Aug 3, 2008
Trusting Brevity
I’ve just been sent this and thought I’d share:
I trust brevity because it’s evident.
What you see is what you get.
Clarity and decisiveness inspire confidence.
Brevity doesn’t waste my time or make me work for something that may be nothing.
I trust brevity because it gives greater meaning and more time to ponder.
Less is more because I can take it or leave it.
It made me think about the way we present to clients and new business prospects.
PowerPoint has, for some time now, been the PR industry norm and is a staple in any presentation situation. But, we should remember the most effective weapon we have when presenting is ourselves. More and more I’m seeing lengthy PowerPoint slides with size 10 font portraying every miniscule aspect of a campaign. The problem is there is no life to it, nothing to make it “sparkle”.
Slide shows are here to stay but we should trust in brevity and use it as a supporting act to the lead role which should be played by us!
So Dan, I guess you are saying trust brevity with emotional connection.
Absolutely. It’s more important, at least within marketing, that a client buys into a team than into a specific idea so PRs should focus on selling themselves rather than what’s on a screen.
Thanks for the post Tom
A agree with you Dan about concentrating on achieving buy in for the team rather than writing down every single point of a campaign. At Berkeley PR we have almost completely stopped using powerpoints for presentations as you give the audience the opportunity to just stare at the screen and not really listen. I have found that to encourage conversation and interaction is always the best way to present.