Whether we’re talking an IT director at a Fortune 500 company or an aluminum salesman in Des Moines, people consume visuals with greater ease than words.
That’s why communicators of all shapes and sizes should embrace visual storytelling.
And there’s more to visual communication than the grandiose infographic.
Photos, illustrations and simple graphics can enhance a story.
Proving this cobbler’s kids do periodically wear shoes, we worked with a terrific graphic designer, Samantha Lim, based in Hong Kong, to create the following graphic depicting the process of responding to media questions in Chinese when the client contact only speaks English.
To view larger or to share image, click here.
Sometimes, Western companies new to Asia can’t understand why the local media favors the home team.
This simple graphic sheds some light on the matter.
Comments
Keith Morrison
Hi Lou,
Couldn’t agree more re: visual storytelling.
On the scenario in hand, surely there are much quicker ways to respond to this…verbal translation to shorten the time – the white and blue need to be working in parallel? Working across a number of Asian markets, I’ve oftened experienced unnecessary time lags by the comfort of an email process.
Still, graph highlights the lag and I can well imagine a lot of organisations working as per graphic.
Keith
Lou Hoffman
Keith,
Appreciate your perspective.
Your phrase “the comfort of an email process” nicely capures part of the challenge.
Many companies want that “paper” trail.
Keith Morrison
It was particularly a big frustration when I first started working in Korea. Hope you’re well.
Lou Hoffman
I didn’t realize you spent three years in in Korea.
Interesting to see the acceleration of digital communications in Korea.
P.S. Aside from the typical teenage drama, life is good.