{"id":15499,"date":"2022-10-10T12:02:04","date_gmt":"2022-10-10T11:02:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=15499"},"modified":"2022-10-10T12:02:05","modified_gmt":"2022-10-10T11:02:05","slug":"charles-vallance-lately-weve-let-things-slide","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/news\/2022\/oct\/charles-vallance-lately-weve-let-things-slide","title":{"rendered":"Charles Vallance: Lately, We&#8217;ve Let Things Slide"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"lazyblock-text-full-width-Z1qNNew wp-block-lazyblock-text-full-width\"><section class=\"fullwidth text-center\" data-aos=\"fade-up\">\n  <div class=\"container\">\n    \n    \n    <p style=\"text-align: left\"><strong>Charles Vallance Founding Partner and Chairman, VCCP in his latest column for Campaign, explores how previous enforced remote working has meant a return to the prominence of Powerpoint Presentations.<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the many consequences of enforced remote working was the return to prominence of PowerPoint presentations. We soon tired of staring at each other\u2019s faces (or bookshelves) in that odd, unnatural gameshow format and quickly opted instead for some charts to hide behind.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So be it. We had to find our own coping mechanisms back in those days. The problem, however, is that the chart habit seems to have stuck. And it&#8217;s not as if we were an industry that was averse to slideware in the first place.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">Don&#8217;t get me wrong. I know we need presentations, and presentations often need some slides. They provide a framework for what we have to say, as well as a record of our objectives, plans and recommendations. Depending on the subject matter, charts can often be essential, particularly for information-heavy topics such as media and market performance. But, as the information load gets lighter, so should the charts. If we&#8217;re simply framing an argument or point of view do we need charts at all?<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">One of the reasons I ask this question is from my experience of enforced slidelessness. Unless you&#8217;re one of those people for whom technology always works perfectly (and I&#8217;m yet to meet one), the chances are that you will have experienced more than a few tech meltdowns. This inevitably means that the PowerPoint deck you were about to romp through remains stuck stubbornly on a distant, truculent server.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">In these situations, whilst the IT technician wrestles with cables and remote controls, and we smile at each other awkwardly, I&#8217;ve taken to asking &#8220;should we have a go at starting without the slides?&#8221;. Sometimes the reaction to my question is one of quiet horror, as if an ancient protocol has been offended. On other occasions we give it a go freestyle and, lo and behold, ten minutes in and everyone has forgotten the wrestling technician. We&#8217;re swimming without slides. There is even mild disappointment when the recalcitrant HDMI link is restored and we can boot up the slideware.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The meeting immediately becomes more formal and more regimented. There are also more interruptions. Perhaps because there is now something to interrupt. Or perhaps because of boredom. What has been gained in terms of structure has been lost in terms of fluency.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So we should aim for both. This means dramatically cutting down on the number of slides, and also on the number of words on the slides. If you ever find yourself reading out the fourth bullet point under the third subhead of the forty-third slide then I&#8217;m afraid you&#8217;ve got a bad case of chart<\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">itis. You&#8217;re reading, not presenting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We&#8217;re all guilty of this every so often due to expedience. It&#8217;s the easiest way of downloading everything we want to say. Chopping words out, cutting down on charts, takes time and effort. Thus Mark Twain&#8217;s famous proviso, &#8220;if I had more time I would have written a shorter letter&#8217;.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">But lack of time is only part of the explanation. The other is lack of clarity. We end up festooned in charts and bullet points because we&#8217;re not quite clear what we mean. And for this, there is only one solution. Before you go anywhere near PowerPoint, write what you mean down in normal sentences in normal English. Only then can you tell if it&#8217;s clear and if it&#8217;s meaningful. It&#8217;s much easier to mangle a chart than it is to mangle prose.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The cure for chartitis, therefore, can be summed up in four simple steps. Step 1, start with a script (despite the urge to chartify). Step 2, ruthlessly edit your charts to highlight only the essential points you&#8217;re making. Step 3, where possible, don&#8217;t repeat on the chart what you say in your narrative &#8211; illustrate, visualise or dramatise your point instead.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">The 4th step is perhaps the most daunting, which is to individualise what you present. Don&#8217;t assume that your script needs slides at all. Slides can so quickly emphasise similarity rather than difference. Why not handwrite your points on boards? Or drag a Nobo chart along and draw your thoughts up as you go through them? &#8211; it worked for Simon Sinek.\u00a0 Devote some time to ensuring that any visual props are an <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">extension <\/span><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">of you, rather than the other way round.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">We kid ourselves that presentations are viewed rationally. But they aren&#8217;t. They are far more about empathy, trust, chemistry, body language. And, as such, though we may be reluctant to admit it, they&#8217;re far more about the messenger than the message.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400\">So step 4 is be yourself. The problem with this step, of course, is that it&#8217;s a lifetime in the making.<\/span><\/p>\n  <\/div>\n<\/section><\/div>\n\n<div class=\"lazyblock-quote-full-width-T1kvQ wp-block-lazyblock-quote-full-width\">  <section class=\"fullwidth fullwidth--top-lg text-center\" data-aos=\"fade-up\">\n    <div class=\"container\">\n\n      <blockquote class=\"blockquote\">\n        If we&#8217;re simply framing an argument or a point of view do we need slides at all? \n        <cite>VCCP&#8217;s Founding Partner and Chairman Charles Vallance <\/cite>      <\/blockquote>\n\n    <\/div>\n  <\/section><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":61,"template":"","categories":[191],"class_list":["post-15499","news","type-news","status-publish","hentry","category-agency-news"],"acf":{"author":{"ID":930,"post_author":"2","post_date":"2020-07-02 12:04:34","post_date_gmt":"2020-07-02 11:04:34","post_content":"","post_title":"Charles Vallance","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"charles-vallance","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2026-01-19 12:22:45","post_modified_gmt":"2026-01-19 12:22:45","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/?post_type=people&#038;p=930","menu_order":0,"post_type":"people","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"},"capability_ids":[],"client_id":"","hero_video":"","hero_image":{"ID":14650,"id":14650,"title":"Charles V website","filename":"Charles-V-website.png","filesize":2179106,"url":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website.png","link":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/news\/2022\/feb\/whats-the-point-of-the-proof-point\/attachment\/charles-v-website","alt":"","author":"57","description":"","caption":"","name":"charles-v-website","status":"inherit","uploaded_to":14649,"date":"2022-02-28 09:02:25","modified":"2022-02-28 09:02:25","menu_order":0,"mime_type":"image\/png","type":"image","subtype":"png","icon":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-includes\/images\/media\/default.png","width":1920,"height":1080,"sizes":{"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-150x150.png","thumbnail-width":150,"thumbnail-height":150,"medium":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-300x169.png","medium-width":300,"medium-height":169,"medium_large":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-768x432.png","medium_large-width":640,"medium_large-height":360,"large":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-1024x576.png","large-width":640,"large-height":360,"1536x1536":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-1536x864.png","1536x1536-width":1536,"1536x1536-height":864,"2048x2048":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website.png","2048x2048-width":1920,"2048x2048-height":1080,"Header":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-1920x720.png","Header-width":1920,"Header-height":720,"Wide":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-1920x960.png","Wide-width":1920,"Wide-height":960,"Square":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-768x768.png","Square-width":768,"Square-height":768,"Tall":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-307x615.png","Tall-width":307,"Tall-height":615,"Mobile":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-768x960.png","Mobile-width":768,"Mobile-height":960,"Facebook":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-1200x630.png","Facebook-width":1200,"Facebook-height":630,"Grid-Item-Square":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-768x768.png","Grid-Item-Square-width":768,"Grid-Item-Square-height":768,"Grid-Item-Wide":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-768x384.png","Grid-Item-Wide-width":768,"Grid-Item-Wide-height":384,"Grid-Item-Tall":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website-307x615.png","Grid-Item-Tall-width":307,"Grid-Item-Tall-height":615}},"meta-title":"Charles Vallance in Campaign: Lately We've Let Things Slide","meta-description":"In his latest column for Campaign, Charles Vallance explores how previous enforced remote working has meant a return to the prominence of Powerpoint Presentations.","social-media-image":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/02\/Charles-V-website.png","news_id":"191","related_content_title":"You may also like","relateditems":[{"relateditem":{"ID":14987,"post_author":"57","post_date":"2022-07-04 09:43:17","post_date_gmt":"2022-07-04 08:43:17","post_content":"<!-- wp:lazyblock\/text-full-width {\"text\":\"\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003e\\u003cstrong\\u003eIn his latest column for \\u003cem\\u003eCampaign\\u003c\/em\\u003e, VCCP's Chairman and Founding Partner Charles Vallance discusses how any creative endeavour needs to pay close attention to detail, but never at the expense of the end-user.\\u003c\/strong\\u003e\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eIt is often said that the secret to comedy is timing. However, according to Charlie Chaplin, the secret to comedy is, in fact, logic.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eThis may at first glance seem counter-intuitive, but then comedy and creativity often are. Chaplin did not mean that comedy has to be slavishly logical or linear, rather that there must be a core of logic if a joke is to be funny.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eFor instance, two of the most disparaging words in the English language are \\u0022zany\\u0022 and \\u0022wacky\\u0022. That's because they're reserved for things that are trying to be funny whilst abjectly failing.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eThere is no inherent logic to wearing a zany tie, or a wacky shirt. So there is no inherent mirth therein.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eOn the other hand, there is a lot of mirth in creating a comic character who resolutely wears zany shirts and wacky ties, thinking he's a hoot, and in the process becomes a parody of the maddening office japester.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eThis is what\u00a0\\u003cem\\u003eThe Fast Show\\u003c\/em\\u003e did with the character Colin Hunt. Colin brings a narrative logic to what would otherwise be gratuitous zaniness.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eWe understand the absurdity that is being lampooned, the conventions that are being subverted. Chaplin's rule is observed. Mirth ensues.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eSo wherever there's humour, you'll find a strand of contorted logic - from the simplest pun to the most developed comic characters (be it Fawlty, Fleabag or Partridge).\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003ePuns rely on very concise logical inversions, and therefore are often best read rather than heard.\u00a0\\u003ca href=\\u0022https:\/\/twitter.com\/DadJokeMan?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\\u0022\\u003e@DadJokeMan\\u003c\/a\\u003e\u00a0on Twitter comes up with at least one a day. He likes making puns about eyes. The cornea the better.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eAdvertising works with similar time lengths and attention spans to joke-telling, so the \\u003cstrong\\u003eparallels\\u003c\/strong\\u003e are plentiful. Just like a joke, people need to \\u0022get\\u0022 your ad quickly and rewardingly.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eThis is how to win attention and achieve memorability. But unlike a joke, we don't have dozens of opportunities to hone our delivery and comprehension. We have one shot.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eWhich is why, during creative development, it pays to be hyper-vigilant around issues of legibility, audibility and comprehension.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eFor me, these are the three main guarantors of logic. And they can sometimes be underestimated. Not deliberately or wilfully or carelessly. It's just an occupational hazard that, when we're very close to a project, a lack of objectivity can creep up on us.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eWe can forget that we've been through the idea a hundred times, and can thus start to make assumptions about comprehension and narrative flow. Other priorities such as performance, styling, casting or technique may distract us from the Chaplin fundamental.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eAs we pore over the detail, we can overlook the end-user, who will be seeing our ad for the very first time, with no assumptions, no foreknowledge and, moreover, no obligation to pay any attention\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eIn the real world, our narrative discipline must be rock solid, otherwise the whole production is flawed. Nobody likes an ad they can't understand.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eThis was brought home to me the other day when we tested the same ad with two voiceovers, one for the UK and one for Australia. In Australia, the ad flew through research with gold stars and garlands all round.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eIn the UK, the picture was very different. The same ad struggled to command attention or generate appeal.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eWe felt that the disparity in response was unlikely to be due to huge national differences. And we were right. The problem was comprehension.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eMore specifically, the problem was a single word. A single word that people were not hearing clearly enough, and which was therefore confusing the narrative.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eThe poor results of an entire test film were down to the slightly muddy delivery of a familiar, commonly used word. We know this because the re-recorded version of the test film sailed through research just as successfully as its Australian counterpart.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eHyper-vigilance is not a natural or particularly enjoyable state to be in (as my feral rescue dog Annie can attest). But fear not, it is by no means constantly necessary (unless you\u2019re Annie).\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eThe sense check of narrative logic and comprehension needs to be applied\u00a0only\u00a0a few times (in creative development, pre-prod and post-prod). But it needs to be applied ruthlessly and obsessively on those occasions.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eOtherwise, one of the greatest ads you'll ever make could turn out to be one of your worst. And that takes some comprehending.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\",\"blockId\":\"1UpdmS\",\"blockUniqueClass\":\"lazyblock-text-full-width-1UpdmS\"} \/-->","post_title":"Charles Vallance: In praise of logic","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"charles-vallance-in-praise-of-logic","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2022-07-04 09:43:18","post_modified_gmt":"2022-07-04 08:43:18","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=14987","menu_order":0,"post_type":"news","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}},{"relateditem":{"ID":14827,"post_author":"57","post_date":"2022-05-03 09:01:31","post_date_gmt":"2022-05-03 08:01:31","post_content":"<!-- wp:lazyblock\/two-column-text-quote-image {\"text-left\":\"\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003e\\u003cstrong\\u003e\\u003cem\\u003eOriginally published in \\u003ca href=\\u0022https:\\\/\\\/www.campaignlive.co.uk\\\/article\\\/connect\\\/1754246\\u0022\\u003eCampaign\\u003c\\\/a\\u003e.\\u003c\\\/em\\u003e\\u003c\\\/strong\\u003e\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eWe live in a hyper-connected world and yet, in numerous ways, connection is becoming harder than ever.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eWe travel to work in our own media bubbles and, certainly on the wide pavements of Victoria, weave our way between pedestrians watching their phones more closely than the way ahead.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eOur attention spans are shrinking, our media habits fragmenting and our communities morphing from real to digital.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eAs a species, we have an innate need to connect but, as an industry, we tend to prioritise content over connectivity. Far too many conversations about the content we create happen in isolation of, rather than in unison with, the business of how people will connect with it.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eMedia and creative output are too often dislocated. Creative awards are too often allotted to work that has barely been seen or celebrated in the real world.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eThis highlights an irony for an industry that sees itself as content-driven. Because, contrary to the received wisdom, content isn't king. Connectivity is.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eThis may sound heretical at first glance, surely it's all about the work? Yes it is. But only in so much as the work connects people and gives them something to share. Otherwise, the effort is close to worthless.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eThere's little to be gained from making the best ad no-one ever sees or, if they do, have no desire to talk about. Hence my reference to EM Forster's authorial homily in\\u00a0\\u003cem\\u003eHowards End\\u003c\\\/em\\u003e; \\u0022Only connect! Live in fragments no longer. Only connect, and the beast and the monk, robbed of the isolation that is life to either, will die.\\u0022\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eConnection is the opposite of isolation, and it is the lifeblood of brands. But we constantly face the competing forces of fragmentation. These are the modern beasts and monks of our trade, time-shifting, micro-casting, multi-screening and isolating what used to be shared and consumed collectively, in real time, by social groups (known as families) on single devices (known as tellies).\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eFear not, though. The future is better than the past.\\u00a0\\u003ca href=\\u0022https:\\\/\\\/www.campaignlive.co.uk\\\/article\\\/uk-adspend-hits-all-time-high-smashing-predictions-does-pride-fall\\\/1754266\\u0022 target=\\u0022_blank\\u0022 rel=\\u0022noopener\\u0022\\u003ePartly because levels of adspend have never been higher\\u003c\\\/a\\u003e, and partly because the ways we have to connect with audiences have never been more diverse or prolific.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cdiv id=\\u0022c502Ad\\u0022 class=\\u0022commercialSlot\\u0022 data-location-code=\\u0022C\\u0022 data-sizes=\\u0022300x250\\u0022 data-google-query-id=\\u0022CJyGubXswvcCFZe-UQod2zYIwQ\\u0022\\u003e\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/div\\u003e\",\"text-right\":\"\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eWe can build connections that were simply not conceivable 10 years ago, we can create partnerships and activations, platforms and experiences, which are both more immersive and interactive than traditional media channels.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eFurthermore, traditional media is fighting back. Television is enjoying soaring demand, with better products, a more entrepreneurial business model, more destination programming and more appointments to view.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eJust as the Jeremiahs were predicting the demise of linear viewing, it is back in demand, precisely at the point that Netflix has suffered its first setback in years with a drop in subscribers prompting a 35% share price correction.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eAnd the possibility of it introducing an ad-funded model. A bit like, erm, linear TV.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003ePut simply, there's more content out there, on more platforms, that's more accessible, of greater variety, of higher quality and available via more devices, more flexibly in more places on more occasions than ever before.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eThis is not to suggest that quantity is inherently an advantage. To the contrary, one of the challenges that the content industry now faces is the sheer abundance of choice being produced (and attendant subscription costs).\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eThere is a danger that this creates a replaceability spiral where the level of supply exceeds the strength of paid for demand.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp\\u003eMargaret Schlegel, one of the main characters in\\u00a0\\u003cem\\u003eHowards End\\u003c\\\/em\\u003e, draws a similar conclusion, albeit about life in early 20th-century London: \\u201cThe more people one knows, the easier it is to replace them.\\u201d\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003eThe same applies to brands. Which is why the greatest creative challenge for our industry isn't how we add to the weight of content out there, but how we help our brands connect with it.\\u00a0\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp dir=\\u0022ltr\\u0022\\u003e\\u003cem\\u003eCharles Vallance is chairman and founding partner of VCCP\\u003c\\\/em\\u003e\\u003c\\\/p\\u003e\",\"blockId\":\"Yfkyh\",\"blockUniqueClass\":\"lazyblock-two-column-text-quote-image-Yfkyh\"} \/-->","post_title":"Charles Vallance in Campaign: Only Connect!","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"charles-vallance-in-campaign-only-connect","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2022-05-03 09:01:31","post_modified_gmt":"2022-05-03 08:01:31","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=14827","menu_order":0,"post_type":"news","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}},{"relateditem":{"ID":14987,"post_author":"57","post_date":"2022-07-04 09:43:17","post_date_gmt":"2022-07-04 08:43:17","post_content":"<!-- wp:lazyblock\/text-full-width {\"text\":\"\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003e\\u003cstrong\\u003eIn his latest column for \\u003cem\\u003eCampaign\\u003c\/em\\u003e, VCCP's Chairman and Founding Partner Charles Vallance discusses how any creative endeavour needs to pay close attention to detail, but never at the expense of the end-user.\\u003c\/strong\\u003e\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eIt is often said that the secret to comedy is timing. However, according to Charlie Chaplin, the secret to comedy is, in fact, logic.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eThis may at first glance seem counter-intuitive, but then comedy and creativity often are. Chaplin did not mean that comedy has to be slavishly logical or linear, rather that there must be a core of logic if a joke is to be funny.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eFor instance, two of the most disparaging words in the English language are \\u0022zany\\u0022 and \\u0022wacky\\u0022. That's because they're reserved for things that are trying to be funny whilst abjectly failing.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eThere is no inherent logic to wearing a zany tie, or a wacky shirt. So there is no inherent mirth therein.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eOn the other hand, there is a lot of mirth in creating a comic character who resolutely wears zany shirts and wacky ties, thinking he's a hoot, and in the process becomes a parody of the maddening office japester.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eThis is what\u00a0\\u003cem\\u003eThe Fast Show\\u003c\/em\\u003e did with the character Colin Hunt. Colin brings a narrative logic to what would otherwise be gratuitous zaniness.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eWe understand the absurdity that is being lampooned, the conventions that are being subverted. Chaplin's rule is observed. Mirth ensues.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eSo wherever there's humour, you'll find a strand of contorted logic - from the simplest pun to the most developed comic characters (be it Fawlty, Fleabag or Partridge).\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003ePuns rely on very concise logical inversions, and therefore are often best read rather than heard.\u00a0\\u003ca href=\\u0022https:\/\/twitter.com\/DadJokeMan?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor\\u0022\\u003e@DadJokeMan\\u003c\/a\\u003e\u00a0on Twitter comes up with at least one a day. He likes making puns about eyes. The cornea the better.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eAdvertising works with similar time lengths and attention spans to joke-telling, so the \\u003cstrong\\u003eparallels\\u003c\/strong\\u003e are plentiful. Just like a joke, people need to \\u0022get\\u0022 your ad quickly and rewardingly.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eThis is how to win attention and achieve memorability. But unlike a joke, we don't have dozens of opportunities to hone our delivery and comprehension. We have one shot.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eWhich is why, during creative development, it pays to be hyper-vigilant around issues of legibility, audibility and comprehension.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eFor me, these are the three main guarantors of logic. And they can sometimes be underestimated. Not deliberately or wilfully or carelessly. It's just an occupational hazard that, when we're very close to a project, a lack of objectivity can creep up on us.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eWe can forget that we've been through the idea a hundred times, and can thus start to make assumptions about comprehension and narrative flow. Other priorities such as performance, styling, casting or technique may distract us from the Chaplin fundamental.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eAs we pore over the detail, we can overlook the end-user, who will be seeing our ad for the very first time, with no assumptions, no foreknowledge and, moreover, no obligation to pay any attention\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eIn the real world, our narrative discipline must be rock solid, otherwise the whole production is flawed. Nobody likes an ad they can't understand.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eThis was brought home to me the other day when we tested the same ad with two voiceovers, one for the UK and one for Australia. In Australia, the ad flew through research with gold stars and garlands all round.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eIn the UK, the picture was very different. The same ad struggled to command attention or generate appeal.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eWe felt that the disparity in response was unlikely to be due to huge national differences. And we were right. The problem was comprehension.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eMore specifically, the problem was a single word. A single word that people were not hearing clearly enough, and which was therefore confusing the narrative.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eThe poor results of an entire test film were down to the slightly muddy delivery of a familiar, commonly used word. We know this because the re-recorded version of the test film sailed through research just as successfully as its Australian counterpart.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eHyper-vigilance is not a natural or particularly enjoyable state to be in (as my feral rescue dog Annie can attest). But fear not, it is by no means constantly necessary (unless you\u2019re Annie).\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eThe sense check of narrative logic and comprehension needs to be applied\u00a0only\u00a0a few times (in creative development, pre-prod and post-prod). But it needs to be applied ruthlessly and obsessively on those occasions.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\\n\\u003cp style=\\u0022text-align: left\\u0022\\u003eOtherwise, one of the greatest ads you'll ever make could turn out to be one of your worst. And that takes some comprehending.\\u003c\/p\\u003e\",\"blockId\":\"1UpdmS\",\"blockUniqueClass\":\"lazyblock-text-full-width-1UpdmS\"} \/-->","post_title":"Charles Vallance: In praise of logic","post_excerpt":"","post_status":"publish","comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","post_password":"","post_name":"charles-vallance-in-praise-of-logic","to_ping":"","pinged":"","post_modified":"2022-07-04 09:43:18","post_modified_gmt":"2022-07-04 08:43:18","post_content_filtered":"","post_parent":0,"guid":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/?post_type=news&#038;p=14987","menu_order":0,"post_type":"news","post_mime_type":"","comment_count":"0","filter":"raw"}}],"hide_related_items":[],"visible_on_home_page":["1"],"websites_to_publish":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/15499","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/61"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15499"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.vccp.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15499"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}