By John Nimmo
John Nimmo is the President of Digital Metropolis, Inc., an interactive agency that designs and develops content for sales, marketing and training applications for business-to-business, business-to-consumer, government and entertainment markets. John is a professional speaker and trainer in multimedia and photography at industry and technology conferences, he has worked in emerging technologies and taught working professionals around the world how to maximize their full potential. He also sits on the advisory boards for various colleges and heads the DVD Association Chapter in Denver Colorado as President. He can be reached at 303.292.4692. Also via e-mail: jnimmo@digitalmetropolis.com. He invites you to visit his web site @ www.digitalmetropolis.com.
Client demand for interactive presentations has taken to a subtle twist of the tried and true CD-ROM. What once was the beacon of delivery for multimedia content has born itself into a smaller, more compact disc the size of a business card. The Interactive Business Card (IBC) or Digital Business Card (DBC) is a scaled down version of the CD-ROM.
Instead of handing someone a business card that only has your company name with a logo, phone number and e-mail address on it, the card-sized CD-ROM can deliver more information complimented with interactivity and graphical design. Every facet of multimedia can be put into use on an IBC. Strategic blends of text, graphics, audio, animation and video can be designed to engage the viewer in a more meaningful experience. Combine these elements with web connectivity and you now have a means of providing other content to your viewer coupled with the capability as a "call to action" for E-commerce applications.
The cards are available in various shapes and sizes. Some look like a miniature ice rink or a credit card with a hole in the middle. There is also a 3-inch round version that resembles a mini-disc. These unique applications make the card a showstopper when it is shaped into an object like a soda can, or heart or football to name a few. Designs such as these are typically used when the discs are audio only. These discs also range in file size capabilities starting at 30 megabytes and going upwards to a large 180 megabytes, with endless content possibilities. Using a 40-megabyte card as an example, it can hold the equivalent of about 4 minutes of video, 10 minutes of audio, 10,000 pages of text, 1000+ web pages with pictures or a combination of the above.
Many companies now use these to feature products and services, present a training module, or run a slide show presentation with voice over narration and background music. They also turn brochures and manuals into electronically searchable documents that can be printed on the fly. In the exhibit industry many companies promote special offers and package deals at conferences, trade shows and seminars. You can reduce your cost per unit when mailing out press kits by taking it digital on an IBC. In addition you can add these to your direct mail portfolio or hand out to prospects at trade shows.
Special interactive elements like virtual walkthroughs, forms that can e-mail information and dynamic links that bring you straight to a web site add a lot to the user experience. Many companies use the interactive business cards as a means to drive users to their web site. Because you can only fit so much data on the card, the web becomes an extension of the users experience. With the click of a button you can link directly to a web site for additional content, up-to-date information or on-line ordering.
Virtually any computer with a tray style CD-ROM drive can play the IBC's. Optimum computer specifications that work well are 233 MHz or better with 32 or 64 megabytes of RAM and can run on either PC's or Macintosh computers or both.
In the future you will begin to see more of these cards advancing to the next level as DVD's. With a greater capacity than even a full size CD-ROM, a DVD Business Card is capable of so much more. Given that a DVD is merely a CD-ROM on steroids in terms of it's capacity, we can now begin to include larger quantities of content like complete training courses or longer segments of video that run at near broadcast quality in full screen-30 frames per second playback and so much more on a similar sized card. As DVD-ROM drives continue to proliferate the market, their share is projected to surpass CD-ROM in 2001.
Gone are the days of oversized portfolios and presentations. The Interactive Business Card is a rich marketing tool that stands out from other options with an impact that is hard to match using other media. Your work and your message can be presented with greater impact, sending a clear and consistent message to a fast changing marketplace. Not to mention they are cool to look at. They're convenient. And they can pack a lot of punch when it comes to getting your message out to the masses.
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