Wasn't there a petition going around somewhere to make the Monday after Superbowl Sunday a National Holiday? Well in any case, it's just a regular Monday (for now) and that means another installment of DMI's Insights.
Today's article is from The Wall Street Journal called "Avoiding the Road to PowerPoint Hell" which talks about keeping presentations simple. It's a humorous and editorial article that discusses how to make PowerPoint presentations less cumbersome.
The author of the article, Nancy Duarte, believes that "when the right visuals and words are used together, they create a third kind of experience, one that operates by unifying mind and emotion." This is especially important in direct mail. Placing the right image along with the right messaging will compel more people to donate, buy, etc. The design and layout of the package is crucial in developing a successful mail campaign.
There is also a sample of a PowerPoint presentation that Ms. Duarte had done for Cisco Systems which I thought was very interesting. She was able to transform "typical technology-industry slides" into something approachable. DMI uses the same approach. We are able to transform data, which is often an intangible thing into something tangible. Not only because we produce physical direct mail, but we are also able to analyze the data to show the intangible in a concrete way using analysis and modeling.
You can read the full article here: Avoiding the Road to PowerPoint Hell
Make sure to visit our website or contact us to get more information on our experiences with messaging and analysis.
What are your thoughts on the article? Do you have any PowerPoint or direct mail horror stories? Feel free to share them in the comments section below!
--L
I think PowerPoint is terrible, way to limiting. Also way to easy to fall into silly presentation cliches.
ReplyDeleteThat is a great point. The problem with PowerPoint is that it becomes very generic and all presentations start to look alike. But I agree with the article that PowerPoint is necessary in business. Is there another way to present and convey information?
ReplyDeleteThanks for spreading the word about the WSJ article! I appreciate it.
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