Three kinds of ice cream, three different sauces on top, sliced bananas, a cherry, whipped cream and chopped nuts make up the classic banana split. The combination of different flavors and textures are part of what makes a banana split so good. VMC’s Michael Pruitt comments on the value of having a combination of formats for the way you communicate and deliver content using digital snacks.
“The format for the digital snack depends on the needs of the communication. The flexibility allows you to tailor the output format in the best way to convey the message.
The big change here is that mobile devices, like tablets and smartphones, are now mobile computers. That’s the game changer. Portable content, available anytime from anywhere, makes it easier to consume that content when you want. Because of the technology, we have much more freedom in the media format we use to communicate the message. Instead of bringing along a printed book, you can now access, in real time, the content you’re looking to consume, regardless of the format of the media. You can access text or video or graphics from your mobile device, while you’re on location. Mobile devices have made it easy to have the information you need where and when you need it, no longer caged by the physical or technical limitations of any particular medium.
A client was going through a process of better optimizing the costs and logistics of supplying a technical manual that their employees in the field could use. The content was created with smart technology, so the field techs could access the content with their laptops and mobile devices, but despite the technological improvements, the actual content was still text-based, and did not deliver the message as effectively as it could have. At the end of the day, it was still just scrolling text. The technology was “smarter,” but the data wasn’t.
The format of the digital snack is flexible so that companies can avoid the cumbersome constraints of using traditional data that costs them time and money. The constraints don’t really exist in today’s technological world, but we still act as if they do.”
If you limit your banana split to one flavor and one topping, it’s just a sundae. What are you doing to add more flavor to the content you deliver to people?