Why Your Corporate PowerPoint Template Stinks.

Posted by Laura Bergells

February 2, 2005

Many businesses have a corporate PowerPoint presentation template. Often, they even have a corporate policy that requires employees to use this (usually agency-developed) template for all corporate presentations.

What a bad idea. You need to hit the “delete” button on that sucker right away.

The corporate PowerPoint template (corp temp) is a stinker, for oh, so many reasons.
I can’t list them all here, but here’s a start:

Total lack of respect for the audience. In an effort to be all things to all people, your corp temp fails to communicate passionately to anybody.

It’s not targeted to any audience.
It’s not even specific to your content.
It doesn’t speak to the uniqueness of your products or services.
It fails to give insight into the qualifications of the speaker.
And perhaps worse of all, it makes your brand appear lame and wholly unappealing.

The corp temp all but screams, “We have an advertising agency. They know what’s best. They manage our brand. We can’t trust our people to adequately communicate or tell a story to our clients.”

You’ll often hear traditional ad agency people debate over this. “A corporate template, like our letterhead or biz card, promotes a consistent look and feel. It’s easy for people to use. You must use it!”

Well, yeah. No debate there. A consistently lame look and feel!

The agency that developed the letterhead and business card probably tossed in a template as part of a identity package, without realizing that presentations aren’t even in the same league as a business card or a letterhead.

Not even close! Would the ad agency suggest developing TV commercials with the same video background, to promote brand consistency? Of course not! Presentations are emotion-packed, visual entities.

Well, at least they’re supposed to be!

Let’s look at the corp temp. It’s usually white with a little logo in a corner… just as corporately boring as every other corp temp: nothing inventive or creative or inspirational there. And it frequently comes complete with a dictatorial note about appropriate use of colors and fonts…

This bureaucratic stamp of approval prevents your best presenters from putting much effort into truly connecting with their audience. Why spend any time gathering quotes, charts, photos, and developing compelling stories if every element has to be crammed into the same uninspired space as the next presentation?

A corp temp serves a dismaying visual cue, and makes your audience think: “This company cares more about shoving its brand down my throat than about connecting with me. I will hear nothing new or amazing here.”

It identifies your brand with a boring story. How can a CEO inspire her audience of analysts with a unique message when it has to be built on the same platform as the HR rep talking to a group of college students?

You can almost hear the traditional ad agency argument, “Put your creativity into your content and messages. Leave design to our highly paid experts.”

That’s just silly. Nobody’s going to connect with content or feel special when your presentation looks the same as every other presentation. Hey, would you ask a Cordon Bleu chef to create a 5-star meal, and serve it on the same plates you use at a kid’s birthday party?

So what’s the alternative to the bureaucratic corp temp? If your presentation is important, invest in a professional design, content development, and presentation coaching.

Think about inspiring and motivating your audience.

I can hear traditional Corp. Comm. depts. all scream in unison, “We can’t afford it! And besides, not all of our presentations are that important!”

Hey, if they’re not important, then don’t give them! Don’t waste your audience’s time! With the money you save on NOT giving lame presentations, you can build a story that is truly relevant, informative, educational, or motivating!

Stop eroding your brand image with weak, logo-in-a-box presentations delivered by dispassionate employees! Instead, expose your brand brightly by taking the design and content shackles off of your most vibrant and passionate presenters.