Persuading with Powerpoint

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Persuading with PowerPoint

A workshop for the Haas School of Business by Seth Familian :: May 6, 2008

The seven habits of highly effective

PowerPoint presentations

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The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Presentations

[ 1 ] Start with a structured story

[ 2 ] Standardize your design language

[ 3 ] Standardize your written language

[ 4 ] Animate to narrate, not exaggerate

[ 5 ] Show with images, tell with voiceover

[ 6 ] Build slides around the transition

[ 7 ] Learn to love the presentation remote

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[ habit #1 ]

Startwith a structured story

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Story-based structure: an example

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Story-based structure: an example

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Structuring your story

Find a focus

Outline the flow of ideas

Storyboard complex narratives

Divide longer presentations into sections

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[ habit #2 ]

Standardizeyour design language

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What’s wrong with this slide?

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What’s different in this version?

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Let’s compare the two…

What do you notice about fonts, spacing, colors, sizing, and layout?

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Elements of a standardized design language

Consistent fonts Serif (e.g. Times New Roman) OR sans-serif (e.g. Arial), not both

A limited palate of complementary colors Focus on muted tones, not bright colors Use “transparencies” of the same color for variety:

Consistent spacing between lines of text More spacing between bullets of the same “level” Less spacing between “child” bullets and their “parents”

Simple and uncluttered layouts Use “align” “distribute” and “master pages” to maintain consistency

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

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A standardized design language in action

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Indispensable tools of the trade

Grouping To apply animations to sets of shapes/text Right Click > Grouping > Group

Cropping To manipulate imported images View > Toolbars > Picture > Cropper

Print Screen To capture web pages or screenshots Prt Sc key (computer-specific) Also consider Snipping Tool 2.0

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Indispensable tools of the trade

“Transparency” settings Easily create different tints on a color

Double-click shape > Colors and Lines

Line & Dash styles For designing better lines

Double-click shape > Colors and Lines

“Tables and Borders” toolbar Easily adjust table text & borders

View > Toolbars > Tables and Borders

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Indispensable tools of the trade

“Align or Distribute” toolbar For creating clean and balanced slides

View > Toolbars > Align or Distribute

“Line spacing” Infuse text-heavy slides with balance

Format > Line Spacing

Text Box properties Manage those unwieldy text boxes!

Double-click on box border > Text Box

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Indispensable tools of the trade

Keyboard Shortcuts Ctrl + Shift + g = group 2 or more selected elements

Ctrl + Shift + >/< = increase/decrease font size of selected text

Shift + Drag = move element along X or Y axis

Ctrl + Drag = copy element

Ctrl + Shift + Drag = copy element and move copy along X or Y axis

Alt + Drag = move element more precisely

Shift + Resize = resize element proportionally

Ctrl + Resize = resize element from center

Ctrl + Shift + Resize = resize element proportionally from center

Alt + Resize = resize element more precisely

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Let’s put these tools into action!

Here is some sample text we can work with. It’s long enough so we can play with the spacing, font size, etc…

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Master pages are great for maintaining consistency

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[ habit #3 ]

Standardizeyour written language

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What do these slides have in common?

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Best practices for writing slide text

Be concise! The less text the better

Start bullets with active verbs whenever possible

Make sure all language is grammatically consistent

For longer bullets emphasize a key word or two with larger text at the beginning, then do a “soft return” (shift + enter) and continue with smaller text below

Use titles as an opportunity to reiterate the story

The audience should be listening to you, not reading your slides!

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[ habit #4 ]

Animateto narrate, not exaggerate

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Static, complex slides are tough to narrate

24P R O P R I E T A R Y & C O N F I D E N T I A L

WebPress Revenues & Profitability

Year 5

$7,150,000

$50,449,000

$86,000

$21,496,000

$38,551,000

Year 4Year 3Year 2Year 1

$10,000,000

$20,000,000

$30,000,000

$40,000,000

$50,000,000

$0

Cost to Cash Flow Positive ≈ $2.4M

Subscription Revenues

Advertising Revenues

Operating Expenses

Operating Profits

Cash Flow Positive

Breakeven

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The bottom line on animation in PowerPoint

Good Animation…

Helps tell a complex story

Always makes sense within the slide’s context

Uses subtle effects

Takes a backseat to the content of the slide

Is never too flashy

Is quite rare

Bad Animation…

Adds nothing to the story

Usually makes no sense within the slide’s context

Uses dramatic effects

Strives to be at the center of the slide

Is almost always too flashy

Is painfully common

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Fundamentals of animation in PowerPoint

Three key animation attributes

The type of effect

Its speed and direction of entry

When it enters (timings)

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Effect Types: Only four worth knowing

Appear

Fade

Faded Zoom

Wipe

Very Slow

Slow Medium FastVery Fast

Very Slow

Slow Medium FastVery Fast

From Left

From Right

From Top

From Bottom

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Effect Timing: Three different “start” types

On Clickeffect starts when you click the mouse

With Previouseffect starts at the same time as the effect before it in the list

See how this animated at the same time?

After Previouseffect starts only after the effect before it has fully animated

See how this started to animate only after the box above finished animating?

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Animating bullets and other text

Have the first bullet appear “with previous”• This helps you avoid an unnecessary click at the beginning of the slide

Animate one bullet at a time• Helps focus the audience on the point at hand and prevents “reading ahead”

Animate “groups of bullets” together• This will avoid unnecessary clicking on your part

Use the “Appear” effect as much as possible• “Fade” also works, but prevents quick clicking through slides

To add emphasis to a concluding point, use “Faded Zoom”

This is an example of a Faded Zoom concluding point. Notice the box, too!

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Let’s practice!

This headline should appear immediately

This first bullet point should appear on a click

This second bullet point should appear on a click• And this “child” bullet should appear with its “parent” above

This third bullet should appear on another click

And this conclusion box should appear on a click as a faded zoom

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Animating tables: text with a twist

Pure Players (Findory.com, Topix.net)

WebPress

RSS Readers

Content Portals and

Aggregators (Google & Yahoo)

Traditional

Media Websites (LaTimes.com, CNN.com)

Portable Print Format

Mobile Device Delivery

Hassle-Free Preference Collection

Targeted Ads

Intuitive InterfacePersonalized

Content

Strong Offering --------------------- --------------------- Weak/No Offering

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Animating charts and graphs

Deconstruct the graph in PPT to get the best results• This can be tricky. First, copy the chart from excel into PPT• Make sure you treat the image as a “picture of a chart”• Ungroup multiple times to get at individual elements• Then format and animate to your heart’s content

Use the “Wipe” effect to bring in individual elements• “Bottom to Top” wiping works best for bar charts• “Left to Right” wiping works best for line charts

Synchronize legend elements with builds

Use different “start” types for more elegant builds

Use “timings” to create even more nuanced effects

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Let’s practice animating a chart!

First, we need to paste in a chart from Excel…

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Additional notes on timings

Timings are the key to gorgeous animations They facilitate better customization of individual elements

They enable you to create faster and more elegant builds

But they also require lots of time to optimize, so be patient!

To create a cascading bar chart with timings: Make sure all elements within a given

group start “with previous”

A delay of 0.2 seconds usually works well to create a cascade

Play with the “pacing” of other builds to match the timing of a group

35P R O P R I E T A R Y & C O N F I D E N T I A L

WebPress Revenues & Profitability

Year 5

$7,150,000

$50,449,000

$86,000

$21,496,000

$38,551,000

Year 4Year 3Year 2Year 1

$10,000,000

$20,000,000

$30,000,000

$40,000,000

$50,000,000

$0

Cost to Cash Flow Positive ≈ $2.4M

Subscription Revenues

Advertising Revenues

Operating Expenses

Operating Profits

Cash Flow Positive

Breakeven

36P R O P R I E T A R Y & C O N F I D E N T I A L

Key Development Milestones

Year 3Year 2Year 1

$0

Cash Flow Positive

Breakeven

Pilot Partner Beta Site

Article Recommendation Functional

Web Interface Functional

$3,000,000

$2,000,000

$1,000,000

($1,000,000)

WebPress Profitability

$1.5M First Round

$1.1M Round 2

Partner #2

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Final thoughts on animation

Focus first and foremost on the story you want to tell

For effects, you usually never need anything more than Wipe, Fade, and Faded Zoom—it’s all about how you use them

• The one exception is “Circle Out,” which works well for animating 2x2 lines

Always build printer-friendly animations! • Any slide with animation should be totally legible in “normal” & “slide sorter” view• If you can’t do this and the printed page looks cluttered, use multiple pages

The “disappear” command can be especially helpful when trying to reveal elements of a table one row or column at a time

Simplicity is always your best option. Don’t overcomplicate!

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How WebPress Works

Assessindividual reader tastes &

preferences

Deliverrelevant content to preferred platform(s)

WebPress’s personalization

algorithm dynamically identifies

individual preferences and

adapts to changes over time

WebPress matches individual

preferences with relevant articles

and targeted advertising

WebPress delivers content

to the individual’s preferred

platform(s) and provides custom

layouts that emulate the look

and feel of print newspapers

PersonalContent Bundle

MobileDevices

Printer-FriendlyMini Newspaper

CustomizedWeb Interface

Matchpersonal preferences to relevant content & ads

Content Preferences

ProfileSegmentation

Relevant Daily Content

Relevant Advertising

D A I L Y C O N T E N T

Platform Specific Advertising

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[ habit #5 ]

Showwith images, then tell with voiceover

Let’s start with an example…

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What kinds of content do they consume?

Short-Format

Peer-Driven

Aggregated

Consider the service StumbleUpon:

User selects from an initial list of topics & categories

Stumble tool is added to user’s browser toolbar

Clicking “stumble” takes user to a random site which coincides with their interest

For example: a virtual “magnetic poetry board”

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What kinds of content do they consume?

Short-Format

Peer-Driven

Aggregated

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What kinds of content do they consume?

Short-Format

Peer-Driven

Aggregated

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Where are they consuming this digital content?Marumushi Metro NY Wash Post LA Times CNN Digg NY Times Fox News Drudge

2 Screens

3 Screens

4 Screens

6 Screens

5 Screens

7 Screens

1 Screen

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Times to consider using images instead of bullets

Timelines & sequences of events

Competitive landscapes (use logos)

Consumer segmentations (faces show emotion)

When discussing any website (screen shots)

When selling a product or vision (mock-ups)

To inject humor or a “break” in an otherwise text-heavy presentation (editorial cartoons)

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Sources for high-quality images

www.gettyimages.com

www.corbis.com

http://images.google.com

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[ habit #6 ]

Buildyour slides around the transition

Business Plan

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Newspapers are Suffering

Annual Revenues$55B $2.5B

Annual RevenuePer Unique User$500 $50

Print Editions Online Editions

As print circulations decline and readers move online, revenues suffer:

Source: eMarketer 2006 Online Publishing Report andNewspaper Association of America

why the difference?

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Explaining the Disconnect

Demand precise targeting onlineAdvertisers Pay minimal CPMs

Lack loyalty and willingness to pay

Feel entitled yet dissatisfiedReaders

Can’t fully monetize their content online

Are risk aversePublishers

Stakeholder Attitude Result

50P R O P R I E T A R Y & C O N F I D E N T I A L

WebPress enables newspapers to give their readers

The WebPress Solution

Assess individual reader tastes and preferences

Match personal profiles to relevant content and advertising

Deliver personalized news to a reader’s preferred platform(s)

What they want.

When they want it.

How they want it.

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Good transitions are about good story telling!

Think about the story that links slides together

Write your slides so the conclusion from one provides a bridge to the slide that follows

Good transitions are usually just a few words• The contrast: “In contrast to X, let’s now consider Y”

• The build: “Here’s another example of X”

• The break: “I’ve told you about X, now let’s talk about Y”

Practice delivering slides out loud to nail the transition

There should always be a bridge from one slide to the next• If you can’t crack it, you may need to rethink the presentation’s structure

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[ habit #7 ]

Learnto love the presentation remote

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A what?

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Why use a presentation remote?

You’ll seem more professional as a presenter

You’ll present with more elegance, since you won’t need to pause briefly for each click

You won’t be anchored to your computer, and will be able to move around more freely

You’ll be able to focus 100% of your attention on your audience—which is what really matters

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To review…

[ 1 ] Start with a structured story

[ 2 ] Standardize your design language

[ 3 ] Standardize your written language

[ 4 ] Animate to narrate, not exaggerate

[ 5 ] Show with images, tell with voiceover

[ 6 ] Build slides around the transition

[ 7 ] Learn to love the presentation remote

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Thank You! I hope these PowerPointers prove helpful in your professional endeavors

For a copy of this presentation, visit:

www.sethfamilian.com/persuading2.ppt

Further questions? Feel free to contact me:

415-615-2225 // seth.familian@mba.berkeley.edu