The Presentation Room

In an effort to generate some working cash flow for Motown Initiative, the team set off to Chicago to meet with a couple marketing agencies for production work.  Using 4^th Deck, our production arm, along with the knowledge of online video we have developed over the past year, we compiled a compelling presentation for potential clients.  We saw this as the only logical route to generate additional revenue in meantime.  Our main meeting was with Burrell, a well known agency that has an expertise in minority market strategy.

Early Thursday morning, the team met up in the basement of Burrell’s building on Michigan Ave.  It was an ideal location, with its plethora of restaurants.  At this point, just a couple hours before the meeting, we had not had time to actually do a group run-through.  This was the first time we’d coordinate who is speaking on what slide and how to manage transition between speakers.  To add to the challenge of preparing for our 10:30am meeting, our laptop batteries starting running out and the coffee shop we were at had no plug. Can you imagine?!? Its no wonder we were the only people in this place…should have got a clue I guess J.  Either way, we were able to complete our slides and vaguely plan out our presentation strategy.   Our next stop was Dunkin Donuts, because we didn’t want a hungry audience.  Not to mention, I miss Dunkin Donuts after being on the west coast for four years.  After spending an unbelievable amount of money on pastries and coffee we were off to the 29^th floor (we spent $75 btw…dang coffee is expensive).

We had come on a unique day because this was one of those rare times that a major client was in office; McDonalds to be specific.   This was good and bad.  Bad because it made it a little more challenging to get everyone we needed in one room (although we pulled it off). However, it was good because we could speak to online marketing relevant to McDonalds and perhaps get some needed traction with Burrell’s creative group.

Our presentation got started about 5-10mins late, but we made up for time in delivering an engaging presentation.  The whole time we were speaking, people seemed a bit passive, so I tried to ask questions of the group to peak their interest.  Their faces were neutral.  To give you an idea of how silent they were, after the first 15 minutes of the presentation there were really no additional questions.   After completing the final slide we thanked them for their time and asked if they had any questions.  Silence for a moment….all of sudden there was one smile…two smile…and so on.  People were pleased with what they saw.  “That was a great presentation, very comprehensive”.   We were in shock, I was convinced we bombed the presentation, but hey I guess hard work pays off.   They asked us to stay and present different portions of the presentation to other departments that were not present the first time.  It was quite a day.

"Maybe $75 in donuts was a bit much"

Currently, we are still in the initial engagement stages of business, but I’m quite confident that the Motown / 4^th Deck team will come up with online video campaigns for some of Burrell’s major clients in the near future.  It was nice to take all of our knowledge and experience to a respected agency like Burrell and be well received.