KISS

Keep It Simple Stupid. Nothing worse sitting thru long prezos with eye-charts. I've always found the short, succinct, visually stimulating ones much more compelling. kinda like a great campfire sit-around or sharing a few cold ones with friends at the bar swapping stories. This is a great reminder of that.

thanks Peter for sharing this with me. more examples here if this video isn't working.

to humanize a brand

Cluetrain Review

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via Only Dead Fish

thru conversation. a must read for anyone in business, large or small. basic message. if brands want a relationship w/their customers, talk to us like...ummm, we're people, and not like some marketing robot reciting a positioning statement. i'd like to kick this over to some brand managers i know w/their shiny MBAs and CYA briefs.

theater of the mind

Working offsite, remotely in la la land, 3000 miles away from my agency counterparts and clients, I find myself having to sit in a lot of conference calls. most of the time these calls occur at a 6am local time. nice huh? anyways, been doing it for over 5 years now and i think i've gotten pretty good at communicating effectively...over the phone.

where i think this skill has to be tight is when ideas are being presented. presenting concepts to clients in person, at a meeting, you've got the ability to read the room, calibrate the presentation and most importantly present in a much more dynamic and sometimes even expressive ways. presenting in person allows for creating that "theater of the mind" before you ever set a concept or layout in front of the client. it's certainly helped me in the past. i'm able to get clients seated, in the theater, lights down and curtain drawn. the show's about to begin.

when you're on the phone you're at a handicap, as a presenter. and then add in the challenge of having to send layouts before the conference call, you're doubly screwed. honestly, will anyone heed the warning "hey, don't look at these concepts until we've taken you thru it on the call." Presenting ideas on conference calls blow. sure, there's tools out there like webinars and videoconferencing, however with the turn/burn and high frequency of client presentations, it's a pain in the ass to set-up for the tech-challenged. yesterday i had a someone ask me how to copy and past a slide in powerpoint. o_O

my tip is this: watch, listen to how other people present their ideas, be it in person or on the phone. watch the good ones, listen to the bad ones. take mental note and create your own style. most importantly when you're presenting the idea, create that theater of the mind, and you've got yourself a captivated audience.

photo cred to

gripping

this gave me chills. i agree with punk planning's charles firth's notion of ditching the traditional pitch tools like charts and data for a more compelling way to tell the story. i'd like to see these more often in our meetings.

via punk planning