The real question is who is your TARGET MARKET ?
Does your TARGET MARKET appriciate flash, or view it as a annoyance......
I personaly view it as an annoyance, as it takes longer to down load and does not supply the info I requested.
Personaly I feel that all these fancy pictures and moving objects is all about FLASH ie show off ....
show offs usualy talk big and deliver nothing... that is the real issue with FLASH all show and
no information.
The internet is all about information, and many marketing managers seem to have forgoten this,,,,,,,,
The search engines are picking this up and sites with high levels of flash are slowly losing their rankings with many search engines, purely due to the relavance factor, as flash is usualy not relevant information, but rather visual appeal that marketing staff see and appreciate, but because they do not see
SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) with their own eyes they ignore it.
so back to basics, who is your target market and what does your target market group say about Flash,,,,,,
Do the research and wake up to the real world, flash looks good, but does not supply and information......
Use flash sparingly and only on pre determind landing pages (but never your HOME PAGE) where you expect persons who appriciate your hard work to land.....deeper pages should contain fewer images and more structured data.......This will improve your visitor retention and sales conversions.
Looking good is actualy very important, but information is what your clients want. Getting this balance is becoming more dificult each day as technical improvements in search engines make search more specific, and visual appeal is demanded by the marketing teams.
Who are you going to please, the visual marketing aspect team or your potential customers?
you decide and work accordingly.