Christmas is a time for glitz, but what if a demand for interactive Web sites, flashing e-mail cards, whizz-bang presentations, and all things multimedia suddenly falls at IT's door?
Getting into the swing of Christmas is all very well. Some companies send interactive Flash Christmas cards, devise fun Christmas Web sites, make film clips of staff doing "crazy" things to show at the Christmas party, and some really push the sleigh out with an all-singing, all-dancing multimedia presentation for end of year staff and client events.
But the laughing soon stops when the marketing wizards expect the IT goblins to come up with these goodies at the drop of a Santa's hat. Multimedia has become the darling of marketing departments, and rightly so. No one in their right mind wants to sit through a mind-numbing PowerPoint slide show, especially when there is dancing and drinking to be done.
But it's not all about making PowerPoint look pretty. It can include video editing, compiling soundtracks, adding special effects or computer generated graphics, creating games and interactive content, CD-ROMs, and dynamic Web content to name a few. Although these may sound technical, and therefore perhaps belonging in IT's sack, they are specialised areas of expertise with creativity at their core.
If you get it right, you position your company on the cutting edge of technology and the IT department gets a big pat on the back. But it can easily go so wrong, says Robert Beerworth, managing director of Web specialist Wiliam, whose clients include ANZ.com.
"Much like SOHO desktop publishing and Web development software, landing one's hands on presentation and multimedia authoring software requires no more than a free download of iMovie and suddenly, everyone is a multimedia author," says Beerworth. "Ultimately however, if a seamless, stylish and professional presentation is required by an organisation--whatever the event--outsourcing to professionals is almost always the answer," he adds.
Visual not technicalAccording to Beerworth, IT isn't responsible for desktop publishing, advertising or Web site design, so shouldn't be expected to have a clue as to the keys to a successful multimedia presentation.
"While there is most certainly a technical component to multimedia presentations, as far as those watching are concerned, it's all visual and that is where the driving motivation should come from,"he says.
The exception to the rule might be where an organisation has in-house designers and producers. "Rarely if ever are these talents found in the IT department of an organisation--we've all seen an intranet designed by techies!" says Beerworth. "There can of course be something cute about the homemade look of a multimedia presentation produced by non-designers when appropriate; nothing extenuates the bad and oversized photos of the mid-year office picnic than the rainbow background," he adds.
Lena Malouf, founding president of the International Special Events Society (ISES) in Australia, says some companies try and do everything themselves, whilst others use an event management company (EMC) to source quotes for lights, sounds, decoration, and so on, and bring those quotes back to the client. "But if an IT department goes direct to a lighting company and direct to an entertainment organiser, for example, who is going to administer, coordinate, design, and produce the overall event?" she asks.
"In the 1980s companies would come to us and say 'we want to do this event' and would ask for an invoice after the event, but companies now want to know what they are going to get for their money beforehand," she adds.
Silvana La Pegna, business manager at corporate event management company (EMC) Business Media puts multimedia presentations into a category she calls 'speaker support', and warns that timing is key.
"If a company decides in December that it needs something for Christmas, getting help from an EMC will be hard. We need more than a week or two lead time," she says.
One alternative is to approach a company that specialises in just creating multimedia presentations for clients.
"You might choose between an EMC that offers on-screen presentation expertise along with other management services and an on-screen presentation specialist. But some on-screen presentation specialists don't have account management services. During the run up to an event, things can change and you need a supplier who will change and problem solve with you," she says.
Business Media has created presentations and multimedia productions costing from $5000 to $50,000. "Clients might want to run TV feeds into presentations, or other such trickery, and the software to do this is available but there is still a lot of labour involved in bringing it all together," says La Pegna.
If the IT professional in charge of the project is not the single decision maker and has to meet with a committee at points along the way, "this can have the IT expert pulling his or her hair out," says La Pegna.
It is also crucial to match the objectives of the event to the presentation, which sometimes does not happen if the company organises the event separately from the presentation, warns La Pegna.
For external client events, companies want to communicate success, and the presentation tends to be informative, intelligent, topical, and entertaining, she says. For internal events, it tends to be more people focused.
"If you deliver a hardcore business presentation at a lighthearted Christmas event, it never works. I'm always surprised when even the most intelligent companies get this wrong," she says.
La Pegna says it is unusual for an IT professional to call her company unless they are "in distress". "The IT department might be given, for example, a 3D project for the end-of-year Christmas event and soon realise that it requires dedicated time and effort, and they are committed to a deadline they can't meet," she adds. This is usually when La Pegna receives the call.
"They lean on us for what they can't do internally. There is a trend in event management to try and get clients to do what they do well and outsource the rest to professionals, whose turnaround times will be faster," she says.
Marketing know-howAccording to Mathew Adams, client services director at graphic, Web, and multimedia design specialist Carnival Media Group, three years ago multimedia was technically driven, and IT departments had to be involved, but now marketing departments have a better understanding of what is going on.
"They want to be involved and are coming to us saying 'let us drive this through you' rather than the other way round," he says.
Adams says that as of November time, Christmas projects are all his company seems to do. "A company might approach us to produce a Flash file for a presentation at a party, to send out interactive Christmas cards to their database of clients, to communicate Christmas office opening hours to staff, produce Christmas-themed desktop backgrounds, or to wish them a Happy Christmas via the intranet," he says.
"Rather than print 2500 paper Christmas cards they can send out an interactive card or flash file via e-mail, which if we get the creative right will be sent on virally, so the sender achieves far greater reach than the 2500 names in their database," he adds.
Adams says companies will pay between $200 for a screensaver through $1000 for a banner ad or e-mail card up to between $5000 and $10,000 for a shiny new Christmas presentation.
"It is mostly blue chip clients who do the big presentations, but smaller companies are coming to us for interactive Christmas cards. For companies with revenues from $80,000 to a couple of million, it is quite affordable," says Adams.
Carnival's services are enlisted by both IT and marketing departments, depending on the size and type of company. "Marketing will often approach IT and say 'we want to do this for Christmas' and IT speaks to companies like us because they are familiar with analysing the costings and what it entails," says Adams.
Adams is more likely to talk directly to the IT department of larger corporations, he says, but it depends on the nature of the project.
"If, for example, it is a DVD presentation on a screen in the foyer, we can do that direct with marketing, but if a lot of files are going to sit on the client's server, and we have to integrate with their host and their software, then we have to liaise closely with IT to determine their user demographic and test our products on their platforms," he says. "This is especially true for projects that are very database driven. A client might have data that is put into an HTML interface feeding into its CRM or Lotus Notes database, so our scripting has to be spot on," he adds.
WHO'S OUT THERE Following are some multimedia and event management companies we came across when researching this article. WILIAM THE SPONGE BUSINESS MEDIA CARNIVAL MEDIA LOUDER THAN WORDS |
Carnival's prices range from $2500 to $10,000. "For $2500 you can get a presentation with screen animation, content slides, maybe music and voice over," says Adams. "For $10,000 you get a hybrid of animation, video, light, sound, colour, sourced footage, text, interviews, and things changing shape--the works. You will get a TV commercial (TVC) quality presentation."
Carnival recently worked for MGI Meyrick Webster, one of the top 20 accounting firms in Australia. "The company has an extensive IT department, but we look after its five separate Web sites, and deliver onscreen multimedia presentations for its end of year business forum," says Adams.
Danielle Brasher, marketing assistant at MGI Meyrick Webster says her IT department doesn't have Flash skills, so bought in Carnival to organise the presentations for the annual business forum, at a cost of around $2500. "We had a series of guest speakers, and the presentation ran on two large screens with a voice-over audio, and then later, when food and drinks were being served, the presentation ran on plasma screens out in the lobby," says Brasher.
VIDEO KILLED THE PODIUM STARAccording to Jonathan Packard, director at video production company Louder Than Words, there is an emerging trend in corporate clients using video to communicate business information in an engaging manner, and the main aim of this is to either motivate your staff or clients, or to enhance their enjoyment of an event.
"A lot of companies think it's more expensive than it actually is. But you've got to know how to film something so that it is funny or motivational," says Packard.
"We see our target audience as companies who use PowerPoint and are beginning to realise that video is a good way to enhance their presentations," says Packard. "Rather than have client comments in text format on a presentation, we can go out and video happy clients and show the clips of them talking about a company, which even on a modest budget can look high quality and professional," he adds.
Packard says increasingly company directors don't want to stand up and present at events and are choosing to use video instead, so that they can relax and enjoy themselves, and not have to worry about fluffing their lines. This is especially pertinent at Christmas events where the drink is normally flowing.
Packard's customers such as Telstra, Pfizer, and Commonwealth Bank are beginning to realise that producing a video is not as expensive as it once was. "If you have a $3000 budget, we can do something that looks pretty good," says Packard.
The advantage of getting a professional in, says Packard, is that if done in-house it can look a bit like a home movie as IT departments don't have the right tools, or use of graphics to make it look good.
"Most IT departments know how to embed video into PowerPoint," says Packard. "It's not the technical side of it but the artistic side that they need help with. Shooting a film is easy, it's getting the timing right and direction right to make it work," he adds.
But its not just large corporations who are outsourcing multimedia projects. Louder Than Words recently produced a Christmas party video for a company with a $15 million per year revenue, 30 staff, and a single person IT department.
"If a company has no idea what it wants, we offer consultancy and help it come up with something clever. If the budget is low, we can even do it on-the-fly on the day of filming, because we have an experienced in-house director," explains Packard.
Louder Than Words has also worked for Telstra, as part of its volunteer program Telstra Friends, supplying the presentation for its annual Awards ceremony in October 2003.
"Telstra wanted the evening to run like an Academy Awards ceremony, with each award being introduced with a video clip," explains Packard. As the hostess introduced each award, a video clip showing a funny scenario featuring an actor, was played. "For example, the Clean Up Australia Award's film clip showed an actor picking up rubbish and putting it into a bag, only for it to fall out through a hole in the bag," says Packard.
Powerpoint and beyondLuke Faccini, managing director of graphic design company The Sponge has dabbled in the Christmas market for a multinational client's end of year functions. "We did a visual display with soundtrack incorporating messages from the general manager from overseas congratulating the team on their success, introducing some faces, and giving a summary of goals for the coming year," says Faccini.
"Most companies do not have a department, IT or otherwise, that can do editing or have access to audio production equipment," says Faccini. "In this instance, we took their existing PowerPoint presentation, added some animation, some different titles, and transitions, all the extras that don't come packaged with PowerPoint," he adds.
Using Macromedia Flash, The Sponge outputs the presentation to a CD and creates keyboard commands that allow a presenter to navigate the presentation from a laptop plugged into a projector. "We don't have to attend the event, as it is all done for the presenter already, but the first time we did to make sure everything went well," says Faccini.
This project came in at around $15,000, which included consulting. "We like to sit down and discuss what the customer wants, translate it into what is possible and then add enhanced features, and continue to inform them throughout the project of what options they have and what best suits their company. It is always important to lift it that bit further," says Faccini.
Is it worth it?According to Wiliam's Beerworth, ultimately, whether a long or short presentation is required, the justification for outsourcing will depend on the visual quality of the presentation demanded by the organisation.
"As a starting point, the cost of a multimedia presentation will depend largely on the length and detail: will the presentation be interactive or more of a slideshow or movie? Will the organisation provide art guidelines and artwork? Is a strong storyboard provided or required?" he asks.
"Multimedia presentations need not be expensive, though they can be surprisingly so. Interestingly, it is often seemingly the smallest requests by a client that can add thousands of dollars to the production," adds Beerworth.
Other questions you need to ask yourself are what the cost will be of tying up internal staff that lack the skills and efficiency of a multimedia production firm, and whether there is any negative fallout if the presentation is overtly amateurish, or simply doesn't work.
"Also ask whether the multimedia presentation justifies the expense of outsourcing, especially if staff will be in the 'ties loosened, hair down' mood, ready to excuse IT's efforts. There are many downsides to having the IT department complete the multimedia presentation, however for the Christmas party where only staff are in attendance, many of the downsides can be carefully overlooked," says Beerworth.
"After all, the internal office cricket game flyer wasn't sent to George Patterson Bates for design. In the Christmas Party context, the realistic downsides therefore are either that the presentation simply fails to work or particular laws are broken in respect to the rights of those in the workplace," he adds.
The type and depth of multimedia presentation required will dictate whether a specialist provider is required, says Beerworth. "Most capable Web design firms can handle mid-range Flash presentations," he says. "There are also specialist multimedia firms that lean closer to highly-engaging and interactive kiosk and CD ROM production, and providers that handle more movie-based work such as TVCs and very high-end presentations," he adds.
It is crucial for the IT person to sit down and scope out the components of the project and work out what they can do in the timeframe and whether to bring the experts in, says Business Media's La Pegna. "We will always make the IT professional the hero at the end of the day, all we need to know is what they are able to take on," she adds.
According to Beerworth outsourcing a multimedia presentation ensures that within reason, the production will be completed, on time and on budget. "A particular level of quality is assured and the audience will most definitely notice the effort; people will continue to talk well into the New Year."
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