creativity

15 keys to deliver a fantastic keynote presentation on stage

January 12, 2012

in Innovate,Just another day,presentations,Speaking,The trend is my friend

Inspired by Swedish blogger Fredrik Wass who stated that he will blog for a 100 days in a row I felt I had to get my blog going again. So here we go!

Photographed by Paulina while forecasting trends at the Creative Summit together with among others Brian Solis and Alf Rehn.

In 2011 I was honored to be selected as the keynote speaker for events all over Europe. I delivered more than 80 keynotes on entrepreneurship, creative ideas, future branding, communication and business development, some of them shared here on Slideshare. In more than 90% of the occasions I was given the highest ranking of all the speakers by the audience. Hell, I even spoke for 24 hours in a row without any sleep. In other words – I’m confident I have some thoughts to share on how to deliver a great keynote presentation.

Here are 15 keys to deliver a fantastic keynote presentation.

1. Before even getting on stage – make sure you’ve got your logos, pathos and ethos wired.

What you speak about is 50% of your keynote, but the way you look and sound giving that keynote is the other 50%. The worlds first branding expert Aristotles knew how to make people buy what he sold. He divided the means of persuasion, appeals, into three categories; Ethos, Pathos and Logos.

- Ethos: the source’s credibility, the speaker’s/author’s authority

My credibility when I’m speaking is of course a mix of how I look, my credentials and the way I bring my message forward on stage. A common mistake I see over and over again is when speakers enter the stage and then go; “Before I speak, let me tell you about who I am and the company I’m representing.” This is more or less totally unnecessary since you’re there for a reason. If you do your thing right people will understand [click to continue…]

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The Ultimate Mood and Storyboard Application

October 6, 2009

in Graphics,Images,Innovate,Link of the day,Simplicity,Software,Video

Creatives all over the world do their best to visualize their ideas when pitching clients, preparing for photo shoots or simply putting their ideas on paper. Apart from sketching with Sketchbook Pro I’ve personally been using Flickr and Google Image Search combined with Photoshop for ages. Lately I’ve added Bing and iStockphoto to the list. It’s a time consuming process but it’s usually getting my message across.

Today however I’ve seen the light. A new web based application (down at the moment due to high traffic) that I found on Mashable let’s you draw your ideas and then it composes an image out of that doodle of yours. It’s made by five Chinese Computer Science and Technology students at Tsinghua University and the National University of Singapore and it’s sick!

Whatever kind of ides you’ve got in your head – it’s now easier than ever to get a matching photo. Draw and you will conquer! Here’s a video explaining what this mind-boggling thing does:

We live in the best of times. It’s all happening now!

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In order to create something timeless you’ve gotta set Megagoals.

February 25, 2009

in Beautiful,branding,Innovate,Just another day,Simplicity

ferrari_dino

The Lamborghini Miura – A timeless car

What makes an object timeless? Why in some cases do we all end up liking something so much so it rises from being just another thing to instead becoming culture? Certain designs and certain objects has that little extra, they’re like an open fire – we can’t stop staring. And what’s even more strange is that [click to continue…]

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Sharing some of my thoughts on viral marketing – The Viral Triangle

February 4, 2009

in branding,Innovate,Simplicity,Social communication,The trend is my friend,Video

Just say the word – Viral – and brand owners go bananas. It’s what you want. Communication spread all over the world without a penny in media spend. It sounds so easy but in fact, not that many videos circles the globe every year.

Let me share one of my ways of increase the probability of succeeding.

I call it “The Viral Triangle”

I’ve created The Viral Triangle in order to get a better understanding from clients that viral marketing is all about buzz and creating hooks that pull people into the loop. The components of The Viral Triangle is something [click to continue…]

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Luxury champagne brand Krug pops up their brand and shows how entertain the masses with minimum effort

January 13, 2009

in Art,Beautiful,branding,Simplicity,Social communication,The trend is my friend,Video

Nothing is like it used to be. A couple of years back I attended a Luxury marketing meeting in Monte Carlo. I was one of the speakers and I spoke about how the younger generation will want to see more things from the Luxury brands than just good old beauty shots of expensive products. A couple of posts back I highlighted the IWC print campaign which is a step in the right direction.

Today however I’m amazed with how prestige cuvée champagne house Krug balances innovation with luxury.

Together with niche luxury art and fashion printing press Visionaire, Krug has created a marvelous piece of pop-up art. The 10 beautifully designed pop-ups have been created by Sophie Calle, Andreas Gursky, Cai Guo-Qiang, Steven Klein, Yayoi Kusama, Alasdair McLellan, Steven Meisel, Guido Mocafico, Nicola Formichetti/Gareth Pugh, Sølve Sundsbø, and Mario Testino. These guys all stand for innovation in their own field. The planning of this campaign is spot on.

Krug has limited the edition to 4,000 numbered copies worldwide and 12 sets with a bottle of Krug Grand Cuvée in a gift box only available at the Ode to Art Gallery in Singapore.

What’s truly nice about this piece is the fact that it’s demonstrates what branding is about today. If you’re looking to spread your brand it’s all about becoming talk of the town and not necessary pay to place your ads all over town.

This activity is about innovation, creativity, partnering with great people, a great print house, the Krug brand, industrial design, video, print, ideas, effect, visuals etc etc etc. There is something for everyone out there.

When you create communication pieces like this they’re spreading them self due to the fact that they offer something unique that is relevant to a multiple of audiences that in their turn spread the content further. In this sense my blog now becomes another branding surface for Krug.

Krug spreads their brand in social networks based on creative and innovative ideas

If your communication initiative is good enough you’ll probably end up with all good branding surfaces. The thing is that bloggers like me and other brand surfaces like to blog about bad stuff too. So make sure your piece of communication is up to the job, otherwise you might end up damaging your brand instead.

So, to conclude this post. What you gotta do is to create brand activities that are absolutely on top of the scale when it comes to innovation and creativity. If you partner up with someone or as in Krug’s case a bunch of great people, your campaign will kick off like never before since there is so much in there for everyone.

ps. I found the campaign on Luxury Insider. Down in Monte Carlo I met the founders of the site, a great bunch of young entrepreneurs.

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The Steve Jobs delivers insights on life at Stanford

December 17, 2008

in branding,Entrepreneurship,Innovate,Speaking,Video

I seek inspiration everywhere. But Steve Jobs and his lifework with Apple is absolutely one my top inspiration sources. Ran into this Steve Jobs Stanford Commencement Speech 2005 on YouTube. Steve shares the highs and low of his life.

What strikes me with this one is that Steve in a great way conveys the importance of not becoming a product of your business/background but instead always look for the unknown. Also the fact that sudden changes in life usually leads to something better as long as you keep our fire burning. (Something I’ve experienced myself).

Two quotes from Steve Jobs I personally live by too.

Steve Jobs – “Remembering that you are going to die is the best way I know to avoid the trap of thinking you have something to loose”
Steve Jobs – “The only way to do great work is to love what you do”

Here’s the speech!

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