Dancing Baloney

Coming from the advertising industry and having been involved in the Internet since early 1993 (yes, that's back when dinosaurs roamed the net), I find the facsination with virtual tours (of the video variety) interesting. I was involved in the then Bell Atlantic interactive hotel system (InfoTravel)advertising attractions, restaurants etc to visitors to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics. After comparing systems side by side with other vendors and evaluating the actual user data, we found the users would generally consider static photos with an audio file (.wav) file under it considered to be information. The attractions had approximately 12 - 20 images with the audio track and lasted 30 seconds. Users would view the information and have an option at the end to order a map (remember, it was 1996 - No GPS or MapQuest and cell phones were the size of a brick) to be picked up at the front desk. By comparison, the stuff that moved, was considered advertising was usually terminated about 10 to 15 seconds into the ad. Hence the term "Dancing Baloney" Just because it moves, doesn't mean it's more effective. The research doesn't support that conclusion.

Nik Tendler