Many designers and marketers have discovered that rich media can not only be an exciting challenge for exploring the extent of digital marketing, but can also be a highly effective and interactive way of reaching and engaging customers. Businesses in general are recognizing that the more “contact” a marketing strategy includes with the consumer, the more effective it will be.
This is also in keeping with the overall social trend that online communications and resources are the primary channel for access to information. Still images and text continue to influence consumer decisions, but rich media also engages a sense of play that can generate a response on a more emotional level. The result is a greater use of animation, video, and interactive flash in digital campaigns.
Changing The Changes
Digital reliance, is also evolving. Mobile devices have become a primary vehicle to accesses online content, and this is especially true for social media sites. The current cultural trend is to stay in touch with others with status updates posted from a smart phone or tablet, as remote social connections are fostered through the ease of mass communication through social media.
Marketers have recognized for a while that social media sites are an ideal place to make client connections and to promote brand through rich media. Most social platforms are designed around this interaction and the visual and audio experience. The concern that businesses are currently facing is the shift of how consumers are connecting with these platforms, and what that will mean to the effectiveness of rich media content.
One of the biggest concerns that the access change presents is the fact that most mobile devices do not fully support the programming that makes rich media so effective. For businesses, this may mean that content on social media sites is only being viewed by a fraction of the target audience. The question then becomes, sacrifice rich media or change rich media to become mobile enabled?
Proof Of Results
The impact of rich media has already been seen in the increase of reactions and client leads that are generated from these marketing campaigns. It seems that the answer is to tailor rich media that is also enabled for social mobile. For some businesses it may mean a change in perspective and approach, while other companies may actually just be able to further enrich the tactics they have been using.
Social media platforms for both traditional and mobile devices will support general video. This changes the strategy of rich media to become more engaging and interactive on this particular format. Recognizing that universal compatibility for the rich media content needs to be foremost in development can help to lead businesses to have better marketing expression and better content reach.
For companies that have used interactive flash in rich media marketing, how has the mobile revolution affected consumer reach? Have adaptations been implemented, or is reliance for social media platforms still based on computer access? It seems that the use of rich media does need to be amended, and certainly, technology is soon to catch up and make this a non-issue. But for now, cooperative efforts to coordinate content and channels to improve marketing strategies is sure to be front and center.