Why Multimedia Is So Powerful
Bob Chambers
Many people today are talking about the power of multimedia on the Internet and why you should be adding it to your websites and your products. But just why use multimedia? Recently I was reviewing how we learn and found that we remember 10% of what we read, 20% of what we hear, 30% of what we see, and a whopping 50% of what we hear AND see! After seeing those statistics I can quickly realize why sponsors fight each other to drop mega bucks advertising on the Superbowl broadcasts. They know from experience that money spent there will be seen, heard, and remembered by many of those watching... and the Superbowl has one of the highest levels of viewers anywhere. One of the best reasons I can think of why multimedia is so powerful is that most of us have been raised on television. Imagine how many hours of television "training" we've had since we were tottlers. Often I've heard television called the babysitter for most kids. Yes, it's because of our conditioning and the fact that multiple means of getting a message to us are the reasons that adding multimedia to our products and websites makes sense. But just like any media, you must use it wisely. Otherwise you'll turn off your viewer and actually lose creditability. An example is the website that uses a long loading, even longer playing Flash introduction. And usually with no "turn off" the Flash intro button. To most of the people I've talked to that's the surest way of getting your visitor to quickly leave your site. Yes, multimedia is great and it certainly is the next big thing on the Internet... but you must learn the right way of using it.
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