Pointless Powerpoint
Using Powerpoint badly will affect the success of your story.
We all have a collection of memories from the Covid 19 pandemic. For many, gathering with loved ones waiting to hear about the unravelling catastrophe required collective focus and extended concentration. Many of us expected the government to take us on a journey filled with information. This was an important time in our locked down days as we looked to our government to guide us.
As a storyteller I recognise the importance of taking the audience on a journey and making sure that they remain with me throughout. I know that my content is important so I craft my tale accordingly. I recognise that it isn’t about me telling the audience everything I know (spray and pray….no way) and being relieved when the final slide appears. Telling a successful story is about giving the audience the right information to motivate them to act.
Sitting through briefings became a national event, telling the story right became critical to how we as a nation proceeded to act. When Boris or Chris launched into their Powerpoint slides I would immediately lean in, this was definitely going to be interesting.
Alas no, the quality of the Government Powerpoint slides immediately damaged the gravitas of the story as the nation struggled to understand the complicated and poorly presented graphs punctuated with a proclamation of ‘NEXT SLIDE PLEASE KAREN’ (somebody buy Boris a clicker for goodness sake).
Showing an already bewildered nation overly complicated graphs and data sets at hyper speed was a recipe for imminent confusion and additional stress. The slides were cluttered, in different formats, with the source always written in font size 1,000,000 and a massive government departmental logo shoved in for good measure. You can view these slides on the government website, I did this to ensure that it wasn’t all just a dream.
Powerpoint has the ‘power’ to make your story succeed (Prezi is great too!) but misuse at your peril. Using a simple, clean and logical format you can elevate your story from banal to bountiful. We regularly see terrible corporate templates jammed with superfluous information that category managers are strongly encouraged to use, many don’t believe that they can challenge them. This simply doesn’t work for category development stories; it actually puts your audience in the ‘business as usual’ or the ‘here we go again’ state of mind as soon as you open your laptop.
Category managers! Once you have interrogated every graph and chart within your deck and justified its right to be included, have the courage to challenge the use of a corporate deck. Most businesses would agree that discarding a limiting corporate template for a better business outcome is a risk worth taking. Note to self BoJo.
We challenge every FMCG supplier to allow category teams more freedom with PowerPoint branding. Our creative director Darren works with our clients to make sure that once the category development story is created, the Powerpoint execution, is flawless, beautiful and adds significant value to the end result.
When your category development proposition is complete, your story is clear, we recommend that you revisit the aesthetic look and feel, ultimately, a little more elevation through exceptional design could make a significant difference to the outcome.
Collective Stories works with FMCG suppliers to create successful category development pitches from selling NPD to range reviews. We can support you from project kick off to execution, contact us today to discuss your needs.
