Put some 'rizz' in your presentations

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” – Maya Angelou

Warning - sciency bit coming, but as a reward, there’s a free public speaking tip a bit later on.

Humans are capable of experiencing approximately 27 different emotions, ranging from joy to irritation to shame, along with everything in between.

Emotions are subjective reactions to objective events.

How you react to an event might be different to how I react to it and then how we recall it later.

Emotions act as a kind of short-cut to memory.

Your first kiss can motivate you to find a romantic partner so you can experience that happiness again.

In the human brain, if the amygdala and hippocampus are stimulated through an event at the same time, it creates a stronger memory.

That’s why on The Fuel podcast, we’ve been covering the unspoken cues that humans project in conversations and meetings that help to make them memorable.

Sciency bit over

So here’s some evidence that might help put it into context with the marketing world:

The Pedlar’s Song

In a recent podcast I did with Paul Feldwick, we discussed his book, ‘Why Does the Pedlar Sing?’  which covered the fascinating logic behind the use of entertainment techniques as advertising short-cuts to stimulate a consumer to make a purchase.

It’s a technique that isn’t used very much these days. We like to think that overt aspiration or FOMO is a driver. And while it’s always great to point out what someone is missing by not buying a product, it’s more important to get them to create their own feelings about a product.

A desire.

This creates a mental link between the product and their emotions.

And you can only do that if you know how to use the full spectrum of entertainment tools.

The same applies for meetings and sales pitches.

Teach Yourself to Present

That’s why I wanted to interview Catherine Allison. She’s an expert in helping people and teams be more memorable through the use of tried and tested entertainment techniques from the stage and TV.

And this is important why?

Because as you’ll hear in the podcast, we cover a fascinating piece of research that Catherine uses to illustrate the importance of powerful presenting techniques.

It’s called ‘What Clients Think’ An annual report based on 675 client interviews conducted on behalf of creative agencies.

And it begins with this fact:

Most clients don’t actually like meeting with their creative agencies.

That’s right. Over 50% of clients do not look forward to meeting their agencies. The report doesn’t fully explain why, but I think that it’s part of the bigger picture about the perceived value of marketing creativity within a business.

In the 70s, 80s and 90s, it was hard to book time with top-tier advertising folks, and when you did, meetings were anticipated, legendary, inspiring, informative and true learning moments.

I can recall regular monthly meetings with the entire senior marketing team of Imperial Tobacco in the early 90s, that began in the morning with campaign analysis and planning and ended at 5pm in a bar round the corner.

Advertising leadership was at the top of its game and Marketing Directors appreciated the strategic and creative counsel. They were fun meetings.

Now, it seems, the majority of creative agency meetings are a chore.

Perhaps clients feel that advertising is a functional process that must be endured, tolerated. An evil necessity.

This idea is borne out by another finding of the report, that over 75% of CMOs are expecting AI to help reduce costs in terms of creative options.

That they believe AI can deliver creativity and increase market share.

But in an apparent contradiction to this, recent IPA Bellwether reports show that marketing budgets are still continuing to increase.

But that money isn’t coming back to the agency.

Instead, that swollen budget is being used to pay for presence on the increasingly disparate delivery platforms in social media, web and mobile.

Not creative budgets, but distribution budgets.

Advertising and creativity is now the UK’s 4^th biggest export, and most of that spend is on media, not creative.

We’re clearly not doing enough to drive home the value of creativity to business. Because as the great Sir John Hegarty told me “Good creative is green creative”. A good idea uses its own energy, without the need for endless repetition and countless incarnations.

And finally to new business.

The average courtship length between first introduction to brief is now measured in years, not months or weeks.

One-and-a-half years.

That’s 18 months of dialogue, of prospect contact before they become a client.

What links all these facts?

Gravitas and charisma. Two important elements of advertising’s periodic table

Gravitas is defined as commanding respect and attention through presence and actions; the ability to give important matters memorability.

Injecting some gravitas into our meetings reclaims the podium for creativity. Preparation and body language are crucial. Active listening, clarity of thought and decision-making are all examples of gravitas.

Charisma is conveyed in the energy, the connection, the language and the storytelling.

We might think that charisma – “Rizz”, to the kids – and gravitas are rare minerals. But we can all learn some simple basic cues and tools that the stars use to help make messages land.

Free bit!

Obviously, you need to listen to the podcast to get the full effect, but, in the spirit of this email, I’d like to give away something for free.

Who here has experienced nerves before a presentation?

Did you know that you can trick your body into a calm state purely by altering your breathing?

One of the biggest problems for people speaking in public is nerves.

Many people suffer from tightness, a constriction in their breathing, leading to dry mouth, shaky speech and lack of vocal control.

This is picked up by the listener who can hear the nerves in your voice.

If you ever feel vocal tightness coming on, do this:

• Inhale using your belly, not your chest.

• Inhale some more. Then a bit more.

• Hold it.

• Exhale slowly.

• Repeat three times.

This will help to calm your system, especially if you tell yourself that you’re not nervous, you’re excited.

It should be exciting. Our business sits at the crossroads of commerce and entertainment and we’re very good at the former, not so good at the latter.

It should be an ambition for all of us working in this business to make meetings memorable and fun.

To walk the talk.

That way, our clients know that we have the skills to help them stand tall.

Please listen to the podcasts with Paul Feldwick and Catherine Allison for loads more free tips and advice on everything you need to know about injecting gravitas and charisma into your meetings. And don’t forget to hit ‘like’ and ‘subscribe’ to help our podcast grow.

Fuel - where sales and marketing never sounded so good.

Thanks for reading!