With every PowerPoint presentation, you put your brand on the line.

What? PowerPoint? Really?

It’s true. It’s easy to forget that PowerPoint presentations are also a form of marketing. Not only do you want to educate your audience, you want to increase brand awareness with every slide.

That’s why it’s important to show your logo in the most effective way possible.

But how do you do this without being too pushy?

Read on to find out more.

Is Your Logo the Right Fit for Your Brand?

If your logo doesn’t translate well across your marketing materials, that’s a sign that you may need to go back to the drawing board – literally.

One of the basic principles of successful logo design is adaptability. Ask yourself: How well does your logo adapt to brochures, social media, TV commercials, and informational marketing materials like PowerPoint presentations?

A strong logo should maintain its integrity when it’s shrunk down for business cards or blown up for billboards.

The same applies to your PowerPoint presentations. If your logo still distracts despite being minimized, transparent, or animated, you may want to rethink your logo design altogether.

Focus groups and A/B testing can reveal whether or not your logo successfully adapts across all marketing material.

How to Brand Your PowerPoint Presentations

After fine tuning your logo, your next step is to ‘brand’ your presentations.

But what does ‘branding’ a presentation even mean?

For starters, it doesn’t mean plastering your logo all over your slides. It means working in tandem with other elements to successfully reflect a brand’s message. You can’t successfully integrate a logo without the right accompanying font, color scheme, tagline, slide border design, and media.

You’ll want to find a way to integrate these branding elements without coming across as pushy.

How to Master the Art of Subtlety

Informational marketing, in particular, must put authoritative information front and center. This includes your data, statistics, charts, results, case studies, and company forecasts.

One way to subtly integrate your logo is to tweak its opaqueness to create a more transparent look. This is ideal for introductory slides, conclusions, and slides with testimonials, mission statements, and company history.

Ideally, only your introductory and conclusion slide should prominently feature your logo.

Show Your Logo ‘In Action’

If you’re including professional photos in your slides, make sure your logo is visible on employee uniforms, equipment, company vehicles, packaging, and work environments. This is a great way to show your logo ‘in action.’

Ask yourself how you want people to feel about your brand and put that feeling to work in your presentation.

If you’re an organic garden company promoting your new plant food, you may want to include a picture of a customer using your name-brand plant food.

Likewise, if you run a factory, make sure your company logo is visible on your workers’ attire.

Integrate Digital Media

You’ve heard time and time again that content is king, but don’t forget that video is the king of content. Still, more than 70% of consumers prefer video and almost 60% of executives prefer watching video.

As content preferences continue to evolve, it’s vital to read more on how to improve your PowerPoint presentations. That’s why more companies are integrating digital media into their slides.

But how do you include digital media without pushing your brand too hard? Branded company videos.

Make sure all your company videos begin and end with your logo. Preferably, animate your logo to grab your audience from the start. You may want to consider an original instrumental to accompany your animated logo as well.

Integrate Social Media

Another way to subtly show your logo is to embed social media content into your slides.

Content can include:

• Twitter polls
• Popular Tweets
• YouTube videos
• Facebook posts
• Instagram photos
• Hashtag campaigns
• Snapchat snaps

Embedding your branded social media content is a clever way to integrate your logo without going overboard.

Let this also be a reminder to brand your social media accounts ASAP! Embedding branded social media content allows online audiences to share your slides with colleagues. This is a subtle way to increase brand awareness without being pushy.

De-Clutter your presentation

It’s easy to go a little overboard with your graphics, pictures, media, graphs, and yes, your logo.

After completing your slides, make sure there isn’t too much media plastered on each slide. If your slide already has a branded video, you don’t need to add more photos or graphics.

Avoid overlapping your logo with graphics and using background wallpaper with your repeating logo. You want your presentation to look as clean and professional as possible.

Don’t worry about whether or not your audience remembers your logo. If your mission, content, and brand design are consistent and strong, your audience will have no problem making a positive connection with your logo.

Day of the Presentation

It’s finally presentation day!

Your presentation is complete. Here are a few tricks to help your audience remember your logo.

As mentioned earlier in this article, your introductory slide should prominently feature your logo. Make sure your presentation is fired up and ready to go several minutes before the presentation starts. This will give attendees funneling in an opportunity to see your logo before the presentation starts.

The same applies to your conclusion slide.

After your presentation is over, don’t immediately shut off your presentation. Let the conclusion slide stay up on the screen until you’re finished mingling with attendees.

Remember, your company’s logo is the first and last thing your presentation attendees should see.

Your Next Step

Your next step is to put these new principles into practice.

Remember the following:

• Choose a logo that speaks to your brand
• Choose subtlety over flash
• Show your logo in action
• Use digital and social media
• De-clutter your slides
• Highlight your intro and conclusion slides

Most importantly, never stop improving your presentations. Remember to bookmark this article for future reference and check back often for more tips and tricks on mastering your logo.