Multimedia projects are more important to a business than ever--Web sites are one of the primary tools customers use to interact with a company, and multimedia presentations on CDs, DVDs, and video have become a corporate standard.
Nevertheless, while having in-house multimedia staff was common up until about six months ago, the downturn in the economy has made it hard to justify keeping them onboard, says Danin Kahn, CEO of Web and multimedia design company Glass Onion.
As a result, a trend towards outsourcing multimedia projects has emerged and a multitude of companies have stepped up to the task. However, before a company commits to an outsourcer for its multimedia projects, there are a few critical things to consider.
The obvious question: why?
It may seem obvious, but before you hire a company to design your Web site or create a multimedia presentation, it is crucial to understand why you want the project done.
"One thing we always ask when going into projects is why people are actually doing it," says Kahn.
"That was a question that was non-existent in the dot-com age, but now I think it's fairly relevant. Clients who are considering a project need to know the answer to: why am I doing this? And, if I'm going to spend 20 or 30 thousand dollars on something, how am I going to make that money back? Am I going to make it back in one year? Two years? If I'm not going to make it back in two years, then maybe I should reconsider doing it at all."
Suzanne Delany, director of integrated marketing company Rethink Solutions, agrees that people can get caught up in the idea of having a flashy Web site without thinking about why they really need it.
"It's really about understanding the message you want to convey and selecting the medium for it," she explains. "Indeed, it might be a new Web site, but it could also be a number of other things such as a mail chart or a competition that drives people to an existing Web site."
In essence, like any other corporate task, it is crucial for a company to have a well thought out business strategy before it commits to a multimedia project.
According to Chris Badenoch, creative director of multimedia and advertising company, Raw Creative, it's always best to make a business plan for a Web site and to break it up into stages. That way, a company can see how a project evolves and each stage of the project can be evaluated.
"One stage might really affect what happens to the next," he says. "If you have a plan, your Web site will evolve in the direction you want it to, and you're not just going to have this monster with six heads going in six different directions. A lot of times Web sites are not designed to grow and people just keep adding and adding and it just becomes cancerous."
15%
7%
