Presentation Do Nots

• Do not depend on bullet points – the worst presenters simply read every single word on the screen. The presentation is used almost like bunch of notes, instead of a tool to convey a message designed to interest the audience. Relying on bullet points makes the presenter almost robotic. Here is what you could do instead:
o Approach the presentation from an entirely different angle. Keep your audience in suspense, keep them guessing. Do not go off on a tangent and then lost the plot, which will only make your audience wonder if they missed something.
o Have variety – throw in some interesting pictures or cartoons. Put together a presentation that really stands out.
o Readable – ensure that your audience is able to follow the flow of your presentation. The text on your slides must be easy to read. Keep it absolutely simple.
• Do not make it boring – if your presentation suffers from lack of interest or humour – then you have probably lost your audience after the first few slides. As a presenter, you do not have to be poker-faced or newscaster-like.
o Engage someone in your office who is creative and funny. Ask him to help you with your presentation. Make it interesting, entertaining and most importantly – memorable.
• Do not state the obvious – it really is a waste of time for your audience to listen to you drone on about stuff they already know. Everyone wants to listen to someone with new ideas, someone who has something different to say, something insightful. Make your presentation unique.
• Do not use conflicting image types – if you have chosen to use black and white pictures, then, stick with it. If your presentation calls for cartoons, then so be it. God forbid that you mix up black and white, with retro to clip art [do not ever use it] and thus, end up having a presentation which seems visually confused.
• Do not forget to proofread your presentation – if you do not trust yourself to proofread your presentation, then, get someone else competent enough. The slightest error could put all your hard work into jeopardy.

Effies 2010

The 2010 Effie Awards concluded this week with BBDO and DDB topping the awards. Both agencies, part of the Omnicom Group earned 11 awards each.

BBDO’s awards were won for campaigns done for Starbucks, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America and ING. The former two campaigns were done by the BBDO New York while the campaign done for ING was formulated by the agency’s office in Atlanta.

Campaigns for Extra, The Field Museum and Klondike, all created by DDB won top spot at the Effies this year.
Six Effies were won by Frito-Lay, with Unilever winning four, making them the top marketers at the awards ceremony. Frito-Lay’s campaign ‘Only in a woman’s world’ and Lay’s ‘Happiness is simple’ won top spot while Unilevers ‘Soap Scum’ campaign for Dove and ‘The making of a manly lotion’ for Vaseline won as well.

OMD and Mindshare were amongst the media agencies to be well recognized for its work done over the past year. OMD won two awards as the lead agency, and was also credited as being the media partner on fifteen other campaigns. Mindshare partnered on eleven campaigns with other agencies, and also won two trophies. Starcom MediaVest Group won one trophy, while being a media partner on 11 Effie award-winning campaigns.
The Grand Effie is to be announced at a gala, which will be held in New York on June 8, 2010. The panel of judges includes some top names in integrated communications, digital and marketing.

How Do You Liquidate a Business?

When you start up a business, you need to have solid strategies in place to ensure that your business runs smoothly and is successful. In the event of any kind of failure, then you would need to seriously consider liquidating your business. It is really the last resort in any business, where you are able to ensure all liabilities are paid for and everything settled before you close shop.

So what exactly does liquidating a business mean?
In simple English, it means a strategy made for exiting gracefully. Liquidation is only considered when a business goes bankrupt or sustains huge losses. At this point, everything that belongs to the company is sold off and the money received divided amongst creditors and others to ensure all debts are settled. This repayment happens based on a priority system. Assets that are sold during liquidation also include real estate, machinery, equipment, etc.

What considerations do you make when liquidating a business?
The decision to liquidate a business cannot be made overnight. The entire management team needs to think it through and formulate a plan. Liquidation is only decided upon when the owners of the company decide to shut down the business. Once all assets are sold and the debts settled, if there is any money remaining, it is then divided amongst the owners and shareholders. The liquidation of a company takes on two forms: compulsory and voluntary. Compulsory liquidation is determined by legal bodies.

How does the process work?
First legal and financial advice must be sought. Based on these recommendations a liquidation plan is formulated by the owners, management team, shareholders and investors. An appraiser is also brought into to assist with the liquidation process. The assets are then all accessed, the necessary paperwork drawn up and the appraiser then sets values for the assets owned by the company. Once the assets are sold off, based on a list of debts, creditors are paid off.

Europe’s Debt Crisis Worsens

Spain’s credit ratings plunged even lower and Greece sought reassurance from Germany to keep afloat, leading to a bigger than expected debt crisis in Europe. Germany has come forward to assist Greece, promising to get approval on a key aid package within days.

A collapse in the construction industry in Spain led to Standard & Poors downgrading the country’s rating from AA+ to AA which led to much stir in the stock market that week. A credit analyst at Standard & Poors foresaw a period of lethargy as Spain’s economy moved away from a credit fuelled economic growth.

With a larger economy in comparison to that of Portugal and Greece, Spain’s future holds the key to the debt crisis in Europe. If Spain is indeed in grievous trouble, then bailing it out may prove to be harder than imagined.

Spain’s debt burden stands at approximately 53% of the national income. On top of this the country has not handled its public finances all that well, and has continued to run a high budget deficit.

Greece on the other hand has debts amounting to €8.5 billion as of May 19, 2010 – and due to extremely high borrowing rates, seems to be unable to raise the money needed.

This inability only calls for the IMF and fifteen others in the EuroZone to mete out the necessary cash, although Germany has been slightly difficult about giving the green light to release €8.4 billion which is the country’s share of the €45 billion package.

Germany’s finance minister voiced his concern about protecting the Euro’s stability while Chancellor Angela Merkel stated that Germany was of the opinion that Greece should agree to certain cutbacks.

Advertising Your Business; The Cost Effective Way

Times are tough, and advertising is being considered by some as an unnecessary expenditure. Although this is untrue, perhaps it would be more prudent to look at cost effective methods of advertising. Here are a few:

• A flyer – this is one of the simplest ways to advertise your business. To create more interest, include a fabulous discount to people who bring back the flyer. Not only is this effective, it also helps you evaluate the effectiveness of your flyer.
• Cable TV – instead of paying for an expensive TV advertisement, you can look for other methods of advertising on TV. You can advertise using crawlers, slides and even on programme listings. These are way cheaper than paying for TV ads.
• Company website – you do not need to sell products online to have a website. Simply having a web presence is good enough to start with making a reputation for your company. Put some time into it, make your website a great one that impresses potential customers.
• YouTube – if you have TV commercials already produced, then, why not put them up on YouTube? You do not have to pay for it, and you can link your website to the video, thus creating traffic to your website.
• Cross-promotion through partnerships – find other businesses that could help enhance yours. Make solid partnerships which will in turn help to cut down on your advertising budget.
• Newsletter – make a company newsletter that goes out to your customer database once a quarter. This is a great way of keeping in touch with your customers and ensuring that you are the first on their list.