An investment banking presentation can be deadly boring, especially for potential investors. Page after page of printed information, charts, graphs. Who has time to read and evaluate so much information? Can you? I just toss it into the trash basket, unread. Some dedicated person spent uncountable hours laboring over this information, but I don’t care. I don’t have time to read it. The time for the paper investment banking presentation may be over, however, to be replaced with the video presentation.

Think of the interested prospect, looking for an investment opportunity. He receives a pile of book-length presentations from your competitors. How does he handle them? He thumbs through them, heaves a sigh, and tosses them in with the Styrofoam cup and donut wrapper. How can you be seen? You can stand out by getting off the paper and onto the screen. Talk to your prospects directly by way of the computer-based video. In a company profile video, you can put your people in front of the prospect just as if they were visiting in person, and they can say aloud the words that the prospect doesn’t have time to read. You can tell your story pictorially and bring it to life for the viewer. You can take them on a virtual tour of your facility. You can put your people in front of them. And all of this can happen just through your web site. With a video on the web, the viewer can see your video at his convenient, and as often as he likes.

A similar unread document is the annual report. Annual reports are required of public companies and are based on data that can be intrinsically interesting. But, no matter how innovative the design or how beautiful the photography, they still consist of words to be read. You can jump forward if you re-envisage your annual report as an innovative video annual report. Bring your boring statistics to life. Bring your company into visibility. Make your readers sit up and pay attention.

Third is the road show. A professionally, even artistically, produced video can replace the need for your people to travel. Your prospects can see who you are and what you offer from the comfort of their computer. This video can display your employees, your facility, and your product. It won’t be just another PowerPoint slide show, although this presentation can contain slide show-type material. It will be a living representation of your company, its people, and its offerings.

The company that prepares your video can also promote it through a widely distributed press release containing a hot link back to your video. An e-mail message can be sent to 50,000 qualified prospects. These recipients can then easily pass on your video to their colleagues through Web 2.0 sharing and book marking tools.

This new and vital technology can revitalize your efforts to reach your prospects in an innovative way. At the same time, these videos will replace reams of paper with flying electrons, reducing waste, energy usage, and pollution. They work to your great advantage while removing the disadvantages.