“A really fresh and unique way of combining brand strategy, practical psychology and performance art that has transformed my speaking performance.“ Svetlin Nikolaev, Director, Innovation & User Experience, Developer Tools
Brand Activation: Thought Leaders
Key Business Needs: Progress
- To establish key Progress people as brand-thought leaders when speaking to a variety of internal and external audiences.
- To develop a consistent brand reputation as a software provider of choice, employer of choice and acquirer of choice.
- To showcase the skills and talent of Progress’ leaders and innovators.
The Challenges for Modern Brands
The world around us is evolving at breakneck speed. Our rapidly changing landscape means brands must adapt to new ways of communicating. People are experiencing exponentially higher volumes of content and opportunities to achieve salience in the hearts and minds of potential customers are at a premium.
This challenges brands to communicate important priorities persuasively and authentically when speaking to key internal and external audiences: at forums, events, panel discussions, conferences – inside and outside the organisation, both virtually and face-to-face.
There are many industry events where branded content is presented, and a mediocre, too self-serving or an under-prepared presenter can mean a lost opportunity for a brand at best, and at worst can cause permanent damage to the brand’s reputation. Presenters so easily fall into bad habits with presentations (especially with the advent of online presentations). We can retire to a comfort zone, repeating content or reading out the same spiel blindly recycling pre-canned slides and ultimately fail to connect in any meaningful way. To achieve the status of “trusted thought leader” requires expert presentation design and delivery skills that can boost credibility and connection.
Our Solution
The process involved a comprehensive, personal, practical, in-depth, flexible, four-stage development process culminating in a live presentation facilitated by a brand messaging specialist and an award-winning international keynote speaker, culture consultant, coach, and experienced TV/theatre director.
Key Benefits Achieved
We took a brand proposition from the printed work and poured-over PowerPoint slides into the hearts and minds of the people speaking to the industry and key customers. By connecting the hearts and minds of individuals to the core corporate strategy means that it lives in the real world. In this project, we created a fully connected methodology with personal coaching and feedback to give senior leaders the confidence to show their true selves when presenting under the banner of the brand. To be authentic, fun, honest and vulnerable. We helped people create stories that would connect and live on in the hearts and minds of the people they are talking to.
There are not good and bad presenters. There are people who come fully alive, and there are people who speak as walking automatons or just shrink away under the pressure of the performance. To help participants develop their competencies of structure, use of rhetoric, storytelling, and authentic presence, they were encouraged not to use visual aids. Our presenters showed tremendous courage, skill, and humour, and demonstrated powerful presence and impact: so much better equipped to present Progress in the best possible light in all the opportunities they will have moving forward.