Infographics as Marketing Strategy
Infographics are big. They’re cropping up all over the mediasphere and for good reason. Pictures grab attention. In many cases they get the message across far better than words. How do they do it?
How Pictures Grab Attention
Clive Thompson writes in the October issue of Wired Magazine, “And if you believe the visualization experts, a new language of pictures may be precisely what we need to tackle the world’s biggest challenges. Thompson quotes David Sibbet, a visualization expert who has spent the past three decades consulting for larger firms. “If you want everyone to have the same mental model of a problem, the fastest way to do it is with a picture.” Thompson suggests that these images provoke aha moments far often than typed or verbal summaries.
Jennifer Aaker and Andy Smith, authors of The Dragonfly Effect explain, “Pictures trump words in terms of grabbing attention because they're composed of lines and curves that are more complex, and therefore distinctive, than the lines and curves that compose words.”
Need more convincing? Aaker and Smith tell us too, “a study at the University of Pennsylvania showed that in presentations, when information is conveyed orally, people retain only 10 percent of the content. But when a presentation includes visuals and words, the number increases to 50 percent.”
Infographics are much more than a pretty picture. They provide users with four distinct elements:
1. same mental model
2. attention-getting mechanisms
3. content retention
4. engagement from start to finish
How Companies Use Infographics for Marketing
In a recent case study about Infographics, Ken Lyons provides a very generous and revealing overview about not only what led to the success of Infographics for his firm, he shares valuable how-to information with the assistance of Chris Angus of Warlock Media, who worked with him on the design of their Infographics.
Continued on the next page
Follow Technorati