e.TIMES: Feature Story - Why Corporations Are Using Interactive Multimedia

Why Corporations Are Using Interactive Multimedia for Sales, Marketing and Training
A look at the emerging technology that's changing the way we communicate.
by Traci Hukill

The evolution of the personal computer is bringing a fundamental change to corporate America. Sales, marketing, and training professionals, faced with the daunting task of making an impression on target audiences inundated with high-energy advertising and entertainment in the traditional media, have begun exploring new means of communication for both external and internal projects. They seek high-impact communications that convey information clearly while still being cost effective. Increasing numbers of these communications specialists are finding solutions with interactive multimedia.

Interactive multimedia is viewed on a personal computer with information usually coming from a CD-ROM, hard drive or the Internet. The computer can be at the office, in a kiosk at a variety of locations, a person's laptop computer, or a home computer.

Many of the established methods of corporate communication, like brochures, videos, catalogues, and magazines, are migrating to these newer, higher-tech forms. Compared to a traditional printed sales brochure, for example, an interactive multimedia brochure on CD-ROM goes beyond photos, text and graphics to also include sound, video, animation, and interactivity to grab attention and be memorable.

The Interactive Difference
As the name suggests, interactive multimedia responds to user interactivity, typically by offering menus that guide the user along various information pathways. In this respect it's a revolutionary communication tool, allowing users to easily find the exact information they want while minimizing time and effort sifting through unwanted information. Interactive multimedia also has familiar roots; much like television and film, multimedia combines graphics, sound, video and animation into a single product aimed at telling a story or delivering a message: boy meets girl, meet our company, visit our museum. Interactivity puts a whole new spin on the already-familiar concept of combining media.

When an audience watches a video, information flows in one direction and viewers take a passive role. But when a user sitting at a computer — whether accessing a CD-ROM in the computer or connected via phone lines to the Internet — chooses the information he or she wants, bypassing irrelevant or already familiar material and moving directly to new topics, multimedia evolves into a learning tool that cuts out wasted time while bumping up the number of fronts on which information is presented.

The more senses people engage when absorbing information, the more they comprehend and remember. A class studying the concept of apples might look at pictures of apples, touch apples, smell apples,

taste apples and sing songs about apples — in short, engage as many senses as possible in learning about apples. This tactic achieves two ends: it accommodates different learning styles (some people are primarily visual learners while others respond better to aural or tactile stimuli), and it reinforces personal learning by transmitting the same information into different parts of the brain.

Multimedia by its very nature engages multiple senses, whether the audience group is potential clients getting familiar with your company's products or employees learning new procedures. Skillfully combined imagery, sound and text capture attention more decisively than any of those elements alone, reaching audiences on multiple cognitive levels and resulting in higher retention.

In a paper titled "Why Interactive Multimedia Language Learning," author Brian A. Victoria of the University of Auckland's Multimedia Laboratory at Tamaki reports that "studies have shown that people remember 20% of what they hear, 40% of what they see and hear, but 70% of what they see, hear, and do." In other words, combining media to communicate information is good, but incorporating interactivity is even better.

The degree of interactivity can be adjusted to the program's applications. A touch-screen kiosk in a pharmacy introducing a line of home health care products can allow the average user the ability to navigate through categories of products to find the information he or she wants.

Sales, Marketing and Training
A multimedia sales presentation for a high-tech computer hardware company can provide for different levels of technical comprehension. A salesperson showing the presentation to marketing specialists in the morning might not want to mire the audience in a bog of technical terms, focusing instead on market issues. At that afternoon's meeting with the chief technical officer, however, achieving a level of technical depth is very important. Armed with an interactive presentation, the salesperson can tailor a single presentation to their audience's area of interest and expertise.

3Com Corporation, a global data networking company, is one of many high-tech companies providing its sales force with powerful interactive multimedia presentations. 3Com's Strategic Overview Sales Presentation has proven helpful and easy to use in the field. As Robyn Aber, 3Com Director of Business Development, attests, "The fact that [the designers] were able to be flexible and design the material so it could be used in a number of different ways was very helpful. The presentations could be used in the field in a variety of formats."

Multimedia makes a powerful marketing tool as well, not only because of its ability to make an impact and convey information but because of its potential for wide distribution at low cost. A point-of-purchase kiosk

in a busy store can reach hundreds of people each day for the initial cost of installation. A direct mailing of CD-ROMs — a method many successful marketing specialists have already discovered — presents a distinct and interesting message to thousands of people for a small cost.

Paul Cegielski, Program Manager for 3Com's Remote & Mobile Products division, appreciates the powerful impression multimedia can make. Marketing for the 3ComImpact^TM IQ ISDN modem included point-of-purchase kiosks and promotional CD-ROMs distributed via direct mail and at trade shows (see 3Com's The Impact of ISDN Case Study for more information). "It gets our point across," says Cegielski. "It puts 3Com in the audience's face, and it's enjoyable to watch. It's a very powerful way to get the message across."

But interactive multimedia's advantages don't stop there. Corporations have long understood the benefits of CBT (computer-based training), and now they're discovering the increased value of interactive multimedia training. A corporation growing its sales force, for example, obviously needs to train new hires. It can herd them into a room where an expert salesperson spends a week coaching them on how to give a strong presentation, or it can supply each new hire with several multimedia presentations introducing product lines and including voice-overs of presentations given by experienced, successful salespeople. Not only does the initial cost of training decrease, but the "teacher" stays with the new hire indefinitely, available for reference at any time. (For an in-depth look at the current state of multimedia training, check out The ROI of CBT.)

Interactivity already pervades everyday life, from voice mail and ATMs to more complex training and testing aids. It's only a matter of time before its face evolves to include multimedia on a large scale. With proven advantages over traditional methods of communication, interactive multimedia is poised for a coup in the world of corporate communications.

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