Friday, March 13, 2009

PR People Need to Get Visual

In the past four years I’ve increased my communication skills by thinking more visually. We’re paid to write, more often than not, so PR people are not necessarily visual in nature. David Armano is one of the inspirations behind my evolution. His Logic + Emotion blog provides insight into marketing, design and visual thinking.

We grabbed coffee the morning after attending P&G’s Digital Summit. In this video he weighs in on why PR people should think more visually.

Armano noted that in the creative process you might start drawing before starting to write to form your thoughts. Here is a story board document to make this an easier task.

Also, when creating presentations, print the PowerPoint deck out and lay it out on the floor. Seeing every slide in one view, out of the computer and on the floor, can help you reorganize content, improve presentation flow and identify slides you can cut out of the presentation.

Get the picture?

tags | public relations | PR | media relations | media | good pitch | bad pitch | bad pitch blog | David Armano

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4 comments:

  1. Anonymous5:29 AM

    good idea, which is connected to all mechanics of the way the mind is working.

    It is known, that mind is working using visua material, concepts, ideas, etc. And only when we communicate with each other, we should translate our thinking into normal language and terms, we think that listener will understand (sometimes we are wrong :).

    So visual way of thinking could help our mind to work more properly.

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  2. Anonymous6:01 PM

    This was a great video. David definitely made some valuable points. I think expressing our ideas visually is important because people in general and media specifically, move at light speed. If you can provide a cleverly designed press kit that encourages a reporter to read what’s inside, you’re ahead of the game. Philosophy Communication recently put together a fun press kit for a play called “Girls Only”. Press kit materials sent in the shoe box of “memories” included dried flowers, pages from a real diary and photos reminiscent of teenage girls. We garnered plenty of media attention for the show and the press kit itself. Let your creative juices flow. The added benefit is that brainstorming ideas for how to pitch your story is fun and stimulating!

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  3. Tyler Hurst7:18 AM

    Seriously? We're supposed to take advice from someone on how to go visual with this kind of video?

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  4. Kevin Dugan8:38 AM

    Yep, seriously. And you'll note I have Armano presenting the concept. That is calculated on my part. Have you seen HIS site?

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