If you’re in advertising, you probably already know that a pretty picture is the best way to capture someone’s attention. But when it comes to communicating lots of complicated content, even marketers tend to lose confidence in the power of visualization and revert to the written word.

Reviewing the new field of information design, Natasha Singer of the New York Times shows us that digital technology now makes it possible to turn mounds of data – such as 200 years of country-by-country GDP growth statistics – into an attention-grabbing presentation that’s easy to understand. On a somewhat less ambitious scale, we recently saw this concept work very well for one of our clients.

In a fairly dry, scientific field, this CEO was scheduled to give a presentation at a trade conference. The schedulers did her no favors, putting her in the week’s final time slot, right around lunchtime, just before everyone hit the road for home.

Thinking first about her audience’s mindset, we armed her with just a few, image-rich Powerpoint slides, reducing her content to 10 pictures and the briefest bullet points we could imagine.

The result? Four prospective customers took the time to talk with her – and set up appointments – after the show was over, proving once again that if you can get your audience to see what you’re trying to say, you can save yourself a lot of explanation.