By Margaret Wong
Broadband advertising is on the rise. They are very aware of the
fact that their advertising can only reach a limited group of viewers.
Their argument remains that broadband will pick up popularity soon
enough. Not long from now broadband will be everywhere and no one
will have to worry about the slower connection users. Though this
maybe true, designing without regard for connection speeds will cause
problems. Just as the development of large hard disk space resulted
in large and inefficiently coded software applications, the rise of
broadband will result in large and inefficient web sites.
On www.hi-res.net, a London-based
Web advertisement company, everything is created through Flash 5,
and everything is "high-resolution". Its customers include
sites for the Beatles, the movie Requiem for a Dream, DJVadim, and
musician Amon Tobin. The look and feel of the site is high-tech and
sophisticated. Apparently a new version of the site is in production
and the current one is just a temporary placeholder, which explains
the few content currently existing on the site. The portfolio presented
is not apparent as a portfolio and it was not until sampling the links
to its portfolio did I realize www.hi-res.net
is a Web advertisement group. It seems that www.hi-res.net
is heavily relying on other mediums for advertising their profession.
The current site does not have any quality to attract business and
certainly does not show off much work qualities to potential customers.
But through its portfolio one can see the revolutionary approach they
are taking advertisement.
Unlike other Flash sites, where the viewer only sits in awe of incredible
graphics animated across the screen, the products presented here are
very interactive as well. In www.modjo.com,
an audio player was implemented where the user can listen to the popular
European group's hit single across Europe in original acoustic form
and radio remix form. Though the overblown animation of graphics that
is made possible by Flash is being used to its max, it is done with
enough taste to not take forever in loading.
All technicalities aside www.hi-res.net
is similar to www.nrg.be. It appears
Europe is much more ahead of the U.S. in web advertising. So much
of the European web advertisements are done in Flash it appears the
non-Flash sites are a thing of the past. These advertisements are
reaching the higher-bandwidth crowd. In marketing terms it doesn't
matter that slower connection users cannot access these sites as well
because slower connection users in Europe probably will not be contributing
as much to the sales of music or other products promoted as the faster
connection users. This continues the digital divide between the rich
and the poor. The social effects are clear: technology is waiting
for no one. The slower connection user either has to get higher speeds,
or be left out. Economy is moving forward and it is not slowing down
for anyone.