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10 top tips
1. Start with your audience

What sort of deck, if any

What are they expecting?

Go back to their brief –

are you sure you’re explicitly ticking off all their boxes?
2. Know your objective

Tee Start
up work? a conversation?

Demonstrate your
Broaden horizons? Are you trying to... commercial
understanding?

Entertain? Show how busy

Train? you’ve been?
If you’re teeing up work ...

Make sure the join between strategy and creative is perfect –

strip out hurdles (no matter how beautiful or clever)
3. Sort out what you want to say ...

Identify the handful of big points you really need to make

to meet your objective
... and start to get it in a rough order

1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
4. Choose a structure

A format that will signpost your argument

most clearly and powerfully – but which one?
“The list”

Pros: Quick to write, conversational, authoritative

Cons: Can be disjointed, not ideal for setting up work
“The brief”

Pros: Great for setting up work, especially for existing/less sophisticated clients
Cons: Less inspirational; less distinctive
“Building blocks”

Pros: Again, great for setting up work – more focussed and memorable
Cons: Can sometimes leave you with loose ends
“The story”

Pros: Can make for a very passionate ‘sell’ – good if time is short
Cons: Harder to write; less conversational; not a ‘team’
5. Set the scene

Like a great book or film –

how can you depict the challenge vividly and get off to a flying start?
6. Think theatre

How can you memorably and tangibly bring things to life?

7. Write the headings first
There are basically 2 ways to do this
One is to tell a continuous story ...
... like I’m doing now
I like this because it helps with the flow

I also like conclusion boxes just to make absolutely sure

people get what I’m saying
The other way

Blunter headlines, which are answered below

(like i’m doing now)
The pros of this second model

Can be an arresting way to punctuate the flow

The cons

If used too much it can be difficult to maintain the flow

8. Avoid the kitchen sink

A very common mistake is to cram too much stuff in –

make one point per chart, but make it well
Get each point plenty of room to breathe

• Lots of agencies write charts like this, with huge amounts of text crammed
onto a chart, causing various problems and difficulties such as
– eye-strain
– boredom
– irritation
• There really is no excuse for this as it goes against everything we know
about good communications, namely that we can’t process too much
information at the same time
• In addition this will encourage you (and your audience) to read from the chart
and they will not pay attention to a fucking word you say
9. Know what your big point is

Not all points are equal – often there is a concept

on which the whole presentation turns
Ram it home
Then ram it home again
10. Finish well

Finish the ‘1st half’ strongly (by setting up the work), then finish the ‘2nd half’
strongly (by briefly recapping the main points)
In summary: how to knit better cardigans
1. Know your audience
2. Know your objective
3. Sort out what you want to say
4. Choose a structure
5. Set the scene 70% planning
6. Think theatre
7. Write the heading first
8. Avoid the kitchen sink
9. Know what your big point is
10.Finish well 30% doing
11.Don’t be afraid!
Discussion