The best presentations are those that tell a story and relate to an audience at an emotional level. Often PR practitioners propose solutions or ideas that will ultimately result in positive outcomes. By incorporating unique creativity into a presentation, the audience will not only be engaged but will also have a better understanding of the story. I found a very clever video presentation called, PRWeb in Plain English. This video was created by Common Craft and describes quite simply the benefits of using PRWeb’s newswire service to enhance the visibility of online news releases. This isn’t a conventional visual presentation by any means. It incorporates hand-drawn characters and paper cutouts that tell the story of PRWeb’s services and how they relate to you, the viewer. Occasionally hands appear in the video, shifting the paper cutouts and even gesturing emotions. In some ways, it’s corny, but it’s also very creative and fun to watch. The voiceover flows smoothly over the story, which is illustrated with sketches and cutouts in a clear, simplistic way. This kind of visual presentation might not be appropriate for every professional situation, however the storytelling demonstrated in the video is useful for PR practitioners because it channels creativity and emphasizes clarity and simplicity. These are important things to keep in mind when developing presentations, especially since attention spans don’t last very long. At one point in this video, hand-drawn PR pitches are flowing down a “River of News” while journalists, analysts, consumers and bloggers hold fishing rods along the current waiting to pick information with keywords that interest them. Clarity, appropriateness and storytelling are key components to be mindful of when reaching out to an audience. As PR practitioners it’s important to be aware of not only PRWeb’s services, but to also recognize similar storytelling techniques in this video that might enhance our presentations.
