NOT! But first I have to lay the groundwork for this conclusion.
When thinking about want do I do for my first blog, I wandered into reviewing my career (or is it my life?) experiences and how I got to this place and time. I think that I am going to share some of it with you, so that you can have a better understanding of how my thoughts have been influenced and developed over these many years. Let me start with high school and that you through my initial years of getting my education and starting my first job in the industry. Then I will get to my point…Which I am sure that you will be ready for!
When I graduated high school in the summer of ’70, I “knew” that I wanted to be an engineer like my grandfather. Seemed like it was the family thing to do and it would be fun designing and building “stuff”. And I decided going away to college would be an even better thing. So, I decided to go to engineering school at Southern Methodist University. I was way over my head very quickly and decided it was better to spend my time playing pool and cards while learning the finer points of night life in Dallas. Fun times, but my grades suffered. In the summer of 1971, after my first year at college, I got my draft number…#1! The only thing that I won, had to be the first slot in the military draft during a time of war (Vietnam). I didn’t like anything about that so I joined the Air Force to take back control of my life. Little did I know that I would never get control of my life, at least this far into it. The USAF guaranteed me that I would get into electronics and that would reduce the changes of me to going the war zone.
I ended up working on air-to-ground nukes…30 feet long, range of 600 miles and only used for in case of “the s&#t hitting the fan”. It was during this time that I got the “tech bug” while I was working on the nukes, troubleshooting them and maintaining them. Fun stuff as long as I didn’t think about their purpose. And the military gave me a focus and discipline that I needed at that time. Being told what to do is a good thing some times! I was in the Air Force 3 years, 2 months, and 24 days…Not that I was counting or anything.
Now I had to decide what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. What a load of crap, asking an 24 year old that question. I still don’t know to this day, but I do know one thing…I’m having fun at what I am doing now!
Anyway, I wanted to be an architecture. I wanted to design and build cool buildings. So, I decided that I wanted to go to the University of Kentucky (Yes, I do bleed blue!), because they had a good architecture program there. There was one problem and that was they only accepted new students to the program in the fall semester and I got out of the Air Force in October, which was too late. Then plan B would have to be go to Eastern Kentucky University (20 miles south in Richmond, KY) to take their Industrial Technology program and all the credits would transfer when the time comes.
That is where I was introduce to graphic arts…made my own business cards, shot and developed my own pictures, silk screen t-shirts and other fun printing stuff. I was hooked, but still focused on becoming an architect. Took the entry exam with over 200 others for entry in the upcoming Fall session. I scored in the top 15…BUT, they only accepted 9! I now had to wait another year before trying again. I’m getting too old to wait (a ripe old age of 24!). I have to decide Plan C. What else would I like to do? I remember sitting in my living room and looking around me. Printed “stuff” everywhere. Newspaper, magazines, wall paper, napkins, t-shirts, and the list went on and on. There’s so much opportunity, I just have to make the decision to enter the “graphic arts” trade and see where it took me.
NOW WE GET TO THE POINT…Times have changed again. My journey is changing again. Print is still an important part of the “communications food chain”, but there are many more options to use then ever before. Each new media offers a different experience that is uniquely for the individual. No longer are we limited by mere physical restraints. Our reach can go worldwide in nanoseconds. It’s a remarkable thought that you can linger on for awhile. The roll of print has changed and the communication streams can now “time shift” and “space shift”. No longer is time and location a limitation (for the most part). Those that recognize that there will never again be “just one way to communicate” will come out ahead. Print IS part of Cross Media food chain and we need to learn to change our communications style based on how the recipient wants to receive the information. Print is Cross Media and Cross Media is Print…I like that thought.
Bottom Line…Print services have changed. It now includes other media creation and manufacturing processes. Video, Audio, Web Pages, Flash animations, and email…The options are widening and the requirements to support multiple design and production flows is increasingly important for a companies success. Therefore…Are you going to be a printer in the future OR a communications company? Your decision could make the difference between growth or…Need I say more?
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Remember form letters? How about mail merges? So what have they got to do with Variable Data Printing? Well, Variable Data Printing (VDP) is a form letter on steroids. Anyone who’s done a mail merge in Word will understand the basic concept. Variable Data Printing links a database with a message, an offer or maybe an invitation.
The most basic Variable Data Printing is just putting a different name on each piece. But it can get really exciting when you start adding images and text that change depending on the market segments and building the text right into the images. The customer becomes part of the message.
And when you use Variable Data Printing as part of a multi-touch campaign then you have a look and feel that crosses from snail mail to email to the web – all personalized. The customer sees the consistency and feels they’re being guided step-by-step through the process to getting something they need.
Lets say I get a new dog. I go to Town Hall to register the little guy. Say it’s a border collie. Some weeks later I get a postcard in the mail congratulating me on my new friend and the postcard has a great picture of a border collie. The postcard refers me to a web site to buy ID tags and when I open the site – wow – border collies all over the place. While I’m there I see they also sell dog beds, dog food dishes, even return address labels with – yup – border collies. See how it’s all specific to me, to what I’m interested in? And while they sold me the dog tags, they also sold me a dog dish (up-sell) and those cute address labels (cross-sell). So how did this start? When I registered the dog I had to indicate the breed, age, sex, and my home address. The Town Hall sells all that dog registration info in a database to someone who sells “dog stuff”. They segment the market by breed and change their graphics and text accordingly.
So, Variable Data Printing allows you to send each prospect an individualized mail piece with a unique message and offer. And it allows you to be more relevant! And maybe keep your message from hitting the recycle bin so fast.
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People are starting to steer away from using flash in their websites and I think this is STUPID. We’re in the middle of an information revolution and Flash is one of our more advanced tools for making this happen. I think websites should use flash, as long as they do it right.
First off, people believe that flash is SEO unfriendly. Let me clarify, it’s flash developers who make their flash SEO unfriendly. Their are multiple ways to make entire websites in flash and Search engines can and will index them accordingly. One way of doing this is by using Geoff Stearns’ swfObject javascript. You just link to the main javascript file in the page head, and then call the function at the point on the page where you want your Flash movie to replace the default content. It makes it so users who don’t have Flash never even have to know that they’re missing something. Of course you have to make sure you have the content both on your site and in the flash movie.
Another method is by just loading the content from a separate XML. Voila, now Google can index your site.
So here is my extra two cents about the future of flash. I believe developers need to start using flash to its full interactive capabilities. By engaging the user you are more likely to entertain their presence on your site for longer and increase the productivity of your site. This can be done with interactive calendars, appointment booking systems, forums and blogging tools, Content Management Systems and whatever else your mind can conceive. The idea is to take everyday tools in life or software on your desktop and make them accessible online from anywhere via your website.
Another method of engagement, and sometimes a little harder to pull off, is personalization. Maybe a non intrusive way of using flash to make the website “Theirs”. This is is being used more and more in the marketing world and can open many doors to client/company relations. For example you can display text dynamically in your flash movie according to the date/time, the users location, or even their name. You could take it farther if somehow you could get information about the user before they even came to your site. Maybe you had them fill out a discrete form on one page to access private content, then on another page the possibilities are endless.
I guess people have been doing these things for awhile i just believe they haven’t been done right or creative enough. Engage your user and give your site functionality. Surprise them with what your site can do that others cant. PUSH FLASH TO ITS LIMITS. I don’t mean kill the users CPU. I mean be clever. Their was a pretty cool book put out awhile ago by O-Reilly called Flash Hacks that kind of gave me a glimpse into how flash can be manipulated to do cooler things. If you haven’t already, also look into AMFPHP, SWFObject and SWFAddress. All will make your flash experience 10 times better.
So that’s all i have to say about that for now. Ill be the guy with the personalized flash logo.
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