As a child, you got the sense that Christmas was around the corner when the ads for toys started to appear on TV. As my parents would attest, the gawdy ads for plastic rubbish worked a treat – my toy cupboard was filled to the rafters with toys and games which promised so much in the advert but delivered so little unwrapped in a frenzy of excitement on Christmas day. Aaah, the power of those clever advertisers…
Now a lot older, greyer and (at a stretch) wiser, advertising still plays an important part in parting me from my cash. Now the objects of my desire are grown up things like audio equipment, furniture and (shudder) lawnmowers but the effect is the same – aspirational, engaged and willing to nag mercilessly until the product is purchased. Damn, those advertisers are good…
Great advertising grabs hold of us, no matter how old we are. It demands attention, pulls on the heartstrings and engages its audiences in powerful, almost magical ways.
So, who is responsible for these perfectly formed 30 second segments of loveliness? The short answer – experts (although you might like to call them advertising agencies). Importantly, it is rarely, if ever, the creation of the company whose goods it is designed to sell.
Whilst somewhat cliched, let’s take Apple as an example. Their powerful “Think Different” campaign in the late 90s is often referenced as the turning point for what had previously been a slowly fading business.
“Think Different” was a call to arms for Apple, elevating Steve Jobs from maverick to expert business leader and the arbiter of all things cool.
So, who came up with the concept?
Steve Jobs? Nope.
The army of marketing experts working within Apple at the time? Nope.
This watershed marketing slogan and associated campaign was the brainchild of an outsider – the creative agency TBWA\Chiat\Day.
Outsiders have the ability to see through the inevitable internal noise of a business and it’s thinking. They’re in the enviable position of being able to play Devil’s Advocate, point at the Emperor’s New Clothes or declutter the whole mix of content, opinion and research to a point where the message is loud, clear…and, most important of all, relevant to the audience.
Steve Jobs and Apple knew that successful companies don’t create their own advertising – they leave it to the experts.
From advertising to presentations
Think of your next presentation as an opportunity to deliver a rich, multi-layered, and hugely focused advertisement directly to your target audience of one.
Companies up and down the land would dig deep into their marketing budgets to get such an opportunity – a 1-to-1 chat with the person who has the money, authority and need to purchase your goods? Invaluable…
Just as Apple recognised that key moments like “Think Different” are too important to leave to chance and that working with the experts is the right thing to do, smart companies are beginning to recognise that their presentations deserve the same respect.
They want the best storytellers on call, to ask those tricky questions about the audience, to challenge the status quo and to build a narrative that maximises engagement. They’ll want the best designers on hand, to turn the concept into reality, to build visuals that deliver value (and not just pretty pictures) and work in unison with the presenter, not against them. And they’ll want the best coaches, to put them through their paces and ensure that the message is delivered in a way that drives action.
In short, they want the best team on their side to ensure they maximise the opportunity they’ve worked so very hard to get. This is where dedicated presentation companies like Eyeful come in – we live, eat, breathe and sleep presentations so companies like Apple (or yours) don’t have to.
Is it time you started to “Think Different” about your next presentation? Get in touch and let’s have a chat…
* See what we did there? Sorry…we couldn’t help ourselves.
