The best client presentations tell a story using words and pictures. Indeed, a key takeaway of the Y&R;presentation workshop is: figure out what the story is that you are trying to tell, and then tell it as clearly and succinctly as you can. Of course, being an expensive partner, we feel compelled to demonstrate our worth by delivering bulk. But quantity is no substitute for quality, and it is much harder to find the story and tell it well than to fill a binder with noise.

if you say this is an eyechart.....but -- you are not telling the story -- but you will be expalining the joke...and painfully

Hi David I have kind of become so addicted to your blog that I keenly look forward to updates. And this one was really interesting because it was something close to my heart. How do we tell compelling stories to clients and get them engrossed instead of just running through some 50 slides which is boring,mundane etc. I am not sure if you were able to read the book "The Perfect Pitch" by Jon Steel which is all about telling a compelling story to your audience.One of the thought is all of us should get enrolled in theatre and start building skills in voice modulation, expression etc. I am sure this will bring in more passion when we present to clients.

With a joke, crafted or spontaneous, the thing that gets you is something that doesn't sit quite right. Something that doesn't look quite right unless you get it... ...and you definitely want to get it. It's a point. Not a well groomed and logical point. Definitely not a Powerpoint. Not what you were expecting. It's a pointy point. Uncomfortable enough to get my attention, but when you get it, it's wonderful. The joke is about me and how my head works!

your right. never show the art. the art of the joke is that it must be truthful. thats why, when you have a little ditty that happed to you is always funnier than starting a joke with "two jew walk into abr" 'one jew looks at the other and say's "we must be in the wrong joke" MOST comics, no matter how crazy the story sounds, they make it seem that its a true story. so in the ad biz. no matter how silly the copy is, if you dont see the art, you believe the truth,

or become e-mortal, and don't let anybody else create your legacy.Have a look at a site I've been developing in my spare time... www.farawayfish.com although not sure I'd record my meeting notes there !

Just this morning, I heard the following statement on the radio: "There are only two points of view: mine and the wrong one."

I once heard -- I might not be right -- but I will be wrong at the top of my voice -- and there is your history...

This is an interesting post. The idea of "facts" and the theory of them being subjective is interesting. And where people get their "facts" or what they believe to be "the facts" is interesting as well. Take a look at this recent study by Forrester relating to how much people trust various sources of information: http://blogs.forrester.com/groundswell/2008/12/people-dont-tru.html

In knowledge representation, there's an interesting concept called reification. This is an approach to provide additional information about fragments of knowledge, such as scope, author/source, context, etc. The main use for reification is to provide a degree of confidence or usefulness for some particular fragment of knowledge, and the reliability of some reasoning that depends on the fragment. References for this are Knowledge Representation and Resource Definition Framework. Interesting reading if you have time on your hands.

Equally important is the context in which you consider the facts. This reminds me of an old saying "Don't confuse me with the facts, I've got my mind made up"!

Agree with you...however, I don't know if it is as easy to get all the facts as stated. If it is a simple thing, I wonder why more people aren't doing it. Opinions are imperative, but I like hearing informed opinions...from people I respect (and that respect many times comes from these opinions). People who just give an opinion without reason behind it can be quite frustrating. Brainstorming is a completely different thing in terms of opinions, but on a day-to-day basis, I think it is a necessary distinction. jb

You are actually touching on the fundemental principal of our business. I believe what differntiates the great people fron the average ones in our business is being able to take almost geniric looking facts and turn them into relevant and distinctive insights/opinions that motivate consumers to want to join in the conversation. And then knowing how to keep the conversation going!

As I said -- facts are the price of entry -- informed opinion -- insight if you will -- is the currency of competition

Agree with all of the above. But want to reinforce Jennifer's point: perfect information has an infinite cost. So, part of the insight that we bring lies in deciding which 'facts' to believe and which to discount. Often insight results from trying to decipher and explain the difference between a fact or statistic and our expectation of that statistic. Our expectations and perceptions of significant differences are informed by our experiences. These qualify us as subject matter experts. All that said, it is insights which distinguish us. Including the sense of when to ignore unreliable or spurious 'facts'.