Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos addresses a press conference to introduce new Amazon and Kindle products in New York, September 28, 2011.(Image credit: AFP/Getty Images via @daylife)
The next time you deliver a PowerPoint presentation that matters—a product launch, investor pitch, new client meeting— take a cue from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and ditch the bullet points. When Bezos unveiled the all-new new Kindle Fire HD this week, his presentation slides were light on text and heavy on images. This style of delivering presentations is fresh, engaging, and ultimately far more effective than slide after slide of wordy bullet points.
Since I wrote The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs, I’ve noticed that many business leaders around the world are adopting the image-rich style including very famous CEO’s such as Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, and even Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer. The style works for any leader, in any industry. Ford CEO Alan Mulally even called me personally to thank me for revealing the techniques. Note—Steve Jobs used Apple Keynote software for his presentations, as do current Apple executives. However, since most people use PowerPoint, I use “PowerPoint” as a synonym for presentations. While there are differences between Keynote and PowerPoint, effective storytelling techniques apply equally to both. And no, Steve Jobs did not invent the style. He just happened to use it very effectively.
Now back to Bezos. The typical PowerPoint slide has forty words. It was nearly impossible to find forty words on ten slides of the Amazon presentation. Bezos told the story behind the new products in images and text. I’ve discussed this technique before in more detail but in short, it’s called Picture Superiority. It simply means that the brain processes information more effectively when the information is presented in pictures and words instead of words alone. Neuroscientists have also found that when a slide (or advertisement) contains pictures and words, it’s best to have the picture on the left side of the page or slide and words on the right. This is exactly what Bezos did for a majority of his slides.
For example, Bezos introduced the new Kindle Fire HD with a series of slides that just showed images of the products features and services (movies, games, photos). He also played a new video ad (most people don’t use enough multimedia in their presentations. Video clips are engaging and memorable. Just keep them short). On the final slide where Bezos revealed the price, he included a picture of the device on the left side of the slide and these words on the right:
Kindle Fire HD
7” 16GB
$199
Earlier in the presentation, Bezos unveiled the Kindle Paperwhite, an e-reader with a higher resolution display and patented built-in light. Bezos said the battery lasts eight weeks. Most presenters would have added “8 weeks battery life” to a long list of bullet points/features on one slide. Instead Bezos showed a picture of a calendar with the months September and October. September 6—the day of the presentation—was highlighted in red and Bezos told the audience that the battery would last until the end of October. That’s memorable. People will recall the text—8 weeks battery life—much more easily because it was connected with the image of the calendar. I know I will. That’s picture superiority—a little text and a lot of pictures.
I know what some of you are thinking—it works for Bezos because he’s revealing products that people can see and touch. Let me be clear—picture superiority works in any presentation, even for the most complex ideas. I recently gave a presentation on the topic of communication and storytelling to scientists at one of America’s largest nuclear labs. One person implemented the techniques immediately and sent me an email, saying it helped him deliver one of the most persuasive presentations of his career.
In no way am I advocating that you ditch PowerPoint. I am recommending that you ditch PowerPoint as we know it—dull, wordy, and overloaded with bullet points. Image-rich presentations work effectively because pictures appeal to the right hemisphere of the brain—the emotional side. You can have great ideas backed up by data and logic, but if you don’t connect with people emotionally, it doesn’t matter.
Carmine Gallo is the communications coach for the world’s most admired brands. He is a popular keynote speaker and author of several books, including the international bestsellers The Presentation Secrets of Steve Jobs and The Innovation Secrets of Steve Jobs. His new book, The Apple Experience: Secrets to Building Insanely Great Customer Loyalty is the first book to reveal the secrets behind the stunning success of the Apple Retail Store. Carmine has recently launched an eLearning course titled, The New Rules of Persuasive Presentations. Follow Carmine on Facebook or Twitter.
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This isn’t a “new” presentation style. This has always been the most effective presentation style, and successful presenters have always neglected text whenever possible. The reason other people can’t figure this out is because of Microsoft’s defaults in PowerPoint: a 4×3 aspect ratio, automatically generating a bullet point, etc.
Jennifer, it’s “new” because very, very few people do it. I also don’t think PowerPoint is to blame. I’ve seen stunning presentations with PowerPoint as well as Apple Apple Keynote. It’s about the story and how the story is visually displayed.
I would say it’s not really ‘new’ it’s just a style that not many learned or used in the past. Mostly because most people who do presentations weren’t really taught how to do them properly in the past, a lot of people just winged it and because others just picking it up pretty much learned from example bad habits propagated.
Most speach/comm courses in college, even when I attended in the late 80′s taught that it was best to use visuals wherever possible and minimize the use of words. The one thing “new” I picked up, however, was the placement of the images to the left and the words to the right. That’s something I hadn’t heard before.
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Agree that very few people do it, but any good speaker does and has for a long time. This is “new” the way an airline starts a “new” route that it abandoned a few years earlier.
Jeff Bezos is an amazing presenter. It’s all about simplicity and how you tell your story. For more tips on presenting check out Big Fish Presentation’s blog. http://bigfishpresentations.com/our-blog/
Carmine, I’m curious what you think of Prezi. I’ve long despised PPT for the boredom it inspires when used (as it’s primarily used) as a bullet point vehicle…but I’ve fallen in love with Prezi and feel it can, in addition to dressing up images, help highlight important words in a more artistic and visually appealing way. What do you think?
Tim, I’ve been in touch with the Prezi folks and I am a fan of the “3-D” effect. I’ve worked with clients who have given major presentations on Prezi and have done so successfully. I do believe, however, that PowerPoint and Apple Keynote are extremely effective as well. Don’t forget the master presenter himself–Steve Jobs–used Keynote.
Hope someone passes the word (in pictures, of course) along to financial folks, as well as engineers. Haven’t they heard a picture is worth a thousand words (true with numbers too)!
I’ve worked with financial experts, engineers, and even nuclear scientists who have started using this visual storytelling technique in their presentations. It can be done no matter how complex the topic!
I do think that corporate leaders are finally getting what Jobs realized decades ago. We’ve seen this recently with Zuckerberg, Ballmer’s Windows 8 pres, the Palm Pre launch. But, of course, these very consumer-oriented tech product launches are unique. 20 years after Jobs began it, people finally understand the importance of presenting products simply to the public. I wonder when the bulk of other businesses will follow…
Nolan,
Thanks for your comment. Steve Jobs intuitively understood the power of simplicity and the visual display of content as early as his 1984 presentation of the first Macintosh. I think it’s “easier” to do when it’s a consumer product that people can see and touch. But as you probably know it can be done very effectively with complex ideas–and I would argue should be done when presenting complex ideas!
Engeneers have used visual presentations for ages, also known as blue prints.
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I actually stopped using PowerPoint about three years ago.
I would go with carmine, but are we missing the key point again? it doesn’t matter what you use, text or images, the only thing that matters is client loyalty and retention!
Also pitching the idea clearly and shortly is the key!
personally I enjoyed word perfect when it came in market and never get used to powerpoint etc.
the question is why bezos is the first one to do it? do we see this a common practice and why dont anyone else does it!
Definitely not a new presentation technique and probably not even worth an article. This is the way many people including myself have always presented material in order to engage.
Regards
Jon Ayre
The Enterprising Architect
http://theenterprisingarchitect.blogspot.com
Actually, This is in no way a “new” way to do PowerPoint. Those in the know have been teaching people this method for YEARS. Photography, videos, SmartArt…the way to go.
I wish I had read this article before I spent weeks once trying to emulate other faculty members and construct a series of PP slides. I had good reviews until I slipped into bullet point-laden PP! After that I went back to the old approach of lots of visuals and few words on slides. Wordy slides and a darkened room beat sleeping pills.
power point have made such a progress that it could be singled out as one of the most important business tools ever that made so much things possible in its own time that it hard to imaging that there will ever be anithing that will produce such a significant impact on presentations and business communications
Powerpoint is not the reason people have poor presentation skills. Most people have poor presentation skills in spite of PowerPoint not because ot it.
Forest from the trees. I think what Mr. Gallo is meaning by “new” is that most business presenters do not make their decks image rich and engaging. The technique of doing so is “new” because although we know it’s effective, most still don’t use this approach.
I would actually like to see the video with Jeff and get a visual sense for his message.
Pictures trump words. Conversations trump presentations. The very best communicators seem to understand that any presentation must be part of an ongoing, iterative conversation.
Carmine…any idea where we can view this presentation online?
Interesting article. You did not mention Edward Tufte, although I expect you know of him. I wonder how much Bezos, Jobs, and the others knew of his work. www.edwardtufte.com
Have you ever played Magic: The Gathering?
This card game layout has the top half of the card with a unique image with the rest as name and descriptive text. Players don’t recognize a card by its name, they recognize the image and recall the text from their memory.
Find a comic book store or visit a tournament – you’ll see this visual image recognition in high speed action.
Level of presentation:
Presenting to scientists… lots of equations
Presenting to engineers… lots of numbers
Presenting to managers… words
Presenting to upper management… graphs
Presenting to executive management… shapes and colors
I have seen some smart leaders adopt this image rich style previously. Sure, its more effective in certain type of communication. In fact, you can have readily available templates for frequently used presentations all with less content, more visual slides & definitely great impact!
What essentially we are seeing is greater adoption of this style of communication.
Cheers
SP VRRMA
www.prozenconsulting.com
I have seen some smart leaders adopt this image rich style previously. Sure, its more effective in certain type of communication. In fact, you can have readily available templates for frequently used presentations all with less content, more visual slides & definitely great impact!
What essentially we are seeing is greater adoption of this style of communication.
Cheers
SP Verma
www.prozenconsulting.com
Carmine, sorry it’s not “new” as you say. Plenty of people in my area of expertise have been doing it for years. Images have always spoken louder than words, we are a visual culture. There has always been a delineation between aesthetic design and “bullet point text.” High resolution displays now make it a given that one should use images over text. I’ve been doing it that way for years.
People have been bemoaning Powerpoint for years now. For those who are showing data – graphs and charts – there’s not much you can do, but bullet points are never the best option. However, if you’re a good speaker, most people won’t spend much time looking at your slides, whether they’re bullet points or pretty pictures.
Powerpoint is, quite simply, the worst tool among office productivity tools. As a class, slide-makers or presentation generators or whatever are right at the bottom anyway, but PPT is an abysmal in almost every way. It manages to fail at its own intended purpose; every single feature leads the user to create more and more crowded, unreadable, disorganized slides. It isn’t even like Word or other tools that are easy to misuse into dreadful results; there is no skilled or pro approach that can get around things like PPT endlessly resizing text and layout.
It’s a junk tool in every respect… and has single-handedly destroyed the reputation and usefulness of screen presentations.
Jk Greyfriars: resizing text is an option that can be turned off in the text box definition (uncheck “shrink text”). If you make that change on the template Master, it will apply globally to the layouts. I use PowerPoint effectively, even though there are some options I choose to ignore. The first thing I do is strip out every layout option except “Blank” and sometimes build a few of my own. The drawing and animation tools are incredible.
Don’t blame the tool. Blame the press coverage that heralds it as an alternative to hiring a professional presentation specialist. Like almost anything on the computer–PowerPoint often falls victim to GIGO (Garbage In Garbage Out).
Spot on. We’re becoming increasingly visual (Pinterest, Instagram anyone?).
Jennifer C. is right. We’ve abused PowerPoint and our audiences for a long time.
Horrible use of PP to write a bunch of words, then read them off to an audience. There’s too much good info on the internet to inflict your audience this way.
Perhaps one of the deeper thinkers on this is Edward Tufte of Yale University, with several books to his credit, one being The Visual Display of Quantitative Information
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Part of the problem has been that Powerpoint is often used as a word editor. Powerpoints are emailed and read instead of being presented.
