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