The "Godin Method" of presentation design

I have seen a lot of marketing professionals over the years give some pretty awful presentations. But Seth Godin appears to be one marketing "guru" who has given serious thought to how to design appropriate messages and accompanying visuals. Seth gets it. Can we call seth's presentation approach the "Godin Method"? (See the "Kawasaki Method" and "Takahashi Method".)

In an interview with Cliff Atkinson, Seth shares some of his views on presentations/PowerPoint:

"As a public speaker, I see far more than my fair share of presentations. Worse, a lot of them are from people getting paid to give them - and they're horrible. Horribly produced, horribly ineffective."

Many professionals who give presentations are not actually selling a product, so does all this selling and pitching stuff really apply, say, to academics, researchers, or to the guys down the hall in the accounting department? This was a question asked in the Atkinson interview. Seth comments:

"It seems to me that if you're not wasting your time and mine, you're here to get me to change my mind, to do something different. And that, my friend, is selling. If you're not trying to persuade, why are you here?"

A good question. A question I ask myself many times while watching (enduring?) highly paid senior managers and executives present information...one slide after another (...and another).

Seth wrote an ebook not too long ago that was a #1 bestseller on Amazon for about a year. I think the price was about two bucks for the downloadable PDF file. The money went to charity. The short book is well worth two bucks, but now you can get it for free if you agree to buy Free Prize Inside (it's on the honor system). The digital version is not copy protected so you are allowed to share the file with others in hardcopy or digital form. Spread the word.

I found slides demonstrating the "Godin Method" of presentation from the Ideavirus page on sethgodin.com. These particular slides (random sample thumbs below) are now over five years old. Back in the summer of 2000 there were probably not too many people with visuals like these...or today for that matter. Take a look at the slides. They are not for everyone, of course, but just click through the deck of 60 slides with an open mind. Perhaps you'll get some ideas for the design of your presentation visuals for a future talk. What aspects do you like? What design details would you change to fit your situation?

Sample thumbs from the July, 2000 presentation by Seth Godin:

     

     

     

          

Comments

[Jochen]

Thank you for bringing back the method and the ideas

[Jose Castillo]

Great stuff! It's exciting when someone is this good for one or two presentations but when you do this type of timeless stuff it really shows just how Seth Godin really does practice what he preaches. Imagine if we went back 5 years and pulled some of the things we were working on -- would it still be relevant or memorable?

Thanks for the reality check!

[The Pakistani Spectator]

the title of book is very interesting espacially the write up " All Marketers are Liars" is true somewhat

[OuttaNames999]

I've heard Seth speak a couple of times at industry events. He is an outstanding and compelling speaker, and there is no question the visuals that accompany his talk are works of art, carefully selected or carefully crafted to brilliantly illustrate and reinforce his points as any brilliant ad creative - think David Ogilvy ads. In fact, one could say that each slide is an ad for the point he is making, and an ad that has emotional impact.

But this is not really surprising when you consider who and what Seth really is - a book packager - that is, someone who pitches book ideas to publishers. He is an idea pitchman, no different than the Atlantic city pitchmen of years ago, or the QVC pitchwomen of today.

Every book has a marketing plan. And as we all know, every book has a cover. The cover is really an ad for the book.

Although we're told we're not supposed to judge a book by its cover, the fact is, that's exactly what we do when browsing books in a bookstore. And a cover is just a visual that should brilliantly capture the imagination of the bookbuyer and illustrate the point of the book with emotional impact that "speaks" to you so strongly that you will remember it, and hopefully buy it (to own (capture) the feeling by owning the book).

So, every book a cover, and every speaking point a slide. He has embedded the same marketing savvy into each of his slides that he puts into an entire book project - that is the "free prize inside" his speaking presentations. There might be 50 or 100 slides in his talk. Man, that is a lot of ads to produce.

Now, if we are going to talk about a "Godin method" consisting of the use of these brilliant slides, (the how being the essence of any method) we must ask, how does he do it? Does he grab them off the net? Does he use a stock house? Does he research them himself? Does he use an art director to select the images?

Finding images with impact is not easy. In fact, it's one of the most difficult jobs in advertising. It's painstaking, heartwrenching, agonizing effort if done correctly. Often it is far easier to shoot the photo you want rather than take the chance you will successfully be able to hunt down just the right existing shot. And yet, it is clear that many of Seth's images were found on the Internet. Somehow he found just the right image among the hundreds of millions of images out there.

Careful photo selection then, it seems to me, is one of the secrets to his method. Another, certainly, is to have brilliant ideas in need of illustration. And, of course, the passion to sell the ideas. Points + passion + persuation + impact = a winning formula and a proven method.

[military]

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[battle]

I haven't been up to much , but I guess it doesn't bother me. Pfft. I just don't have much to say lately, but maybe tomorrow. Basically nothing seems worth doing.

[oil]

There are too many, not enough handicapped parking spaces in our city

[Terence Chan]

Is there a difference between persuading on abstractions, vs. persuading the wallet on the nit-grit details?

The former seems to be a whole whole lot easier?

[Matt]

This is not true for technical presentations... some techies just want bullets. But, this should be balanced with a very interesting story and presenter that just uses PPT as an jumping off point. Maybe balanced with Seth's "each slide as an ad" concept.

[club penguin]

He is an outstanding and compelling speaker, and there is no question the visuals that accompany his talk are works of art, carefully selected or carefully crafted to brilliantly illustrate and reinforce his points as any brilliant ad creative - think David Ogilvy ads. In fact, one could say that each slide is an ad for the point he is making, and an ad that has emotional impact.

[grow taller]

Now, if we are going to talk about a "Godin method" consisting of the use of these brilliant slides, (the how being the essence of any method) we must ask, how does he do it? Does he grab them off the net? Does he use a stock house? Does he research them himself? Does he use an art director to select the images?

[Kids Games]

Just think about "The Inconvenient Truth" a compelling movie made that at the core was just a presentation. This is the first I've heard of Godin, but I'm definitely going to look his stuff up.

[How to watch tv on pc live]

Great stuff! It's exciting when someone is this good for one or two presentations but when you do this type of timeless stuff it really shows just how Seth Godin really does practice what he preaches.

[isoftware tv]

I've heard Seth speak a couple of times at industry events. He is an outstanding and compelling speaker, and there is no question the visuals that accompany his talk are works of art, carefully selected or carefully crafted to brilliantly illustrate and reinforce his points as any brilliant ad creative - think David Ogilvy ads. In fact, one could say that each slide is an ad for the point he is making, and an ad that has emotional impact.

[PC Support Services]

Good notes and information. Will consider in my presentations. Thanks for posting.

[Grow Taller 4 Idiots review]

He is an outstanding and compelling speaker, and there is no question the visuals that accompany his talk are works of art, carefully selected or carefully crafted to brilliantly illustrate and reinforce his points as any brilliant ad creative

[counter height tables]

I really love the post and the graphics. Thanks for sharing!

[cleaner reviews]

wow, that is great, thanks for your article.