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I usually do not gripe or complain in my blog posts, but today I am going to.

Does Quality Matter Anymore? What do you think?

In the late 80s when Aldus Page Maker and Ventura Publisher hit the market, all of a sudden, everyone was a desktop publisher. We had our WISWIG monitors and prints which had 52 fonts!

For those of you over 40, do you remember what happened to the quality of printed documents?

Then in the mid 90s PowerPoint hit the scene. Before this, you had to use a design shop to create your graphics, print slides or go digital at a meeting. With PowerPoint, not only did the quality of the presentation graphics degrade rapidly, but the quality of presentations – their ability to actually communicate went down too.

Why? A few reasons, the biggest being that presenters thought that the PowerPoint slides would carry the day. “We can use bullets, charts, and tables and this will communicate what we want to the audience” Now you hear “there will be no death by PowerPoint at this meeting”.

The other major drawback to PowerPoint and the ease and speed one can create presentation graphics is the lack of preparation. People tend to wing it with PowerPoint. They use their slides as their script so they actually need all those bullet points.

Of course there is a good side, one can be nimble and flexible and respond to the changing needs of your audience. In fact, I remember a few years back while I was supporting a SVP at Sony during a critical sales presentation. Based on a question from their prospect, they needed to change part of the presentation which was just 15 minutes away. My presentation specialist, went to the backup computer, changed the presentation.  Their  prospect had no idea the presentation was changed.

Back to my gripe.

Let’s jump to the mid 2000s. The Blair Witch project hits big time, the cost of DV cameras drops below a $1000 and you can buy a semi-professional editing package for less than 3k with computer. Today, the cost of the equipment is even less and the quality is pretty darn good.

So now the same cycle which happened with print, then presentation graphics is now happening with video (or I should say has been happening). A few years ago, a very senior executive suggested they go out and buy a bunch of Mini-DV cameras and just give them to their employees to make videos.

By no means is this a complete list, but here are five of the big attributes of a poor video.

1. The video does not support the brand of the person or company showing the video.
2. The video does not have a clear direction or outcome for the viewer.
3. The video is distracting due to poor quality and graphics which have nothing to do with the message
4. The audio sounds like the person are talking in a large auditorium.
5. The person (s) on the video does not look their best; they are stumbling on the video or look like a deer caught in the headlights.

I know we are in a “financial crisis” and everyone is looking for ways to save money or not spend it at all. And with YouTube and Social Media, how long will that video “be out there” on the net representing your business and your brand?

So back to the question I asked at the beginning of this blog. Does quality still matter? What is the cost of producing a poor quality video? What is the long-term impact?

Let me be clear, a good video does not have to cost a fortune to produce, but there is a cost to having a professional, experienced team creating your video which represents your business and your brand. I would really like to hear from you on this topic. How important is quality to you? Do you think the quality of a video matters anymore?

Okay, I am stepping off my soapbox now.

Keep the conversation going

Robert Grossman
Chief Message Architect
Focus Creative Group