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For years, advertisers have been captioning their spots. It was realized that communicating effectively to the hard of hearing market represented more sales for products. In addition, captions can be used as a marketing tool on TV sets in loud environments such as bars, airports and health clubs. The advertisements with captioning still deliver their message and have impact, even without audio.

Many markets dictate that captions and/or subtitles be accessible on media. For example, in the educational and government markets, captions/subtitles are required on media. As one of our educational distributors notes, “For educational publishing, some states require it.” Jack Wilson from JWA Video says, “…to sell to government institutions, it is a requirement that we provide closed-captioning.” As a result, you could be losing sales from your educational and government media projects if it does not offer captions or subtitles. Conversely, if you are independently producing for these markets, you could potentially increase your budget by offering this service to your client.

Also, many corporations are saving thousands of dollars when they use open captions or subtitles for foreign languages on their media. The captions or subtitles replace the voice over narration and the costs associated with it.

Furthermore, many distributors are increasing sales from videos and DVDs that are captioned/subtitled in foreign languages. Big Idea Productions, the producers of VeggieTales, understands the benefits of both languages on their media. Greg Fritz, VP of Marketing, states, "Spanish subtitles expand the reach of VeggieTales and make our products accessible to a very large segment of the U.S. population." Thus, allowing an increase in sales from their media products.

There are benefits of captions/subtitles that can help you position your media products for a potential increase in sales and to communicate worldwide. Understanding the benefits of video and DVD captions and subtitles form a standpoint of marketing, and the minimal investment it takes to achieve these features, will position your company as a leader by offering the latest technology to your clients. In the next article, I’ll talk about the process of captions and subtitles and what it takes to achieve a finished product.