It still amazes me how South Africa’s top brands are getting away with such a mediocre level of PowerPoint Presentation.
These are brands who spend millions, sometimes hundreds of millions on advertising every year; yet when it comes to their PowerPoint Presentations, there’s no budget spent at all. The reason that this is so astonishing for me is that it’s in the boardroom where major decisions are made; where the need to persuade and influence key decision makers takes place. Yet the materials being used don’t reflect this.
Surely, if the stakes are high, the investment is achieving the goal needs to be made? Apparently not. Now don’t get me wrong, there are a handful of companies that recognise the importance of powerful presentations, and they’re doing some work. Most importantly they’re making an impact on their audiences.
The majority, however, are still creating PowerPoint presentations that are:
- Text-intensive
- Low on visuals
- Message heavy
- All about the presenter or company, not about the audience
It’s often the case that presenter or marketing department doesn’t understand the true nature and intention of PowerPoint.
PowerPoint was not intended to be a crutch for the presenter. It was intended to complement the presenter. But unfortunately, the former has happened.
The result – text heavy, cluttered slides that do little to engage or persuade.
