Marketers often have to deal with raw data: numbers of prospects and leads, numbers of views, click-thoughs and purchases, numbers of visitors, numbers of downloads, yes even numbers on numbers. It's their job to interpret them, mold them, shape them and finally at some stage present them. Present them visually or present them in real life for an audience.
And God knows: it ain't easy. How many powerpoint presentations did you attend using these -let's face it- mediocre Microsoft charts? Apple's Keynote already does a far better better job and if you're looking for charts to include in your own applications, check out Dundas (we use it too in our EmailGarage application). But most of the time: it's plain dull.
But it doesn't have to be.
Back in 2006, swedish statistics guru Hans Rosling gave a brilliant presentation on "third world myths" for TED. The secret? Strong, clear graphs combined with a passionate, funny presentation style.
Imagine presenting your numbers like this to your clients...
P.S. If you want to play with the charts yourself, go to the GapMinder website.
P.P.S. If you don't want to watch the whole 20 minutes, you can have a good idea by taking a look at minutes 3:25 till 6:20.
