How Netflix can help you create better Powerpoint presentations
Put some drama in your decks
It’s 4 PM and you’re squinting at a bright flatscreen. Someone is reading a Powerpoint to you. There are some graphs with lines that go up or down or who cares. There’s a logo of the company you all work for on every single slide. Just in case somebody slips in and out of a brief coma halfway through the presentation and needs to be reminded which lovely company got them there in the first place.
Nobody will remember anything substantial about this presentation. Despite the lines in the graphs going up. Why? Because the story sucked. My dear, the story sucked. That’s a problem. Why? Because stories sell. The best pitches are great stories.
Why not take a closer look at the fine people that have you binging story after story? If they can get the whole world hooked on a show about a tidy-minded Japanese lady, surely you can capture the attention of your peers at the office, right?
Step 1. Choose a genre
Decide what kind of your story you’re going to tell and make sure you tell your audience early in your presentation. What’s the story about? What are they going to get?
Step 2. Tell them what they missed in the previous episode
Make sure you set the table before you start serving the goodies. Assume your audience knows less about the subject in your presentation than you. So always give a brief summary of the story up till the moment of your presentation. Recap so everyone is on the same page.
Step 3. Introduce your characters
Treat all elements in your story like characters. Yourself. Your brand. Your company. The marketing department. Your latest success in a relevant field. Introduce them thoroughly. Explain the role they play in the presentation. If your audience doesn’t understand or know the characters, they won’t get the story. Context, therefore, is essential. The audience must understand the frame to truly appreciate the picture. You might know that your company is an expert in the field of medieval hamster throwing, but if your audience is not, you can kiss that hamster throwing contract goodbye. Also; weird career. But let’s continue.
Step 4. Apply a dramatic structure
A long time ago a guy named Gustav Freytag invented this little pyramid containing all essential phases of a dramatic story.
Basically, all the seasons of [Insert Show] you’ve ever seen are built using this formula. And I found that this forms the perfect construct for a pitch deck:
Exposition: Introduction & Challenge
Who are you and who do you work for?
Why are we here?
Rising action: Insights & Strategy
What do we know so far?
What must we do based on that knowledge?
Climax: Idea
This is what we’re gonna do
Falling action: Details
This is how we’re gonna do that
Denouement: Expected results
This is what we’re going to get as a result
Step 5. Put the audience’s lines in your presentation
When listening to a story, a listener tends to have an ongoing stream of questions popping into their mind.
Why on earth doesn’t she just leave the house instead of walking up the stairs?
Surely he can fit on that freaking raft?
WHY AREN’T YOU RUNNING?
Your business presentation surely isn’t a horror flick or Titanic but your audience will still have questions. Counter those questions by stating the most obvious ones. Out loud. Or in written out in your slide deck. So why is this important? Why should you care? What do we mean by this? Answering the audience’s questions before they materialize, makes your story sound more logical and thus more believable.
Step 6. Get people hungry for the next episode
There’s nothing wrong with a little teaser to get your audience in the binging mood. So why close your presentation with a dull “Thanks for your time”-slide when you can hint towards more interesting stuff? In our own decks we close off with this:
Leading people from the end of our presentation directly to our Dutch podcast on media and marketing that I happen to host. Available on Spotify, iTunes and Soundcloud.
See what I did there?
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