In Ethos3′s epic quest to help others build, design, and deliver better presentations through storytelling we thought it would be fun to share our list of “All We Want for XMas.” After all, our culture loves lists so here is ours:

10.   Better PPT Templates:  It’s inevitable that people will still continue to use PPT templates even as much as designers encourage others not to include them in their presentations. So, why not have better options?

9.  Big Visuals/Minimal Text:  Our business culture is making progress on this one, but we are still seeing way too many bullet point presentations out there.

8.  A Book on Presentation Storytelling:  There are lots of great books (Presentation Zen and Slideology) on presentation design and delivery, but nothing is solely dedicated to presentation storytelling.

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Ethos3 recently had the opportunity to sit down with Jeff Loper, Director of Marketing for Corporate Brands at Thomas Nelson, the 6th largest publishing company in the world.

1. Being a Marketing Director, how do you approach storytelling in your field?
Most commonly, I use storytelling to tell the story of the consumers we are trying to reach. At a recent sales conference we constructed our presentation based upon the stories of the target consumers we were trying to reach for each product we were releasing. It turned very well…so well in fact, that when we presented our marketing plan to one of the authors we actually flew in people representing our three target demographics to tell their own story and the ways our marketing would reach them.

2. Working in the Christian publishing industry, you are surrounded by old stories, do you find it difficult to tell them in a new way?
Well, fortunately that task for the most part is usually left up to the author. We then take their masterpieces and create our advertisements and promotions, which I guess you could call presentations. Of course, like most marketers, the key is to find what resonates with today’s people at an emotional level…most commonly referred to by marketers as the “felt need.”

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Enjoy! This episode is all about presentation storytelling.

Ethos3 recently had the opportunity to chat with Andy Goodman, a nationally recognized author, speaker, and storyteller. You can read our discussion below.
Andy’s Bio:  Andy Goodman is a nationally recognized author, speaker and consultant in the field of public interest communications. Along with Storytelling as Best Practice, he is author of Why Bad Ads Happen to Good Causes and Why Bad Presentations Happen to Good Causes. He also publishes a monthly journal, free-range thinking, to share best practices in the field.

Andy is best known for his speeches and workshops on storytelling, presenting, and strategic communications, and has been invited to speak at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government, the Woodrow Wilson School of Public Affairs at Princeton, as well as at major foundation and nonprofit conferences. He currently serves on the faculty of the Communications Leadership Institute, which trains nonprofit executive directors and grantmakers.

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