Learning a lesson from The Jetsons

“The future” has always been fertile soil for the professionals who create television programs.

One show that took a rather different look at the life we would all one day lead was The Jetsons, the story of a 21st Century family. A bomb in early 1960s prime time, this show that portrayed a world of push-button living and atomic-powered bubble vehicles soon found a following on Saturday morning, and remains alive and well today on cable.

As is the case with most of these types of shows, some of the portrayed predictions have come true, others are laughable to watch today, and still others are modestly accurate.

For instance, one could theoretically connect The Jetsons’ presentation of on-demand, computer-driven access to anything your heart desires to that little portal to the world that we call the Internet.

While most consumers have yet to order even so much as a paperback on-line, the Internet has clearly changed the demands we place on those who supply us information. In just a few short years, consumers who used to patiently wait for the television to “warm up” are now the same people who give up on web pages that take more than a few seconds to load.

Other mediums have followed suit. Local newspapers have moved toward the “snapshot journalism” of USA Today. And television has added on-screen crawls and other graphics to its news programs to keep you from reaching for the remote.

What are the lessons in all this confusion for communicators?

• Supplement, don’t replace. The Internet may have changed how we absorb information, but most Americans still look to traditional media for their daily dose of news. So, resist the temptation to ditch your printed newsletters, brochures and other marketing tools, just because the on-line alternative is there. By all means, add an Internet and/or Intranet version of these materials and expand their reach. But keep the printed pieces for those people who prefer to receive their news in this form.
• What’s in it for me? Only thick-skinned communicators have the nerve to look at a report of page hits for web sites they’ve helped create. These reports generally reveal that each page gets a few seconds of attention before it’s clicked into cyberspace by surfers searching for the page they actually came to see. The same thing is true of printed pieces. If readers can’t quickly see what’s in it for them, they’ll soon send your publication to the nearest “recycle bin.”
• Keep it visual. Don’t be shy about loading up your publications and brochures with charts, graphs, pictures and pull-out quotes. If you think you have one too many, it’s probably just right. The Internet is heaven-sent for people who absorb information better through images than through words. Be sure you don’t inadvertently cut out this audience segment in any of your communications materials.

What The Jetsons didn’t tell us was that having nearly instant access to the world’s store of information would make our lives easier and more difficult at the same time. We’re bombarded by more data than ever before...but our days are still just 24 hours long. So, no matter what your medium, don’t dawdle with your message. Your audience won’t wait for you.