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To much power can be a dangerous thing.

Article I just wrote for ME Media Week about the perils of Power Point.

We talk a lot these days about the need for brands to make an emotional connection with consumers, but what about making an emotional connection with clients? In new business presentations in particular, it seems that rather than engaging the client eye to eye, technology has made it all to easy for us to swivel towards the big screen and leave it to Power Point.
Once upon a time there was the humble pie chart and the simple but effective bar graph. They used to appear together on overhead projectors and pretty much had the place to themselves. But then in the 80’s they got married and proceeded to create a family of Brad and Angelina sized proportions. Pie Chart and Bar Graph’s kids have fancy names like Brand Matrix, Brand Onion, and Insight Pyramid.
The big problem with Power Point is it gives someone who wouldn’t normally be able to address a large group of people, the power to do just that. In the wrong hands too much Power Point can be a dangerous weapon, turning a boardroom into a bored room faster than you can say ‘pass me the laser pointer’.
For an agency pitching for new business, the temptation to overdo the Power Point presentation is driven by the urge to demonstrate to the client that they understand their business and have put a lot of time and thinking into the meeting.
A smart client shouldn’t fall for quantity over quality. If I was a client, I’d force the agency to restrict it’s strategic presentation to a handful of slides, forcing them to distill their thinking down to its very essence.
Next time you’re planning a presso, consider going Jedi. Remember the scene in Star Wars when Obi Wan is teaching Luke to use his light saber and he makes him put on a blindfold and ‘use the force’? Now I’m not suggesting you blind fold the clients (although that could be interesting). I mean, switch off the Power Point, turn away from the big screen and tap into your own creative force.
It doesn’t have to be all talk. Look for a more interesting way to show the client you understand the fundamentals of their business. There’s a great story about the Saatchi brothers pitching for British Rail back in the day. The client arrived at the agency for the presentation, only to be told that the team wasn’t ready yet and to have a seat. The client waited in reception. Patiently at first, but after repeatedly being told the meeting would start soon, they stormed back to the lift in a huff. Waiting to greet them on the ground floor were the Saatchi brothers who said, ‘Now you know exactly how thousands of your customers feel each day.’ Then they invited the surprised client back upstairs for the meeting.
If you can come up with an entertaining and relevant way to make your point, why wouldn’t you do it? Creative thinking is what clients come to their ad agency for and that doesn’t have to start with the work. So unplug that Power Point. Your presentation wont be the only thing that benefits. Ever noticed how 90% of presentations start with you all sitting around making uncomfortable small talk, while a nervous Indian guy tries to get the boardroom computer system working? I’m pretty sure that IT stands for ‘IT’s not working’. Maybe that’s technology’s way of telling us to go ahead and do IT ourselves.

The difference between mummies and zombies

The difference is only skin deep. Well, just above the skin actually. And there's a lesson there for all of us.

Poo

This is a t shirt my friend Paul Akiki and I have up for voting on Threadless at the moment. You can go vote for it by clicking on it if you want....

Pole Position

So my friends have started pole dancing classes. I thought they were joking but it turns out there really is such a thing. My first thought was that it is great that strippers can turn their skills into a job when the allure of the strip club fades. My four friends are all women. I don’t think many guys would sign up for pole dancing, but apparently it’s a hardcore workout. Actually, I kind of got that impression from the routines I have seen over the years. I’m not sure how my friends plan to use their new found skills, but I wonder if a pole dancer finds it hard to walk past a street sign without getting the urge to do a quick twirl. The woman doing the classes reckons they tried to get pole dancing into the Olympics. Fair enough, the equipment is already there and it would be a lot more audience friendly than pole vaulting.

Swine Flu coming to a tv near you

You know who wins? The chickens. After all the bad PR they have put up with they must be chuffed that another animal is copping the bad press about passing lurgies onto the humans. Given the choice of swine flu or bird flu i would go for the avian strain. Just seems cleaner. Maybe if they have to do a public awareness campaign on swine flu they could use Porky Pig. People like him and he seems healthy. Or maybe Spiderpig form the SImpons movie. Or Babe the pig. People respond well to movie stars telling them what to do.

Radio Ga Ga

If you have a young child and a car you’ve done this.
They insist on you playing one of their crappy nursery rhyme or fairytale CD’s as you drive them to school or a friend's house. You drop them off and continue on your merry way, only to discover a few minutes later that you are still singing along.

The Bain of my life

Is it just me or is the David Bain trial goin on way to long? It's a bit like Twin Peaks. The 80's tv series that started off really good but by the end you were kind of over it and wished it would finish. I'm not even in NZ, I am following the trial over the interweb and I am bored. I know justice has to be done, but does it have to be so boring. And by boring i mean slow and tedious. I thought David Bain was jailed for his crimes regarding the wearing of cardigans. Turns out there was more to it, but come on justice system. Chop chop. Your trial is taking up valuable cm's on the internet that could be full of what Lindsay Lohan is up to.

Sign of the times

Spotted this guy working outside Next Neon, one of Abu Dhabi premier sign makers. He was putting the finishing touches to an M, but my friend Nick pointed out it could also be an E or even a W if it wanted to. That made me reflect on just how versatile this humble letter M is. It’s the kind of letter we need during these tough economic times. Able to multi task, turn its hand to many … positions. Trust me folks. This is the kind of letter that is going to see us through the tough times and back into the sunshine. Letter M. I salute you.

I'm a big fan

In the ad game you often get tasked with coming up with names for products. Maybe that's why this fan caught my eye. It dominates the ceiling in one of Abu Dhabi's new trendy bars called the Yacht Club, where Lebanese ladies meet to see who has the biggest shiniest handbag.
It's a big fan. A really big fan. In one of those crap hollywood b grade horror films, this is the fan that would be going at the high school prom and the phyco would set the speed to 10 and there would be lots of fast cuts between the teenagers having fun on the dance floor and the fan shaking loose and then it would drop and there would a shot of a wall getting sprayed in blood as 30 kids were decapitated.
So what do name a company that makes really really big fans. Sometimes, the first idea that pops into your head is the right one.

Mr Happy, Mr Grumpy

Can you guess which of these coin operated rides was made before the credit crunch and which one was made after? I had this great theory that kids wouldn’t want to ride Mr grumpy and instead, would be drawn to Mr happy car, but after observing the rides for half an hour I discovered kids don’t give a toss.