For the majority of people, Presentation means Microsoft PowerPoint or PPT popularly known. Are you also one to think that way?
Well after reading this blog, you will be enlightened for many more interesting presentation formats which you can consider and you might end up with one which is more appropriate than PPT. So don’t decide on the format of presentation without reading it.
Presentation formats are just the medium for convey of information in front of your target audiences. We at Bharat InfoTech focus highly make a presentation in a way where audiences understands the presentation motive and make it a fun with slides embedded with realistic images. Our professional presenter create different types of presentation formats that fit in 4:3 aspect ratio and adjust them by 800px width with 600px height. Our presenters are passionate about advanced techniques, tools, practices which are used in presentation format designing.
Below 5 points shall help you choosing most appropriate presentation format.
Don’t have time to read all? Just click on pointer and go directly to section to read more.
Usually the word "Presentation" is taken as equal to PowerPoint presentation or slides, however, that is not true. There are multiple formats available for the presentation and you must be aware of their advantages and disadvantages before you decide which one to be chosen for your requirement.
Before we go deep let’s understand what is a presentation and why do we need one. By Wikipedia “ A presentation is the process of presenting a topic to an audience. It is typically a demonstration, introduction, lecture, or speech meant to inform, persuade, inspire, motivate, or to build goodwill or to present a new idea or product "
As the definition suggests through the presentation you want to communicate about a “topic” to an “audience” for demonstration, introduction or making them aware with agenda of inspiring them for the “Topic”.
Let’s take an example you are a bag pack company and you come up with new bag design. What will be the mode of communication to your audience ( buyers ) about your new offering ( topic) ? Well, it will be a presentation which will introduce your bag design ( topic) to your buyers ( audience) to motivate them to buy your new design.
Though the intent is not always to inspire anybody to buy, neither your audience is always the buyers and presentation ( process ) is not always required to be done in seminars or events and that is why you need specific presentation ( delivery material) for a specific purpose.
Before we go deep in understanding which presentation format is most suitable for your requirement, let’s understand the various type of presentation formats available in the market.
Following are the most offered presentation format available with any presentation designing agency.
PowerPoint Presentation or Keynote: This is the most used presentation format. Almost everybody either using it from their own computer or getting it done from the PowerPoint designing agency.
In fact usage of PPT & Keynote is so high that PPT or PowerPoint become a synonym of Presentation.
We receive many calls at Recherche Digital where the client says “ I need a presentation of 10 slides” which means he needs “that” presentation in PPT format but chances are more that he/she may not even aware about other popular formats of presentation available in the market.
In any way there is no doubt that PPT is most widely used presentation format due it’s easy availability, editing capability, many handy designing features and easy to share on emails or present through various delivery modes.
Multimedia Presentation: This may be counted as third favourite presentation format in the market which declines rapidly in recent years because Apple & Android do not support Flash ( there is an interesting debut and here what apple has to say on this) and flash is the main software used to design Multimedia Presentation.
The matter, benefits, and comparison with PowerPoint presentation is already given in this blog so we are not going discuss that in depth here. But Flash presentation is most advance Presentation format, which can help you get the most desirable presentation for your requirement.
It helps to deliver interactive presentation delivery and can save lot’s of time due to its facility of navigation.
You can divide the presentation in various modules and those modules can individually be played or skipped as per demand or need.
Video/ Film: Video has gained the momentum and it is expected in next few years video will take the mainstream on the internet. You can imagine it’s reach that more than 4 million hours of video data is uploaded on youtube per day.
In presentation field, video presentation format comes to number 2nd position leading by PowerPoint as number 1 presentation format.
Video presentation format has all good thing as motion, voice, music but it lacks interactivity of flash and lacks easy editing of PowerPoint. Besides, video shooting and editing both are costing high due to Types of equipment and lack of right resource.
So if you don’t need frequent editing or change figures and do not need interactivity, the video may be a good choice.
Consider videos for your branding need, or facility/factory/office infrastructure showcasing or interviews or showcasing process.
Whiteboard: This is comparatively new format rather it is difficult to say format, as it’s format, is the same as of video ie MP4 or MPEG etc but the main difference lies that it showcases the content through freehand moment giving the effect of blackboard drawing or sketching, sometimes known as doodling.
The designing technique of whiteboard is different and it requires a special software to design whiteboard presentation.
It is not popularly known but whiteboard animation finds its’ application in explaining the concept, short stories, general process etc.
It is particularly a good platform when you don’t have input data i.e images, videos. The whole whiteboard video is prepared with library images which are a symbolic representation of the topic or subject.
Many start-ups are the fan of this whiteboard presentation format as this helps them to explain the concept.
Following are few parameters which do impact the selection of Presentation format.
You must discuss these pointers with your agency or any experienced presentation designing company will ask for these pointers
Let's learn about them one by one and see how it can impact our choice of presentation format.
a) The complexity of the subject: Your agency may suggest a Video may be 3 D depending upon the complexity of the subject that is to be presented.
As evident 3D may showcase the object or product with various angles and cut n slice way, it may be easier to convince client by showcasing 3D Presentation than showcasing a PPT presentation for same subject.
b) Delivery mode: Considering the fact that a presentation is required to be given face to face any presentation format may be suitable ( other factors may change the suggested format), however when the presentation is supposed to be given remotely then using of video and voice is recommended
c) Self explanatory or with an explanation: A self-explanatory presentation requires more direct language and script rather than with explanation( Like PPT, or flash presentation with music but no voice)
If you plan to show your presentation where the user is expected to understand it by himself, you better go for interactive, voiceover, video or flash based presentation.
The difference between flash-based presentation and PPT presentation is given here.
d) Interactive or running presentation: An interactive presentation is the most recommended presentation in many cases as this presentation not only have voice over, pictures but interactive buttons to control the presentation completely.
It can work like video and work like PowerPoint ( except editing is not that easy ), you can pause it, play it, skip the module or go to any section directly.
You have full control on delivery of presentation though it has the drawback of not being played on Apple pcs and Android.
e) Audience type: This also impacts the presentation format. For large gathering like a seminar or event, it is recommended to use either video or PowerPoint.
While for a small gathering or one to one meeting interactive or hybrid presentation are recommended.
Also if you are planning to showcase the presentation to C suit or top management then you ought to use hybrid or flash presentation.
These people have a lack of time and always want to see some specific information with lots of facts & figures. Hybrid or flash presentation is the right presentation format for this audience type.
f) The subject of Presentation: This also impacts the decision of presentation format. For complex subject, it is advisable to use, interactive presentation with voice over and fact sheet attached to that.
A hydride presentation is most recommended which can showcase video, image, voice, music, 3D or whiteboard collectively and any media can be used as per their best capability to explain the complexity of subject within frame of hybrid presentation.
Check with your agency if they can work on that format as it is not widely known to people.
g) Voice or no Voice: If you need voice then PPT is not the right option, it has limited capability. For all voice over presentations, multimedia presentation or video presentation could be appropriate. Whiteboard may also be good if you have a concept to explain which is not very long.
h) Budget/ Costing: We designed more than 1000+ presentation and as opposed to myth that PowerPoint is most cost-effective platform, our bill for a launching presentation was more than the cost of the video presentation. Nevertheless, depending upon the complexity & event or audience the price of any presentation may vary.
The subject of cost of presentation and how you may save up to 50% in another blog, check that here
The decision of choosing the right presentation type is crucial as it will decide the impact and justify the effort & cost of presentation making & delivery.
As for, a successful presentation should able to persuade the audience of the intent of the presentation and thus able to serve the purpose of showcasing the “Presentation”
At Recherche Digital we work with our client by understanding their requirement and then suggest to them the most appropriate type of “Presentation format” .
During the process, our presentation expert asks few questions like
a. Why do you think that you need (this) presentation?
This question itself is the way of exploring the reason why any client thought to reach agency for making a presentation.
Sometimes there is no need of presentation and subject is best explained or presented by verbal communication.
This helps us to know the pressing need, importance of the presentation.
b. Who are the target audience, whom you want to present the presentation ( Their age, profile, language, background, domain etc)
The answer of this question helps us to determine the understanding level of the audience and which language to be used in presentation along with style of presentation and of course, it contributes partially for our suggestion for right presentation format for our clients.
c. What is the delivery channel? ( Email, face to face, seminar, event )
With that, we try to understand how this presentation is going to be shared with the audience.
We may think of changing the presentation format for Email presentations or remote presentations than presentation which may be used for one to one meeting or interactive meetings.
d. Who is going to present?
This is the most ignored question that any agency asks the client. While this one is the important one, depending upon the seniority the presentation format may be impacted.
The company sales executive presentation shall be much different to the company’s CEO presentation hence type or presentation, delivery, language even the resource selection within agency is also impacted with this factor.
e. What is the delivery media where you planning to show the presentation?
Is it the projector or you will use your computer or just want to run on LED TV directly. Most people use their presentation on their computer or laptop, with 16:9 aspect ratio of screen.
Media makes difference as it is required to know the screen size, audio-video capabilities etc to design the presentation by optimizing the presentation delivery media.
Although these presentations are good for running most of the media but it should ideally be optimized as per media to showcase the best image & other media effects.
f. Tentative duration of presentation?
While suggesting the platform we also ask for a tentative duration of the presentation. For example, whiteboard presentations are good for concept clarity with duration up to 1 to 5 minutes at the most, if the client is willing to showcase content of 30 minutes or more than whiteboard is certainly not a right presentation format to be suggested.
At Recherche, we get a number of presentation designing requirement and out of them following makes 73% of total requirement.
In today era of PowerPoint presentation there are many ways you can represent your ideas. What if you have multiple choices of styles in which you can showcase your meaningful thoughts? This gives flexibility to each presentation scenario to express your talk into various meaningful manners. Now we discuss all in brief. Check out each of them which are the choices of Great Steve Jobs, Al Gore etc.
Visual Presentation: This type of presentation is interesting only when you plan to deliver broad messages to your targeted audiences.
Freedom Style: This type of presentation is good for those people who have short period of time and better have point to point ideas related to their stories. Such type of presenters don’t need of taking slides for presentations.
Instructor Style: This type of presentation is only useful for those who find themselves in difficulty to express their thoughts and people are not well prepared for themselves. So people make logically strong presentations to aid their ideas using high contrast images, videos, texts, high impact visuals etc.
Coach Style: High energetic and charismatic presenter might choose coach style for presenting. This type gives high freedom of engagement between audiences and presenter worth more while speaking like in a conference room. People might use this presentation format style when they have sales presentations for selling business ideas through storytelling on what they sold.
Lessig Style: This presentation type was discovered by Lawrence Lessig, a professor of Law and Leadership in Harward Law School. This presenting style is performed by slides but only the mandatory thing is that each slide takes only 15 seconds to be cover up.
Connector Style: Connector style is just a simple presenting approach where speaker highly engage with audiences and encourages their reactions and feedbacks. In such presentation they use gestures to express in better ways to be easily understood.
Following table may give you some idea how to choose the right presentation format on the basis of variables like Audience, subject, complexity, and delivery mode.
| Sno | Topics | Audience | Media | Complexity | Delivery | Suitable presentation option |
| 1 | Sales/Marketing/Pitch/Business | Executive to Middle management | Laptop/Desktop | Average | In person | PPT/Video/Whiteboard |
| 2 | Sales/Marketing/Pitch/Business | Top Management | Laptop/Desktop | Avg. / Above Avg. | In person | Hybrid Presentation |
| 3 | Product / Service Presentation | Executive to Middle Management | Laptop/Desktop | Above average | In person | PPT/Video |
| 4 | Product / Service Presentation | Top Management | Laptop/Desktop | Avg. / Above Avg. | In person | Hybrid Presentation |
| 5 | Education | K12 | Laptop/Desktop | Avg. | Remote | CBT format |
| 6 | Education | K12 | Projector | Avg | In person | Video/PPT |
| 7 | Finance | Top Management | Laptop/Desktop | Above Avg | In person | PPT with indexing |
| 8 | Event | General Public | Projector | Avg | In Person | Video |
I hope you have got a good idea and this blog helped you finishing the right presentation format for your presentation need.
Do let me know if you want to add any missing point or queries reading your upcoming presentation and I 'll be happy to respond.
A presentation can be a deal maker or breaker, learn critical aspects of presentation designing from experts.
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