Artificial Hype

D.W. Writes:

I was at a presentation a few weeks back put on by our local newspaper giving the case for regular newspaper advertising for small business. The speaker was very engaging, and obviously had studied techniques for public speaking.

But there was one thing which I found very annoying and I think it ruined the presentation. All the way through he kept asking the audience silly self-answered questions and expecting them to respond by either putting their hands up, or nodding and murmuring in agreement with what he'd just said. If the audience didn't respond straight away he either paused making it obvious that he wanted them to, or he prompted them to. Questions such as "who would like to see their sales increase by 10% next month?"

My response D.W.

I am with you – I find these techniques (tactics) very annoying. Some speakers justify them by saying that they are using them to get the energy up in the room. I don’t buy that. I say that if you want to get the energy up, turn on the lights.

One of the things that we haven’t talked about lately is content. Any speech/presentation has to have solid content. If it doesn’t, then the presentation is not going to hold the audience’s attention.

These techniques of forcing the audience to respond in enthusiastic but really mindless ways are not content. They are a lot of flash and technique, but what is the audience taking away that they can use tomorrow?

The difference between these techniques and what I was talking about with regards to involving your audience may be subtle to some. When I talk about involving your audience I point out that whatever you do must tie back into your content. If you get your audience to stand, make sure that it ties in. If you ask them a question, make sure it ties directly into the content and gets them thinking. Don’t give them a mindless question that everyone knows the answer to. Don’t demand that the audience shout out replies before you deliver the next piece of content. Save that for political rallies.

As you point out, this was a sales presentation. Often these presentations try to get the audience enthused and ordering a product or service before they have thought it through – especially with such factors as how it aligns with their business and strategic plans.

I would personally much rather have the speaker in this situation share with the audience some really good strategies (with examples to back it up) of how advertising could help their business. A really honest (and effective) presentation would include some common mistakes that people make where they end up spending money they don’t need to. Such a strategy would be valuable to the audience and probably win a lot of customers for the paper. It would be a win-win situation rather than a lot of hype.

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Artificial Hype