Business cards take off on wings of technology

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"Here is my business card watch it," may become a common phrase with the advent of technology's latest: the CD-ROM business card. |ret||ret||tab|

Rather than simply suggesting a phone call, businesspeople can distribute these discs similar in size and shape to a typical business card for a direct, hands-on response by a potential client or employee. |ret||ret||tab|

These marketing tools use video, music, animation, graphics, print and Web links to present information about a business, person or organization in a high-tech fashion.|ret||ret||tab|

"This is motion-picture marketing at its best," said Scott Opfer, whose company, Opfer Communications Inc., is jumping at the chance to produce these compact discs acting as a read-only memory device.|ret||ret||tab|

"In a matter of minutes, customers or prospects get an opportunity to see your facility, meet your key people, get in-depth information and have a motion picture video, complemented with audio, graphics, music and a direct link to your Web site in the size of a business card," Opfer said.|ret||ret||tab|

Springfield-based Opfer Communi-cations finished its first production run of the discs about six months ago. However, Opfer said, research began nearly three years ago when the technology was first introduced. "Now I think we're to the point where it's becoming a mainstream marketing tool."|ret||ret||tab|

Two Springfield organizations already have picked up on Opfer's new service: Cox Health Systems and the Springfield-Greene County Library. And both have begun distributing the new marketing tools at trade shows. |ret||ret||tab|

The library unveiled its CD-ROM at the 2001 Business & Technology Expo, Oct. 11 at the University Plaza Trade Center, while Cox entertained potential nurses during the Kansas State Nurse's Association Career Fair in Topeka, Kan. Both organizations initially ordered 1,000 CD-ROMs and handed out a couple hundred at the respective shows.|ret||ret||tab|

"They really made a big splash," said Cox's director of public relations, Laurie Cunningham, of the hospital's CD-ROMs. "That attention-getting, technical piece there was very eye-catching."|ret||ret||tab|

Reactions at the Business Expo were similar, according to Springfield-Greene County Library Director Jeanne Duffey.|ret||ret||tab|

"People were curious about it, they really didn't know what it was," Duffey said. "They were pretty intrigued by it."|ret||ret||tab|

Opfer said these responses are typical because of his product's newness.|ret||ret||tab|

"The novelty and uniqueness of it sets it apart from anything else," he said. "You're almost challenging the prospect or the customer to really take another step and look at it."|ret||ret||tab|

Cunningham said that when she first heard of the discs, she automatically knew they could be used to enhance recruiting. |ret||ret||tab|

"Nursing is pretty high-tech, and this is a high-tech approach," she said. "People can recognize that we are a high-tech facility, too. The technical aspect of the video business card just kind of helps support that image of having the latest and greatest in technology and the resources available to our nursing staff." |ret||ret||tab|

She said Cox also is in the process of creating a CD-ROM card to recruit students to the Lester L. Cox College of Nursing & Health Science.|ret||ret||tab|

For Duffey, the CD-ROM is just another way to heighten awareness of the li-brary system and its services.|ret||ret||tab|

"I see this as an electronic brochure ... another way to get people to have a higher level of awareness about the library, especially people who are computer literate," she said. "People need to get their information in different ways."|ret||ret||tab|

Opfer said production of the discs costs $1,000 to $7,500, depending on the needs of the client and the presentation. All production duties creative art, video, audio, writing and graphics are done in-house, he said, and the burning of the CDs is outsourced. Duplication costs roughly a dollar per CD.|ret||ret||tab|

The video portion can last as long as seven minutes on a full-circle disc, but Opfer said two minutes is the average time for the business-card-shaped CD-ROM, which holds 50 megabytes. Other shapes can be created, too. Opfer said his company is working on creating an egg-shaped CD-ROM at the request of a customer.|ret||ret||tab|

Also, the discs are designed to play on dual platforms, for both personal computers and Macintosh. Opfer Commun-ications marketing consultant Deborah Snyder said they will run on about 95 percent of all computers.|ret||ret||tab|

However, Greg McKinney, owner of Digital Media Dynamics, warns of a downside to creating the fun shapes. He said he's been creating the CD-ROMs for about a year and has found the different shapes sometimes cause difficulty.|ret||ret||tab|

"You can do any kind of format you want you can die-cut your logo on a disc"; however, he said, "they are always a little more cantankerous than your average round disc. Because of the shape, some players don't like them very well. You have to be very careful about that."|ret||ret||tab|

McKinney said he prefers 3-inch round mini-discs because they consistently play better. |ret||ret||tab|

"They're nice at a trade show, if you've got a sales force to hand them out," he said. "But I think some of that novelty is going to wear off. I think people are going to want to see more meat and more meaningful content on a disc. Some of these latecomers think they're going to make a million dollars doing these business card CD-ROMs they're not. I think they're finding out that's the case. I think you really have to give your client a good reason for doing this."|ret||ret||tab|

But according to Opfer and Snyder, the reasons for doing it are endless.|ret||ret||tab|

"It incorporates the visual you internalize that then you validate that with some print information, and because you become interactive with that information by going to the Web site, now it's hands-on," Snyder said. "I think the reason (the response) has been tremendous is that there are so many ways to incorporate the message." |ret||ret||tab|

Opfer said the most obvious uses of the discs are in promotions and sales. And in his mind, it's the wave of the future. "I think you either adapt with the technology or you get run over by it; it's one or the other," he said. "I think we're at the beginning of a whole new era."[[In-content Ad]]