Three Presentation Styles
Three Completely Different Ways to Pitch Ideas
I’ve watched great work die in the room because the presentation wasn’t good enough to sell it. I’ve also watched weak work get bought because the presentation was extraordinary. Honestly? Both suck. The trick is giving your work a fair shot without overselling it, and that balance is hard to find.
So in this issue I wanted to lay out how some of the most respected CCOs in the industry like to present their work. We’ve got clips from Gabriel Schmitt, Guillermo Vega, and Karl Lieberman, talking about their presentation styles. It’s curious to see how different they are. One treats his decks like a Disney movie. Another simply aims for clarity, trusting that if the work is good, it will sell itself. And the third sits somewhere in the middle: he builds a thorough deck, but deliberately avoids turning the presentation into a flashy performance.
There’s no single move to copy here, just a set of approaches you can pull from depending on what works best for you and who’s sitting across the table. Enjoy.
The craft of a deck and the story you are telling are as important as the content itself.
— Gabriel Schmitt (Global Chief Creative Officer at Grey)
I’m not in the business of selling ideas. I’m in the business of getting the work to a good place.
— Guillermo Vega (Chief Creative Officer at Ogilvy North America)
I gravitate toward a monotone, non-passionate style of presentation.
— Karl Lieberman (Global Chief Creative Officer at Wieden+Kennedy)
About Method
The whole point of METHOD is to reveal how great creative work is actually made. We hope you walk away from every article with at least one thing you can put to work in your own method.