As companies expand their marketing efforts into the realm of new media, much has be said about how far you can go in a time of limited budgets. Marketing budgets in today's economy continue to be slashed, and what remains must be invested wisely. The obvious plan is always to get the most bang for your buck. But how do you do this effectively? The decision to move to new media has been made, budgets have been slashed and now the time to implement has come. A Web site must be developed. An interactive CD-ROM will benefit the sales and marketing efforts, to stand out from the competition. And to top it all off, there are trade shows scheduled for the year, all using video that will be played on a video wall.

Imagine the possibility of utilizing the assets you develop once across a broad spectrum of deliverables such as Print, CD-ROM, DVD, Web and Video. It starts with a bit of preplanning and saves in development costs. Because the benefits are enormous you can stretch your marketing dollars farther than you ever have before.

Consider this, you know that you have a few trade shows this year and time and again you wished you had that video that would lure passers by into your booth. To support the collateral marketing efforts either for the in-booth handout or the post show follow-up, the interactive CD-ROM business card is distributed to your qualified attendees. To maximize the branding, messaging and awareness of your company and your product line, the treatment, look and feel are cross utilized between the various deliverables. To take this just a step or two further, booth graphics compliment the look and feel of the CD-ROM interface and when viewing the CD-ROM, the disc is capable of connecting to the Web site where the treatment is again mirrored to the other pieces. The video produced for the trade show is running from a DVD playing on the video wall and is also cross utilized as the intro video to the CD-ROM business card and possibly even streamed from the Web site. Now some people call this branding, but in reality the tools have only come of age recently that allow this to become reality.

The latest tools in interactive media development are used to support what I call C.O.D.E. - Create Once, Deliver Everywhere. Planning is implemented to design things once in such a manner that you can use pieces, parts or simply the whole thing across a broad spectrum of deliverables, from CD-ROM, Web, DVD, Print and Video. There are many methods by which this can be done, provided you plan for it from the onset. Through the use of many of the latest programs elements that are developed within one program can be cross utilized in another. One needs to consider CMYK printing, Web safe color palettes and NTSC safe colors and this may mean you have to modify colors slightly between the various mediums. Knowing in advance how products will be delivered means you capture imagery at the resolution of the highest output device (normally print) and repurpose it to a lower resolution for improved performance.

To start with, consider all of the elements of your media mix by looking at what you already have in place. If this has been working for you, the new marketing efforts can support what you already have in place, helping reinforce the design implementation used in the new media tools. The key to C.O.D.E. is making use of the already established branding and messaging artwork to develop the new media. Look for the original source materials to start. These need to be of high resolution and quality. Electronic artwork fits well if developed in a vector-based design application. This permits resolution independence and is scaleable to any size and resolution a particular media may require. Other elements such as photographs can be used if high-resolution scans can be made.

Keep in mind that what I am saying here should not to be misconstrued with the thought that we are merely porting collateral materials to other media. These elements are often times overlooked as resources to start with. Many times you can be caught doing what is referred to as created brochure-ware or electronic versions of collateral print material that is delivered via a new medium. It has its place but should give your customers a reason to look at each of the various elements you have invested in. When one media can lead the user to the next seamlessly and they compliment each other you begin to build that brand loyalty. Print, CD-ROM, DVD, Web and Video all have their own particular strengths, applications and uses. Creating them so that they compliment and build on each other allows you to have greater impact with your overall message. Using C.O.D.E allows you to do it in a more cost-effective manner.

John Nimmo is a Principal & Co-Owner 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.