November 6, 2024
Editor’s note: Welcome to a mini-blog series that explores the pivotal role insights play in shaping strategic brand decisions, including tips and tools to redirect your energy away from data overload and toward enlightened decision making.
In the words of the legendary advertising guru David Ogilvy, “…most people use PowerPoint like a drunk uses a lamppost – for support rather than for illumination.”
PowerPoint is a powerful presentation tool widely used to convey complex ideas and data in an accessible manner. However, it often falls short when it comes to delivering brand tracking data. Insights teams frequently rely on PowerPoint to share data, but this method can be ineffective for several reasons.
The Limitations of PowerPoint for Delivering Brand Tracking Data
Many PowerPoint decks suffer from information overload. Standard templates and predictable formats risk boring your audience. Too many slides containing an overwhelming number of words and poorly designed or overly complex graphics can lead to that now familiar term ‘Death by PowerPoint’ – a phenomenon borne from the misuse of presentation software, resulting in a disengaged audience.
For insights teams, this is particularly problematic in two major ways. Firstly, when brand tracking insights and key metrics are buried deep within PowerPoint presentations, stakeholders will often struggle to discover the data and information they need quickly. This needle-in-a-haystack situation is why insights teams often spend too much time in ‘reactive mode,’ responding to numerous ad hoc data requests. Secondly, this reduces the impact of the insights, as the insights and stories from the tracking program don’t reach a wider audience. The significant time and effort invested by insights teams in research and analysis are wasted due to poor visibility and inefficient dissemination.
Up until recently, there simply hasn’t been a better alternative way to deliver this information. Fortunately, a more straightforward, more engaging way to present this information is now available.
Breathing New Life into Insights
To engage and inform busy stakeholders, insights teams need to bring data to life, with well-designed, concise and dynamic content that caters to everyone’s differing needs. This allows decision makers within organizations to access key information quickly, helping them understand the bigger picture of brand and business performance and get the most up-to-date data, while avoiding the laborious task of having to trawl through elusive, disparate and protracted reports.
To achieve this, a far more specialized, interactive and intuitive business intelligence tool is required—one that can transform data into actionable knowledge with speed and simplicity. Enter Enlyta Insights:
“Having Enlyta has saved so much time I can’t believe it. Whereas before stakeholders asked for numbers and facts, now they do it themselves. And when they do come to us, they now ask for the why, not the what, which is the job we’re supposed to be doing.” –Senior Insight Manager, Food Delivery App
Complementing, rather than competing with other BI tools, Enlyta Insights is a brand intelligence platform that enables insights professionals to maximize the reach, influence and value of their work, helping their business make better strategic decisions and compete more effectively.
Elevate Insights. Enlighten Decisions
Unlike other brand intelligence platforms, Enlyta goes beyond data visualization with insight stories, allowing teams to pull data from their dashboards and reports and turn them into a short narrative explaining why the insight is important for the business. Insight stories can be enriched with interactive charts, slideshows, quotes, videos, attachments, links, and ‘quick stats.’ This capability allows teams to rapidly adapt core report findings to various audience needs.
By extracting crucial narrative threads from comprehensive reports, Enlyta ensures that key takeaways reach stakeholders who might be overwhelmed by detailed reports. This frees up valuable time for insights teams to concentrate on what they do best – uncovering insights that create new growth opportunities. More importantly, Enlyta lets insights professionals reach new audiences within their organization that otherwise wouldn’t have seen the insight, reaching beyond the stakeholders that commissioned the initial research. This increases the value of Enlyta as more people use it while allowing insights teams to optimize research expenditure.
So, while traditional presentation tools have their uses and are far from dead and buried, let’s discard with ‘Death by PowerPoint’ and begin breathing new life into your data research by allowing Enlyta to revive data and insights and drive them throughout your business so they become a trusted, strategically essential business asset.
Want to learn more? Book a demo.
Christopher Barnes
President
Chris Barnes is president of Escalent. He has a deep background in market and public opinion research, including co-founding the Center for Survey Research and Analysis at the University of Connecticut where he led ongoing studies on the business climate presented to regional economists quarterly. He has led studies for many of the nation’s top companies in insurance, banking, wealth and health insurance sectors. His studies have appeared frequently in the national media, including The Wall Street Journal, USA Today, The New York Times and Time cover stories. Chris earned a bachelor’s degree in history from Kenyon College and a master's degree in political science with a concentration in survey research at the University of Connecticut.
Oli Hayward
Global Head of Enlyta Insights, Hall & Partners
Oli Hayward leads Enlyta Insights at Hall & Partners, a business unit of Escalent. With more than 20 years of experience in research and product strategy, Oli drives product innovation and supports commercial success, guiding the Enlyta team to significant growth and recognition, including multiple industry awards. Oli’s background in research and passion for product development have shaped his approach to solving complex challenges and delivering value-driven solutions. In the rare moments his three sons allow him to have any free time, he loves to play tennis, golf and 5-a-side football. He also coaches his son's U8 football team.
