talking head video introduction of solo-preneur or entrepreneur, director, or
CEO of an organization.
http://www.katherinelisti.com/ from 2003
http://www.kalproductions.com/documentary.html -Click on Leadership to see how video quality has progressed to it
2. Podcasts that contain introductory material, information, training, or
promotional material about your business.
http://www.smallbusinesspodcast.com/
3. Video introduction in combination with highlighting facility or plant, or mode
of operation.
http://www.timestencellars.com/video.html
4. Employee orientation
http://www.scouting.org/supply/orientation/
5. Profile or any message combining audio and stills
http://www.chicagobusiness.com/25video/
6. Training
http://www.kalproductions.com/training.html
7. Documentary short features highlighting an aspect of your business, an
employee, or a customer.

http://www-03.ibm.com/innovation/us/adv/special/index.shtml?P_Campaign=106AW02W&P_Site=S191&P_Creative=U1IH00L0

 -
http://ge.ecomagination.com/site/index.html

The above uses of rich media can maximize your marketing efforts by being available 24/7, with the ease of saying, “Check out my Web site and take a look at …”

By the way, check out Rich Media Maven’s production site at: http://www.kalproductions.com/

Posted on June 13th, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Rich Media Basics | No Comments »

I am Katherine Listi, award-winning film and video producer and director.

I produced, directed, and starred in my first neighborhood production on McGregor Street when I was five years old and I’ve been telling stories on stages of all kinds or on film and video ever since!

Background: school plays, community musical theatre, speech and debate in high school, “Drama Mama” in college, Psychology of Communications in undergrad and graduate level, high school speech teacher, professional actress for on-camera and voiceover, speech, drama, and debate teacher, talent coordinator for professional talent agency, and corporate communications and training in corporate America for 23 years.

My Internet Prophecy is coming true!

I was told in the mid 90’s that I would be out of a job as a film and video producer if I didn’t get with the whole Internet game. My response was: And you think the Internet won’t eventually carry video? And who’s going to produce that? Me among many…

2006 was the breakthrough year of video on the Web.

And I am now freelancing as the Rich Media Maven, head of my own production company. Check out my fabulous, moving picture site at www.kalproductions.com or click on Rich Media Maven’s Production Site under the Blogroll heading at the right.

As the Rich Media Maven, I can consult or produce for you, rich media–video or film and podcasts–for your business, your company, and your Web site. Re-purposing video and podcast material can extend your recorded material beyond yourself and market for you 24/7.

My personal passion is the renovation of historic homes. I’ve done 4 since the 80’s. Aahh! The stories in those homes.

Aahh the stories in you and your business!
Need to train? There’s a story there too.

Let’s have a “cup o’ jo” and blog!

Posted on June 2nd, 2007 by admin
Filed under: Video on the Web | 1 Comment »