Corporate PowerPoint, TV, and Logo Love

Most of the time, I strongly dislike the little logo in the lower right hand corner that you see on so many corporate PowerPoint background templates. And I especially dislike little logos that you see in the lower right hand corner when you watch TV programs.

Here are two situation where I particularly dislike seeing little logos:

• I dislike them when I see a presenter speak, and she is using a front-projection system. As she stood on stage, her corporate logo was unwittingly emblazoned on her chest about 75% of the time.
• I dislike them when I watch TV, and the little logo suddenly morphs into a full-fledged animation that takes over about 25% of the screen real estate. Similarly, I don't like it when the logo otherwise blocks a significant part of the on-screen content.

Distracting, those little logos. Not really clever marketing, more of a thoughtless "we're slapping our logo on everything we produce, and we'll call it branding."

But there are two situations when I like the little logo in the lower right hand corner:

• I like the logo when I am in a hotel room in a strange city. As I flip the channels on the TV remote, I can understand rather quickly which channel or network product I am viewing.
• I like the logo when I am online, and I am watching a PowerPoint presentation out of context -- when the presentation is on YouTube or SlideShare, for example, and I want to know who originally produced the content so that I can visit the creator's website.

As syndicated content explodes online in the coming years, expect to see more little logos embedded into video and PowerPoint. Until someone has a much better idea, the little logo is a part of our communication evolution, I suppose.

Until the better idea arrives, could we at least agree to keep the little logos a tad more subtle?

Watermarks are less distracting than a four color job or a logo that suddenly bursts into flames and spins around the screen.

There is enormous power in subtlety. Learn to harness it effectively.

Reign in the idea that an exploding logo has more power and deserves more weight than the actual presentation content!

¶ 11/06/2006 11:14:00 AM