Peter R. Tierney
|
Before joining Sawyer Media, Peter Tierney spent four years
as president and chief executive officer of MarketFirst Software
Corporation, a company that specializes in maximizing the effectiveness
of marketing programs. Within three years he led the company
to a leading position in the enterprise marketing automation
field.
Prior to MarketFirst, Mr. Tierney was president and CEO of
Inference Corporation, a vendor of knowledge management content
tools. There he reorganized the company, shifting it from a consulting-based
expert systems supplier to a leader in the knowledge management
market. |
The Competitive Advantages of Rich Media [PDF]
By Peter R. Tierney, President & CEO, Sawyer Media Systems
The world we live in is visual—but most business communication
isn't. Think about the following facts:
• Studies show that people retain only 10% of the information
they read, 20% of the information they hear, but 50% of the
information they see and hear1;
• According to a 1971 study by UCLA professor Albert
Mehrabian, body language and facial expressions represent about
55% of the
information that people interpret2;
• Three generations of business users have been raised
watching television, so they intuitively understand the way
stories are presented in a visual medium; and
• The rapidly increasing penetration of broadband in
both homes (79% of US Internet homes by 2008)3 and businesses
(80% of Global 2000 companies by 2006)4 means that
rich media can take advantage of the Internet's reach and interactivity
to deliver video, voice, data and animation on a scale never
seen before.
That's quite a lot of detailed information to digest. What
it boils down to is this: as a business communication vehicle,
rich media can engage, entertain and inform business audiences
faster and far more effectively than any other type of
communication.
But the question remains: Why aren't more companies using it?
Rich Media Barriers are Falling
To date, businesses have used rich media primarily as a vehicle
for sales and marketing initiatives such as streaming e-mails,
online ads and Flash animation on the corporate Web site. Although
these initiatives have generally been successful, the difficulty
in storing, presenting and re-purposing this media for other
uses has limited its effectiveness and minimized its return on
investment.
Several factors are changing that. First is the digital revolution—with
the prices for digital still cameras, digital video cameras and
digital editing equipment falling rapidly, rich media is increasingly
within reach of companies with even the leanest budgets. Second,
the growing broadband penetration, noted above, presents the
opportunity for companies to re-think the way they're communicating
with customers, prospects, partners and employees. As McKinsey & Company
found in a recent report:
"[Broadband] is already changing the architecture of many companies...as
universities drive their curricula on-line, for instance, remote-learning
services will improve greatly and new educational possibilities
will arise...in a variety of areas, including financial services,
health care, the public sector, and retailing, we are beginning
to see broadband deployed in ways that, on a larger scale, could
alter the way markets work. The use of interactive video to deliver
professional banking-advisor services is one such example..."5
The third factor allowing companies to effectively use rich
media is a new model called the Enterprise Media Network (EMN),
a combination of technology and services that allows companies
to not only store and archive their media but distribute it via
a Web-based interface. An EMN can also measure how that media
was viewed, allowing companies to read and analyze key data from
their rich media initiatives.
It's useful to think of the EMN as sitting in the center of
the enterprise, supporting key departments with rich media communication
that engages, entertains and informs key audiences, increasing
their retention and converting it to potential revenue. But besides
serving as a revenue-generator, an EMN will also immediately
start saving companies thousands—and sometimes millions—of
dollars, by doing away with the all-too-common "silo" approach
to rich media production. Media-enabled Business Processes
With digital costs falling, the broadband channel enabled and
EMNs available to make storage, delivery and reporting hassle-free,
companies are finally able to adopt rich media as an essential
tool for improving business processes across the enterprise—including
marketing, sales, human resources, employee training, customer
service and partner relationships. It's a shift in thinking away
from media projects to media-enabled business processes,
and here's how it could look in your company:
• Product launch—Perhaps the most important
factor in a successful product launch is a prepared, educated
sales force. A Web-based media portal that accommodates 24/7
access by remote sales teams can get them there fast. Such
a portal can host both media files and more traditional print
collateral,
enabling companies to train sales teams with diverse learning
styles. When training is complete, the company can use the
same portal to provide the teams with the mixed media they
need, like
product demos, sales presentation, print collateral and promotional
material, to hit the ground running in support of a successful
launch;
• Partner relationships—Competing channel
partners often have difficulty getting the right information
from the company they're supporting. But with an EMN, the company
can continually upload media files such as customer testimonials,
analyst interviews and corporate overviews that channel partners
can leverage to more effectively promote the company. Equally
important, the company can set different levels of security
for each file to control access among competing partners. Reporting
features allow companies to determine which partners are most
actively using the media, and which media is the most effective
for each partner, helping the company increase revenue through
its channels; and
• Crisis communication—In a crisis, time is
of the essence. Business executives know they've got to get the
right information to the right people as quickly as possible
to restore consumer confidence. Certainly, it can be done with
text. But the importance of seeing and hearing a company's leader
during trying times simply can't be underestimated. Integrating
a reliable enterprise media network enables companies to rapidly
respond to crises with targeted rich media communication, and
also lets them protect their most important asset—their
reputation.
Benefits That Go Beyond Dollars
As important as quantifiable cost-savings are, the benefits
of shifting from project-based rich media to strategic media-enabled
business processes go beyond dollars. According to research done
by the Yankee Group, companies using rich media have reported
significant enhancements in areas that are sometimes difficult
or impossible to quantify precisely, such as:
• Faster time-to-market;
• Increased sales force and partner productivity;
• Increased customer satisfaction and loyalty;
• Decreased customer service time;
• Competitive positioning;
• Greater market share;
• Shorter sales cycles;
• Higher-quality sales leads; and
• More efficient employee training and education programs6
The evidence is clear—the competitive advantage goes to
companies that embrace rich media. Not the rich media of yesterday,
but strategic rich media that enables business processes, creating
a more streamlined, more productive and more cost-effective business.
The next generation of business communication is here.
"You Can't Ignore Visual Media"
Silicon Valley-based Hyperion, the
global leader of Business Performance Management (BPM)
software, has been growing steadily since its founding
in 1991. Hyperion's products and services have benefited
more than 6,000 customers in dozens of countries, supported
by Hyperion's 2,100 worldwide employees. But recently
that same widespread corporate population was becoming
increasingly difficult to reach.
Kathi Fox, Vice President of Corporate
Marketing for Hyperion, knew that she needed to change
the way the company communicated to keep employees both
informed and interested. She also knew that rich media
was the way to accomplish that. "Visual communication
is memorable," explains Fox. "If you send somebody something
to download, print and read, it's not as engaging. You
can ignore attachments, but you can't ignore visual media."
The first priority for Fox was to
engage the field sales and field marketing groups. As
the most geographically distant groups in any organization,
sales and marketing employees in the field are also the
most in need of a constant stream of information. "I've
worked with sales folks, and they always remember Web
stuff, videos, visual presentations," Fox says.
But Fox also knew from experience
that rich media vendors would not provide what Hyperion
was looking for—not only high quality media, but
an understanding of how that media could be used across
the enterprise to meet business goals. As Fox recalls, "With
the vendors we'd used in the past, they could only do
a small piece, like the production, and then I would
end up putting the other pieces together, like distribution
or testing or reporting. We needed more."
That's when Fox met Sawyer Media
Systems, an Enterprise Media Solutions company that brought
a unique combination of rich media production, consulting
and technology. Sawyer Media was able to produce the
high quality programming that Hyperion needed, while
also providing expert consulting on how to get the best
results out of that media. Sawyer Media also brought
to the table its flagship platform, MediaPresenter, which
allowed Hyperion to create a customized Web-based interface
that would serve as a central location for all the new
media being produced.
"The interface—which we're calling
the Hyperion Zone—is a wonderful blend of information
and entertainment. We've created an animated character
called Harry Hyperion to host and guide people through
both the rich media and the text-based PDFs on the site," Fox
explains.
Asked what types of information Hyperion
will be communicating, Fox replied, "Everything! Corporate
information, customer stories, product information. We're
also working on a project now where we've done some research
to get an outside perspective on the BPM category and
how we're viewed. It's really valuable for our employees
to see how our company is viewed from outsiders." Fox
also notes that the rich media used in conjunction with
this project is a great way to reinforce the company's
new brand look and feel.
Hyperion will also be leveraging
the Sawyer Media solution for several large upcoming
rollouts, including Siebel, Documentum and a transition
from Lotus Notes to Outlook. "When we do a big launch
it's hard to rally the troops and the Hyperion Zone will
be part of that rally," Fox says.
With the filming completed—filming
that included success stories, vision pieces, analyst
interviews, thought leadership pieces and a corporate
montage—the Hyperion Zone is expected to roll out
in the spring of 2003. But Fox is already planning for
future quarters. "Going forward, I can see using media
for employee training," Fox says. "And I also want to
hear from our executives. Our CFO has great insights
so let's hear from him about the obstacles we need to
overcome and our quarterly results. Let's hear from our
CIO, who is terrific, about what he's thinking about
this month. I've got a lot of ideas."
Though the Sawyer Media solution
is still in pre-launch mode, Fox is happy with the results
so far. "Ease of use was our primary criterion, followed
by an interesting and entertaining look—and we got
that. The Sawyer Media solution was easy and comprehensive—it
wasn't just one piece. I've got only one person to call
if something doesn't work and that's very nice." |
FOOTNOTES
1: D.G Treichler Research, 1967
2: Bowman, John (2001, January 24). Analyst view: The emergence
of rich media, Red Herring (Web).
3: King, Peter (2002, December). Residential Broadband Modems
and Gateways: Global Market Forecast—Strategy Analytics
(Web).
4: Gartner Group, 2001
5: Beardsley, Scott; Doman, Andrew; & Edin, Pär
(2003, Number 2). Making sense of broadband, The McKinsey Quarterly
(Web).
6: Ritter, Paul (July 2002). Evaluating streaming media technology
investments: The importance of examining strategic benefits as
well as financial returns. The Yankee Group Internet Business
Strategies, p. 8.
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