Microsoft Releases Office for iPad

News flash! Microsoft released Office for iPad this week, which includes PowerPoint, Word, and Excel. It’s free to view documents, but if you want to create or edit, you’ll need an Office 365 subscription.

From what we’ve seen so far, PowerPoint maintains formatting and animations across the board — great news for those of you who want to present on-the-go with your iOS device. We’re still giving the app a thorough review and will be posting more details shortly, so check back soon!

Keeping It Real…

The more true to life you can portray an issue you are presenting in your PowerPoint, the better your audience will understand, relate, and identify with it. This is your ideal goal – to get your audience to know that you understand their pain, their issue, and that you have a way to help resolve it or make it better. The impact you can add by using photos, videos, sound, or other media is extremely powerful and should not be overlooked. Here are a couple of ideas on types of media and when to use them.

• Use illustrations or video to clarify. If your product is complicated, an illustration or video lets you simplify the way it looks. Also, illustrations and videos allow you to show a zoomed-in view or a view normally not seen, such as a product interior.
• Motion, sound, and music. Just because PowerPoint has this feature doesn’t mean you need to use it. Use sparingly and only when deemed appropriate. Adding animation, sound effects, or music will make your presentation come alive, but it also lessens the seriousness of what you are presenting. Animation can be valuable when offering a product demonstration, but using when not needed will detract rather than add from the overall presentation.
• Keep charts and graphs simple. Charts and graphs that are used to support a point should be simple and instantly understood. Audiences will be confused by overly complex visuals.
• Photos have tremendous impact. A picture is worth a thousand words. This holds true in a PowerPoint. Finding a relatable image to put into your presentation can create an significant impression. It will leave your audience with an image resonating in their head when they go back to the office. Make it very relatable to a key point and they will not forget what you had to say.

As you can see, there is plenty of room for creativity in your presentations. Using illustrations and photos or graphs and animations can be very powerful. But beware… overuse these tools and they will detract from your presentation, making it lose gravity and impact.

Animation or Live Action… What Kind of Video Should I Use?

Over the past few years, we’ve seen a significant shift toward using video to connect with an audience. From YouTube and vimeo, to news sites and now even Instagram, video offers users rich and engaging content.

But what kind of video is best?

Animation, which starts with independent pictures / objects and pieces them together (think movies created from still pictures or illustrations and cartoons), provides an easy way to describe complex stories, ideas, and information. With animation, you can do just about anything. It performs very well for tech companies and internet services, and it’s a great method of demonstrating something abstract or conceptual. Animation makes it very easy to brand your video. By using similar colors, styles, and themes, your video can easily fit in seamlessly with your website and advertising and marketing collateral. And if your product or service is continuously developing, it’s simpler to make an update to an animated video than it is to a live one.

However, it’s harder to elicit emotion with animated videos. They are much less realistic and it is harder to gain the audience’s trust. Production can be time-consuming.

Live-action video, which uses filmed footage (anything from a C-level executive in front of a green screen to aerial shots taken from a helicopter), is a great alternative to animation and is certainly more appealing to an audience.

“There is a very economical way to produce executive messaging depending on the length of the message (usually one to three minutes) utilizing minimal graphics and the client’s location,” according to Bob Nastasi, Infinitely Big’s executive producer.

Viewers tend to feel more of a connection to the message. Live action is a good way to demonstrate a concrete product or service. When offered the choice, most people prefer to see a product or service in action. Live action is also a great tool for connecting with your audience, especially if you run a personal business, like a consulting firm or an eatery. People like seeing other people. It gives them an emotional connection, which can be influential and effective when telling your tale. Actual people and real life, as opposed to make-believe characters, help in developing trust with the audience.

But with live-action filming it can take days to get the right take; the equipment (and sometimes the talent) can be pricey; and editing can be a headache – especially if you want to alter the script or the setting, because then you’ll have to reshoot.

With both options, cost is always a consideration.

“In my world, true animation almost always is more expensive than live video depending on the content and degree of difficulty,” Nastasi said. “Animation actually can be costly – but let’s match apples to apples. What type of animation are we estimating? Is it 2D or 3D? What type of creative are we pitching? How many talent voices are needed? What about music and sound design? What is the total running time of the animated program? All these elements factor into the total cost, and how easy or difficult updating the program can be.”

“I can say with confidence that live action video can be produced for competitive rates and even for less than animation,” he added.