The result was a disaster. We really like this client, so there wasn’t even a feeling of schadenfreude. Instead, I think the problems they suffered might serve to inform other companies before making the same mistake. If you want to work with your regular (marketing) agency for presentation design, please demand satisfaction in these areas:
150 sides designed in Photoshop, with each phone numbers in lebanon slide nothing but a large picture copied over from a graphics package causes huge problems. The slides aren’t easy to edit. They can’t be updated.
Even changing punctuation or spelling relies on software most users don’t have and can’t use. If your marketing agency isn’t going to provide slides in PowerPoint that you can edit and update, walk away.
Brand guidelines must be respected
PowerPoint slides typically need to respect fairly strict brand guidelines in any large organisation. Not only is this important because brands are built and reinforced by consistency, but also because if slides are ever to be re-used and mixed between decks, then visual consistency is essential. Nobody wants to present a deck that mixes different visual styles. It doesn’t matter how “creative” or “cutting edge” an agency thinks it is. If they aren’t going to respect your brand guidelines for PowerPoint you will suffer in the long-run once the complaints start. If you want a clean break from your regular brand, be clear about how and why and how you see new slides being used with old slides (if at all).
Appropriate animation should be used
Everyone should know than over-the-top slide animations and transitions can get in the way of successful presentations. But that doesn’t mean animation should never be used, just that it should be used appropriately. A decent presentation agency will understand how animation can be used to tell a story, show how things work, compare before-and-afters, and help direct attention to what’s important. A marketing agency designing static PDFs won’t.