One
of the cornerstones of effective presentation design is the ability to
turn text-based information into a visually engaging story - a.k.a.
Digital Storytelling. I don't think it's a skill that anyone is born
with. It takes a number of "ingredients" including an eye for design,
the ability to view the story from the audience's perspective, and a
great deal of restraint.
Matthew's comics are designed very well, understand the audience's viewpoint (my printer was DEFINITELY sent from hell to make me miserable), and remain short and easy to quickly consume. Let me know which ones are your favorites!
I'm not sure when it happened, but it was definitely within my lifetime. As technology began to expand and morph at a mind boggling pace, people began to change with it. Life always evolves, but I think it has changed the way we work in a negative way, especially in regards to presentations.
I remember coming home from a summer vacation in my early teens. I had met a girl. It was nothing romantic but we became close friends. She lived about 90 minutes away - a lifetime for a 14 year-old. To maintain contact we wrote letters. Yeah, letters. It was a long-distance phone call and my parents didn't feel like paying $0.99 a minute so we could wax poetic about nothing at all. I had to sit down with a pencil and paper, write, mail, and wait at least a week to get a response. I couldn't email her. I couldn't text her. I couldn't @reply her on Twitter. I couldn't check our pictures on Facebook. Sounds like an eternity ago, right? That was 1994.
Today, everything is about immediacy. My phone hardly rings anymore...that's too slow. Texting is preferred by most of my friends and acquaintances, and actually speaking seems too informal for business associates. I've noticed that this has evolved to the workplace, where people sitting RIGHT NEXT TO EACH OTHER carry on conversations via-email (which actually slows down the process). Can't you just swivel your chair 45 degrees and ask me the question?
This immediacy has bled to presentations. When I see presentations today, they all seem to have been thrown together in a matter of minutes. Nobody sits down anymore and actually creates a presentation. I don't mean create a PowerPoint...I mean create a presentation. One with depth, honesty, meaning, and a story that takes the audience on a journey. One where the presenter has spent hours upon hours practicing, editing, and practicing some more until they know it by heart. One where passion exudes and the audience is engaged.
A presentation like I just described takes time. It takes lots of time, practice, and hard work. We don't all have the luxury of time (or resources), but when it matters so much don't you owe it to yourself? To your audience? To your company (especially if it's YOUR company)?
There's isn't necessarily a formula for a successful presentation, but as Gary Vaynerchuk recently said, "Hard work is never not part of the formula." I couldn't have summed it up any better myself.
One of the key components of an effective presentation is the inclusion of a story. Storytelling (sometimes called "Digital Storytelling" when using PowerPoint or Keynote) can have a profound effect on an audience, removing them from the classroom, boardroom, or auditorium and taking them on a journey, as I mentioned in a previous post.
In marketing in general, having a story is what sets you apart from your competitors. It's what can humanize your product/service, showing value while entertaining at the same time. No bullet-point, spec filled brochure can touch the selling power of a story. Let me show you a telling example.
Onstar is an in-vehicle security and safety system. In non-marketing speak, it's a subscription-based technology that does a variety of things, including a connection to advisors and emergency personnel, hands-free calling, directions, and much more. It's a cool technology but becomes a tremendous asset should you be in an accident or should your car get stolen. That's when the monthly-subscription is totally worth it.
Onstar has numerous features, which are all impressive and are a nice-to-have, but I can see why many people would cancel the subscription. Like insurance, we all love it when it covers us in an accident, but are annoyed to pay the bill otherwise. Thus, their TV ads show the features and try to portray situations where OnStar would be a big help. They even use real OnStar recorded calls.
I can only imagine how high their Marketing team and PR agency jumped when they heard the story last week about Senator Bob Corker's 22 year-old daughter getting carjacked, and the perpetrators ultimately being apprehended and the car found because of OnStar's tracking capability. A true story that shows the utility of OnStar and the power of storytelling.
The video is a little long, so in short (as if anything I write is short), the Senator's daughter had pulled to the side of the road. When someone approached the car asking for directions, she was pulled out and the car stolen. Shortly thereafter, OnStar reported to Seat Pleasant, MD authorities that the car was in their jurisdiction. They pinpointed the location and could even tell them that the car was not moving (it was in a parking lot).
Corker put the icing on OnStar's PR cake when he said the following (from CNN.com):
"I was telling the lady who handles that for me in Chattanooga, each
month I was saying, 'I don't want to pay this, I don't want to pay
this,'" Corker said, adding that it was a nominal fee.
But he kept the service, "thinking that maybe OnStar would be of some help" someday, Corker said. "Certainly it paid off tremendously last night," he said.
Wow. What a story. After I read it I immediately emailed it to my wife and said, "Is this not the BEST advertising a subscription service could ever ask for?" If you were someone in the OnStar sales department talking to a car owner who has a child of driving age, instead of peddling the features bullet-point style, wouldn't you tell this story every single time? What a profound effect it would have!
Not only will a story like this have an emotional effect, it can easily be recalled. Just from watching the video or reading the story you learn about OnStar features. Only two or three specific features were mentioned in this particular story, but I believe four, five, or even six features could be embedded in a story like this and still be accurately recalled. These features are easily recalled because you're recalling them within the context of the story, as opposed to a bullet-point list.
I don't expect your product/service to have a story as compelling as this, but there must be some story to tell. Not necessarily a real-life testimonial, either. Just a story about the inherent value of what you're offering. About what used to be and what is now. Where your company has been and where you're going.
Make sure when you craft your presentation that you're crafting some sort of story. Remember, there are many types of stories. Find your story and build that into your presentation. Stay away from simply listing attributes, key features, specs, etc. and tell the audience a story. Engage them (and engage with them). You and your story will easily be remembered, while your competitor's bullet-points and product features will be quickly forgotten.
A major fault of presentations that is seldom addressed is the tendency for most presenters to create presentations that are wide instead of deep. Let me explain.
If you're presenting something, anything, that usually means (I hope) you know a great deal about the subject. To use a personal example, I've been playing volleyball for 13 years, coaching for nearly 10. I know a great deal about the game, but often the players I'm coaching don't. I could sit them down for hours and hours and teach them the game of volleyball. Problem is, there's not one person in this world that wants to listen to me talk hours on end about volleyball. I'm a (self-proclaimed) interesting guy, but not THAT interesting. Even if they were THAT interested (not likely), that's simply too much information to consume in one sitting. Much of the information will go in one ear and out the other to make room for other, more recent information.
The same thing happens when a presentation is too wide. A "wide" presentation is one that covers a vast amount of information without going into much detail on any one point. It's the curse of knowledge. The presenter often knows far more than the audience, since it's their job to teach/enlighten them. Unfortunately, without a concentrated effort to reduce and simplify the presentation to a few key points, a presentation can become too wide, thus teaching them a little about a lot, instead of a lot about a little. Since the time constraint never changes (you're given 40 minutes to speak), the more "points" you add to the presentation, the less time you have to elaborate on those points. The audience gets a shallow view of many points, resulting in few, if any, being recalled. Thus, both the audience and the presenter's time has been wasted.
Instead, narrow your presentation focus to a few key points. Go a little deeper to explain each of those points in a way that the audience will be able to keep up with, understand, and retain. Even if your audience doesn't remember every little detail, you have a much better chance at having them retain your most important takeaways.
I think the same concept applies to presentation design, and I actually saw Garr Reynolds use a slide making a similar point. Simpler things win. Simpler products. Simpler ideas. Simpler slides. Too many presenters dump massive amounts of information onto a slide, making it nearly impossible for an audience to understand or digest.
The best way to convey your ideas and your story in a way that an audience can consume, understand, and remember is to use restraint and simplicity in your slide design.
As I write this I’m on my way to Las Vegas, one of my
favorite places, to celebrate my one year wedding anniversary.I’m somewhere around 30,000 feet above
ground, being transported from chilly, windy, slightly stressful Connecticut to
a place deemed as the “Adult Disneyland.”There’s an excitement in the voyage from a homeland to a vacationland,
from once place to another.
An effective presentation can do the same for its
audience. Telling a story can
remove the audience from the boardroom, classroom, or auditorium to another,
more desirable, place.A
motivational speaker can take a down-and-out soul to a place where their dreams
have come true.A coach can take slumping
team and envision their success.
As I fly I'm watching one of my favorite movies - “Miracle”, the story of the
1980 U.S. Hockey Team.They were
tremendous underdogs.A bunch of
college kids against a well oiled, dominant hockey machine.They had little shot, if any.But Herb Brooks marched into that
locker room and told them the story of what was about to happen that night.
“One game.If
we played ‘em ten times, they might win nine.But not this game…not tonight.Tonight, we skate with them.Tonight, we stay with them, and we shut them down because we
can!Tonight, WE are the greatest
hockey team in the world.You were
born to be hockey players – every one of you.You were meant to be here tonight.This is your time.Their time is done.It’s
over.This is your time.Now go out there and take it.”
Even if it’s only make-believe…even if its only momentary…an
effective story can have a profound effect on the audience.
