Numbers alone are meaningless. Here is how to communicate them effectively.
As a logical, rational thinker, you may think data, statistics, and raw numbers are the most critical part of your message.
But numbers standing alone have zero meaning. People cannot comprehend it. People won’t even remember it, not to mention doing anything with it.
To effectively make your point and move the audience, you need to provide context for the numbers. Better, build a case for it, tell a story, guide the audience to a discovery.
Let’s illustrate this principle with an example. Imagine you are sitting among dozens of other freshers in an Onboarding/Orientation talk. The speaker draws a big number on the board: 180 and says excitingly: “That’s the total revenue of the Video Game Industry in billion dollars in 2021. Huge, right?”.
Would you agree with him that it’s a “huge” number?
I bet NO. There is nothing to compare to, no way to make sense of the info. So your brain turns off - it doesn’t even think about the number.
That’s why I never do that.
Instead, I first ask the audience to name the most popular types of digital entertainment. All the time, they come up with the same 3 things: “Music, Movies, and Games”.
With that interaction done and the attention of the audience captured, I draw a small rectangle in blue ink. “This is the revenue in 2021 of the Recorded Music industry, 26 Billion USD”.
Then a bigger blue rectangle next to it. “And this is the revenue in 2021 of the Digital and Streaming Video industry, 71 Billion. Much bigger. When I found out about this, I was quite surprised. I thought that Music is more popular”.
Then I draw a red rectangle that surrounds the other two.
“But look. THIS is the total revenue of the Mobile Game Industry, in which our company is one of the biggest world-class developers. 93.2 billion. It is almost equal to both Music and Movies, combined.”
By this time, I believe everyone in the room is already impressed. But I am not done yet. I expand the red rectangle by drawing another one of similar size right next to it.
“And 87.1 Billion is the revenue of other segments of Video Games - Consoles, PC, eSports - you name it. Since 2021, our company has been expanding into these territories. We will release big titles here this year. In total, the whole revenue of the Video Games Industry is 180.3 Billion USD, and it has been on a continuous growth track for decades.”
“Our industry is not “big” - it is HUGE. It is the biggest type of digital entertainment, by far. 9 times bigger than Music. 3 times bigger than Movies.”
Would you nod your head and remember the main point now? I bet you do.
