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Presentation Storytelling Examples & Techniques (2024)

Learn techniques for telling a story in a presentation . Get narrative presentation examples and learn to apply storytelling in business presentations .

story presentation ppt example

Joanne Camarce

8 minute read

Presentation storytelling examples

Short answer

What should a presentation storytelling structure include?

Introduction

Rising Action

Falling Action

Storytelling in business presentations matters (a lot)

Stories convey a deeper meaning, idea, or lesson. They make us feel, experience, identify, and understand.

Most importantly for storytelling in business presentations, telling a story in a presentation makes people more likely to remember the message.

Researchers Dean and Chip Heath found that after a presentation, 63% of attendees could remember the story told by the presenter.

However, only 5% could recall specific statistics from the event.

Because stories allow audiences to visualize and imagine an idea or message, stories also make them better able to make decisions.

In other words, stories bring buyers, stakeholders, and decision-makers to better understand and remember your message. Which in turn enables them to make a decision and increases the chance they’ll act on it.

What is presentation storytelling?

Presentation storytelling is the art of using a narrative structure to convey information instead of dry facts. It delivers a story with a clear beginning, middle, and end that aligns with the presentation's objectives, making the content more relatable and memorable.

Storytelling in business presentations involves 2 complementing aspects: (1) textual presentation narrative, and (2) visual storytelling.

What is a narrative presentation?

A narrative presentation is a style of delivering information where the content is structured as a relatable story. It typically includes characters, a setting, a conflict, and a resolution, and weaves complex ideas, processes, and metrics into the narrative.

What is a visual storytelling presentation?

A visual storytelling presentation tells a story or multiple anecdotes using visual elements like videos, animations, and interactive content.

Modern storytelling presentations apply scrollytelling design which combines visuals and text seamlessly to let readers interact with the presentation as they scroll down the content.

How to use the 4 storytelling archetypes

Storytelling is the art of describing vivid ideas, beliefs, experiences, and life lessons through stories and narratives.

These stories stimulate a listener's imagination as you take them on an emotional journey. There are many ways to tell a story.

These story structures have been shown to work for narrative presentations and corporate storytelling, and they will work for you.

The Hero's Journey: Communicates a transformation from struggle to success

The Story Mountain: Builds tension and anticipation

Story loop: Joins multiple perspectives into a single narrative

In-Media Res: Grabs attention quickly

There are timeless narrative frameworks that have worked for storytellers throughout the ages from the methodologies of old, through Shakespearian plays to Apple commercials.

1) Hero's Journey

The Hero's Journey storytelling technique

The hero's journey narrative archetype involves a hero who goes on a journey and returns as a changed person.

This storytelling template consists of three distinct parts, or "acts," that include a setup, confrontation, and resolution. It makes for a well-structured and engaging narrative.

2) The Mountain

Story Mountain storytelling technique

The mountain storytelling structure strategically maps the tension and drama in a story. This archetype is represented visually as a mountain, with each section building to a complex obstacle that characters need to overcome.

Think of the protagonist at the bottom of the mountain. They must climb the mountain to reach their goal (your business goals in this case). They face obstacles along the way, and they must overcome those obstacles before they can reach the top.

3) Story loop

The story loop structure contains stories within another story. However, they aren't standalone stories.

Your first story is the most important. It's the core of your message, and you use the other stories to elaborate or explain your central point.

But you stop some of the way through it, leaving the audience in suspense. Then, you share part of the second story before moving on to the last.

Eventually, in the end, you bring it all together to make one cohesive point. The purpose of this storytelling technique is to provide context, background, or a different perspective to a central narrative.

Types of anecdotes you can use in your story loop presentation

  • Customer success stories
  • Personal experiences by clients
  • Inspirational stories
  • Fictional or hypothetical stories
  • Historical or factual stories

Here's a short video explaining how to use a story loop:

How to use a story loop

4) In medias res (begin from the middle)

In medias res is Latin for "in the middle of things." With this storytelling archetype, the narrative begins in the middle of a scene. It skips over the background of the story and gets straight to the action.

To choose the right type of story for your presentation, consider your audience, the purpose of the presentation, and the emotional impact you want to create.

No matter what narrative structure you choose, include visuals, sensory details, and precise language to bolster your message.

If you want to learn more about this storytelling archetype, check out the video below:

Story structure In medias res

Effective presentation storytelling structure

A well-structured story can engage and persuade your audience, making your corporate presentation much more effective and memorable.

Stories can be applied in any type of business presentation, such as a pitch deck, sales presentation, white paper, report, or business proposal.

A single document can include multiple stories that make up a joint narrative.

5 basic elements of a story structure:

1. Introduction

  • Sets a relevant context with background information.
  • Introduces the protagonist (business or product) and the current problem or challenge.

2. Rising Action

  • Builds tension by detailing the obstacles and complications faced.
  • Engages the audience with the steps taken to address the challenge.
  • The turning point where the main tension or conflict peaks.
  • Highlights the moment of greatest challenge and the decisive action taken.

4. Falling Action

  • Shows the aftermath of the climax.
  • Begins to lead towards the resolution, detailing the business solution and results of actions taken.

5. Resolution

  • Wraps up the story with the outcome of all actions.
  • Provides a clear ending, showing how the challenge was overcome and what was learned.

After developing your story structure, be sure to connect it to your core message by creating parallels and reinforcing it with examples.

Most importantly, don’t leave your audience with the realization that they need to take action without offering them an immediate way to act.

Effective storytelling techniques for presentations

The beauty of storytelling is that the possibilities are endless. There are so many ways to tell a story in presentations. It's just a matter of finding the right one for your unique needs and goals.

1) Build your stories around your audience’s pain points

Stories establish connections. But don’t confuse your story with your audience’s story.

Your audience doesn’t care about your story, and they don’t care about your product.

But they will care if they feel you care about them.

Understanding the audience's pain points, values, and opinions can help you weave a story into a narrative that aligns with their interests. It gives you the chance to be part of THEIR story.

Stop talking about yourself. Do this and see engagement blow up, conversions increase, and greater brand loyalty .

2) Establish common ground with your prospects

One effective presentation storytelling technique is to find common ground and share experiences with your audience to establish a connection and make them care about what you say.

These commonalities are what resonate strongest with your target audience.

Common-ground stories tell your audience a satisfied client of yours overcame a particular challenge they are experiencing themselves, and offer the lessons learned while overcoming it.

3) Tell stories that foster peer envy

Peer envy is one of the strongest motivators you can flame in sales presentation storytelling.

Simply put it just means telling the story of a known industry player that achieved remarkable results with the help of your product or service.

A peer envy story should present the initial challenge, the journey to overcome it, and the final enviable outcomes. Yet the reader should feel they can attain similar or better results by following a similar journey.

Here's a fragment of a podcast where Michael Bosworth touches on this very topic:

Top 3 stories great salesmen use

Business presentation storytelling examples

Here are some examples of famous brands that incorporated personal stories to convey a powerful message in their business presentations.

Zuora sales deck

The Zuora sales deck was aptly named the best sales deck ever . It is truly a best-in-class example of a transformation narrative set within the story mountain framework.

It masterfully narrates the shift to a subscription economy, emphasizing evolving consumer behavior.

And by highlighting the challenges businesses face in this new economy, Zuora positions itself as the essential solution.

The deck's use of data, visuals, and testimonials weaves a compelling story of transformation, urging businesses to adapt and thrive with Zuora or stay behind and decline.

Mign sales deck

Mign’s sales deck highlights the digital shift in musculoskeletal injury recovery, emphasizing the transformation from mass production to personalized care.

Mign applies the hero’s journey story framework and positions itself as the trusted guide in this transformation.

The deck contrasts "winners," who embrace new technologies like additive manufacturing and virtual care, with "losers," traditional manufacturers stuck in outdated processes.

Tinder pitch deck

Tinder's pitch deck effectively narrates the universal challenge of meeting new people and the fear of rejection.

By introducing a hypothetical user named "Matt," Tinder gives the reader a peek into the mind of their target user - an everyday nice guy scared to approach a girl he's interested in.

This concrete personal experience gives life to a basic human need that investors can understand intuitively and even relate to.

Tinder leverages this emotional understanding to make a compelling case for its solution - a platform that eliminates the fear of rejection.

The deck also applied great data storytelling showcasing Tinder's impressive statistics, emphasizing its global reach and popularity among Gen Z.

They also nail the one-liner. Their slogan "It Starts With A Swipe™" encapsulates the simplicity and effectiveness of the app, positioning Tinder as the modern solution to traditional dating challenges.

Brothers Pub restaurant pitch deck

Brothers Pub's pitch deck presents a captivating local business story, emphasizing the need for a fresh, community-focused social pub venue.

The deck tells the story of the owners’ journey, from the initial concept to securing a prime location in Northampton, highlighting their dedication and vision for the future.

The deck outlines the challenges faced by traditional pubs, with 7000 closures in the last decade, and positions Brothers Pub as the innovative solution.

LKE proposal

Legends Kratom Co. (LKE) creates a narrative around the origins and benefits of kratom. By telling the exotic tale of the medicinal tropical evergreen tree and its transformation into a beneficial supplement, the deck creates a vivid backdrop.

They take the reader on their discovery journey to Indonesia to find a supplier for the coveted plant.

This adds authenticity and allure, while their commitment to education and community showcases a heartfelt mission.

Testimonials provide real-world validation, making LKE's story relatable and positioning them as a trusted leader in the supplement industry.

Genius Workshop Event pitch deck

Genius's pitch deck for their storytelling workshop is a masterclass in selling an experience. The deck introduces Gabrielle Dolan's expertise, setting a foundation of trust.

The workshop's structure is presented as a narrative journey, guiding attendees from novice to storyteller.

The deck mixes video, scrollytelling, and vivid language to give rich detail to the experience it promises to provide.

The 90-day follow-up program adds an element of continued growth, while alumni testimonials serve as real-world success stories.

By framing the workshop as a transformative experience, the deck engages and entices potential attendees, showcasing the power of storytelling in action.

Barbie recruitment pitch deck

Barbie's recruitment deck immerses candidates into Barbie's vibrant world. With playful greetings and whimsical descriptions, it sets a creative tone.

The deck focuses on Barbie’s story as a human being (doll in her case), her values, and her experience, instead of focusing on the recruiting company.

The deck lists attributes and responsibilities that align with Barbie's ethos, such as "spreading positivity" and "rocking a pink wardrobe."

Nokia brand guidelines

Nokia's brand guidelines deck uses visual storytelling to effectively communicate the essence of the brand. It lets the visuals tell the story since they speak louder than words.

The deck begins by anchoring the audience in Nokia's mission and values, creating a narrative foundation.

It then unfolds the brand's visual identity, from color schemes to typography, weaving a cohesive story of what Nokia represents.

By providing clear dos and don'ts, Nokia ensures that its brand story remains consistent and impactful across all touchpoints.

This storytelling approach not only educates but also engages, making it easier for stakeholders to internalize and adhere to the guidelines.

nSure one-pager

nSure's one-pager effectively uses visual data storytelling to convey the benefits of their AI fraud protection for digital gift card purchases.

Introducing the challenge of ambiguous transactions, nSure lets the numbers tell the story.

With impressive numbers like their AI solution’s 98% approval rate. They can afford to.

The deck's visuals, combined with endorsements from industry leaders like AXA, make a compelling narrative that instills confidence in nSure's expertise.

Healthy.io proposal

Healthy.io's proposal uses video storytelling with real practitioners who tell the story of their experiences using Healthy.io’s solution.

The video testimonial from a practice nurse adds a personal touch, showing the positive impact on patient care. This brings the user's experience to the front and adds credibility to the proposal’s claims.

The proposal uses a transformation narrative to showcase Healthy.io’s remote kidney screening solution.

They highlight the challenges of legacy ACR testing against their modern home-based test using a smartphone app.

Principles of visual storytelling in business presentations

Storytelling allows you to simplify complex or abstract information and address any objections or resistance. As a result, listeners can better retain and remember the message, which improves the decision-making process.

Here are the main principles that can transform your narrative:

Authenticity

Authentic visuals resonate more with audiences. In an era where people are bombarded with staged and polished images, authentic, candid photos that reflect the reality of your work can make your message stand out and be memorable.

Your visuals should evoke a sensory experience. The goal is to cut through the noise and trigger a stronger emotional response.

For example, you can make the experience more immersive by adding interactive clickable elements, embedding videos, or images that highlight details or visual textures.

Scrollytelling can also play a crucial role here, allowing the story to unfold through interaction, as the audience scrolls through the narrative, engaging them in a multi-sensory journey.

You can see the difference that interactivity makes below. Which presentation would you rather read?

story presentation ppt example

The stories told by your images must be relevant to your audience. Personalized visual storytelling, supported by data to understand what motivates your audience, can turn your story into an experience that resonates deeply.

Every story has characters that fit certain archetypes, such as the caregiver, the explorer, and the creator. Identifying with these archetypes helps your audience connect with the story on a deeper level, making your organization's mission more relatable and memorable.

Make your own storytelling presentation

We've curated an extensive collection of templates to help you achieve effective storytelling for whatever business presentation you need to make.

The business storytelling presentation templates below have been rigorously tested across various devices and refined with insights gleaned from real-world feedback.

They were designed with interactive storytelling at their core. They’ll serve you as handy visual storytelling aids to make your presentations engaging, memorable, and highly converting.

Grab a template!

Why the human brain loves storytelling presentations

According to neuroscientist Uri Hasson , storytelling fosters deep social interactions through brain-to-brain connections.

He found that when we hear stories, our brains mirror each other, helping us understand what the storyteller is feeling.

Called neurocoupling or mirroring, this process occurs across many areas of the brain, including the ones that are responsible for processing and understanding narratives.

So the human brain loves stories. But why?

The short answer is that ‌neural activity in the brain increases when we hear a captivating story. Our brains are made up of neurons, which are nerve cells that send messages throughout the body.

These neurons release neurotransmitters (brain chemicals) that transmit signals from nerve cells to target cells.

The most common neurotransmitters in the brain include:

When we hear a story, the neurons in our brain light up with activity. And according to neuroscientists, "neurons that fire together wire together."

This means that as we hear stories, the neurons in our brains are wiring together. As a result, we're more likely to remember the information we receive from a story.

Storytelling also triggers the release of dopamine ("the brain's form of candy") and oxytocin ("the love drug"). In other words, stories make us feel good.

Here's an infographic showing how storytelling affects the brain:

How storytelling affects the brain

This can influence buying behavior because it helps to create an emotional connection with potential customers or buyers.

Telling a story, instead of making a sales pitch , is less intimidating to an audience.

The company or product you're describing is easier to understand, seems less complex, and provides relevant information in a format that's easy to digest and remember.

As a result, the buyer can relate to the product or service and will eventually want to purchase it.

Joanne Camarce grows and strategizes B2B marketing and PR efforts @ codeless.io . She loves slaying outreach campaigns and connecting with brands like G2, Wordstream, Process Street, and others. When she's not wearing her marketing hat, you'll find Joanne admiring Japanese music and art or just being a dog mom.

story presentation ppt example

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10 Creative Storytelling Presentation Templates

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Adding a story to your presentation is an absolute must-have element if you wish to engage your audience or viewers and make your content memorable.

Humans have gathered around a fireplaces to listen storytelling for thousands of years, so following a story path in your presentation is a natural instinct.

Nobody likes bullet points and slides, people hunger for a beginning, an adventure and a great ending. These are the presentation elements which will make you a legend.

So how to present a story and make it fascinating? The below gallery includes some of our best Story and Storytelling related presentation templates for PowerPoint and Prezi. Replace the content with your own text and images and focus on what matters – your story:

1. Story Timeline Presentation Template

timeline for story presentation on movie film strip

Prezi Template for making a creative timeline or photo frames slideshow. A classic film tape/movie roll with a 3D background for presenting your images, videos or texts. Present about your company history, talk about a movie or a TV show or create a multimedia image gallery slideshow. Easily customize the template by duplicating the film tape and add as many placeholders as needed. Divide your timeline path into sections using the dotted line and zoom in to present the content. Present a story with a smooth flow and take your audience on journey through time.

2. Creative Stories Presentation Template

Good template for educational presentation, for presenting to kids or children in the classroom. Includes a PowerPoint version with animated stickman figures. A fun template with a simple paper sketch concept, I mean come on, we’ve all created stickman figures, and when they come alive, the it feels like a magic hollywood movie for the kids 

3. Digital Story Presentation Template

story presentation ppt example

3D Prezi Template with the concept of digital storytelling. A film strip flying out of a white Ipad and scattered white frames for your content. All visual elements are separated; move them around, remove graphics, change the background and create your own unique layout. Duplicate the 2 different kind of frames for your texts, images or videos. A good template for visual storytelling, presenting movie/film scripts, movie reviews, digital media, online videos, streaming content or media from the internet. A simple and universal template for presenting with lot of media content, create a slideshow of photos, or a gallery of videos.

4. Open Book Presentation Template

story presentation ppt example

Take your viewers on a story and fly through the letters and numbers on the 3D background. The slides in the template have a nice 3D transition effect and at first, it might look like the template zooms and spins an awful lot, but this example presentation only shows blanks slides, but your presentation will have more content to show, and thus you’re staying on each slide longer.

5. Comic Book Story Presentation Template

story presentation ppt example

Do you want to become a superhero? It’s possible with this creative comic book design Prezi presentation template. Tell a story to your audience, add beautiful images, use comic book effects and you’ll be remembered as a storytelling hero, guaranteed! Rethink your boring presentation you were going to present, by adding a character and a narrative. Your audience will be more captivated and everyone will remember your content. People are emotional creatures, and this template limits your ability to present slides with boring and large text blocks, so you have to become creative and rethink your story in a more visual way!

6. Adventure Book Presentation Template

story presentation ppt example

People love stories and adventures so give your audience something to remember by using this creative 3D presentation template featuring an open book on a desk and a city popping out of it. A magical and fantasy themed book presentation template with a city with skyscrapers and tall mountain tops popping out from a book. A perfect template for storytelling and making a presentation about education, book, innovation or science fiction. This is your adventure, go ahead and write the first chapter…

7. Project Storyboard Presentation Template

story presentation ppt example

Prezi presentation Template with a creative storytelling concept. A storyboard sketch on an A4 paper – present your business ideas or add a story to any other topic. Storyboards are commonly used to visualize movies or animations, in a sketched out sequence. Use this great concept to build your own presentation. Add images and illustrations inside the frames and short descriptions underneath.

8. Story of Time Presentation Template

story presentation ppt example

Prezi Template for creating a 3D circular photo slideshow or sharing image/videos. A classic black film/movie tape forming a round circular shape with a clock face (can be deleted) Present about your business or company history or roadmap, or create a gallery of memories. A good photo or video template for any kind of presentation with lots of pictures or videos in it. Present a story and take your audience on journey through time with is symbolized by the circle clock shape. Share memories or present photographs from an event – insert your images into the photo frames. A good template for photographers or videographers to present their work or portfolio. Insert your own photographs, or use video, text or symbols.

9. Writing a Story Presentation Template

story presentation ppt example

Prezi template with an abstract pencil concept. Letters flying out from a broken pencil. Illustrates creativity, learning or writing. When zooming in the background fades into a grey color to focus on the content. Move or delete the elements and create an interesting looking presentation. Present about creative writing, copywriting, literature, school, education.

10. Photo Box Presentation Template

story presentation ppt example

Prezi Template for creating a 3D photo slideshow, sharing images or videos. A classic black film tape forming a rectangular shape with multiple zoom levels. Present about your company history, talk about a movie or a TV show or create a media gallery. A good photo or video template for any kind of presentation with lots of pictures. Present a story and take your audience on journey through time. Share memories or present photographs from an event – insert your images into the photo frames. A good template for photographers or videographers to present their work or portfolio. Insert your own photographs, or use videos, text or symbols.

So what’s your story? Do you need to a create a presentation to wow your clients, boss or someone else?

Think about that… what is the message behind your presentation and what are you trying to say to your audience? This will determine the kind of story you need to present about.

If you’re looking for some more inspiration, be sure to check out Best 25 Creative presentation templates or browse our Pinterest Channel for more Prezi template ideas.

story presentation ppt example

Stand Out in Your Next Presentation

See our collection of 25 stunning presentation templates guaranteed to impress and make your ideas shine.

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Structure Your Presentation Like a Story

  • Nancy Duarte

story presentation ppt example

To win people over, create tension between the status quo and a better way.

After studying hundreds of speeches, I’ve found that the most effective presenters use the same techniques as great storytellers: By reminding people of the status quo and then revealing the path to a better way, they set up a conflict that needs to be resolved.

story presentation ppt example

  • ND Nancy Duarte is a best-selling author with thirty years of CEO-ing under her belt. She’s driven her firm, Duarte, Inc., to be the global leader behind some of the most influential messages and visuals in business and culture. Duarte, Inc., is the largest design firm in Silicon Valley, as well as one of the top woman-owned businesses in the area. Nancy has written six best-selling books, four have won awards, and her new book, DataStory: Explain Data and Inspire Action Through Story , is available now. Follow Duarte on Twitter: @nancyduarte or LinkedIn .

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15 Actionable Storytelling Tips for PowerPoint Presentations

  • PowerPoint Tutorials
  • Presentation Design
  • April 23, 2015

Great storytellers do two things very well. First (obviously), they tell stories.

Second, through their stories, they get people to act.

You might be thinking, “That’s great if you’re Steve Jobs and introducing the iPhone, but what do I do with all of my everyday dry and boring content? How do I turn that into a story, let alone a gripping one?

Well today I’m going to help you out with 15 insanely actionable storytelling tips and tricks to get you into the storytelling mindset, regardless of what type of material you’re working with.

If you are looking for ideas for how to start your presentation, see our guide here.

You might be thinking, “That’s great if you’re Steve Jobs and introducing the iPhone, but what do I do with all my everyday dry and boring content? How do I turn that into a story, let alone a gripping one?

Well today I’m going to help you out with 15 insanely actionable storytelling tips and tricks to get you into the storytelling mindset, regardless of what type of material you’re working with.

Once you have these story telling tips down, you can see  how to start a presentation here .

How to start a story?

Getting your story started is oftentimes the most difficult part of the storytelling process, especially when you are in a professional setting.

You might know what your story is about and the point you want to make during your presentation, but getting it started can feel weird or awkward.

Don’t overthink it, just dive in and get started.

And if you feel stuck, use one of the following lines to jump start your story (and then don’t look back).

“Before we get started, I want to tell you about…”

Great for a smooth start, kick off your story (and the presentation) with this phrase and then tie it into your presentation message.

“That reminds me of the time…”  

1. Find your characters and make them the focal point of your presentation

Tip #1 from "15 Storytelling Tips for Business Presentations

1. Break down your topic into the people (or characters) involved

Look at your material and simply ask yourself “who” until you have some people to work with.

99% of the time, someone’s actions, needs, vision, goal, etc., lies behind the point you are trying to make.

Very little happens in the world without people’s involvement. As such, this is one of the best storytelling techniques for business presentations.

For example:

  • Your company’s quarterly earnings = hard-working employees or loyal customers;
  • Your new product or service = a new demographic of consumers;
  • Your data points = the people who did something to create those data points;
  • Your school’s new program = the students benefiting from the new program or the representatives who fought to fund the program.

2. Pick a representative to follow

If you end up with a group of people from step #1 (for example, baby boomers getting ready to retire), try to narrow your group down to a representative individual you can talk more directly about.

Because if you’re talking about retirement products, it’s more interesting to hear about 62 year old John who is looking forward to driving his camper van across the country when he retires (cool)…

…rather than financially stable baby boomers getting close to retirement (yawn).

How this will improve your story

Stories need characters to move forward, and whereas objects and data points don’t have a story, the people behind those objects and data points do.

Simply re-orienting your presentation around the people involved in your topic (who they are, what they are doing, etc.), even if only briefly, will naturally create a story that your audience can begin to follow.

Seriously, the next time you watch a politician speak, see if they don’t break down their topic into individual people whose actions back up their point.

It’s a simple storytelling tip, but it’s one of the most impactful…especially for business presentations which are often data and product focused, instead of people focused.

2. Set the stage by describing where you are now and where you want to be in the future

Tip #2 from "15 Storytelling Tips for Business Presentations"

1. Describe where things are now (the undesired now)

What is (or was) the “undesirable now” about your topic that drove the first action?

Set the stage for your knight in shining armor.

  • Are credit card companies preying on college graduates by extending them credit and encouraging them to spend it, even if they don’t have any income?
  • Are employees given limited and risky options to build their nest eggs to get to retirement?
  • Is it common that people who spent all day on their feet develop blisters between their toes…regardless of what kind of shoes they wear?

Tip:  Make sure your undesired state counts and is something people care about, otherwise you will lose your audience.

Your goal here is to get your audience invested in your topic.

As a bonus, highlight how you might feel about it. How painful would it be to walk with blisters between your toes?

2. Describe where things want to be (the desired future)

Now that your audience is on board about the situation, what are you going to do about it?

Now is your chance to paint the picture of the desired future that we all want to be a part of.

  • College graduates are extended credit based on their actual earnings to avoid long-term financial disaster.
  • Employees are given multiple options to safely build their nest eggs for retirement.
  • People who spend all day on their feet can wear microfiber toe socks that eliminate 99% of all toe blisters.

Paint a picture of what the future would look like where everyone’s needs are met. Describe it in vivid detail.

Again as a bonus, describe how someone might feel about it. Does a college graduate who has avoided a mountain of credit card debt feel ‘just okay,’ or are they ‘pumped up about life’ and exited for the future?

It’s the change and/or transformation that happens within your story that is going to capture your audience’s attention. Typically the change or transformation in your story is based around unmet needs, wants and desires (something that is not as it should be) that then brings forth some kind of action or sequence of events that result in meeting those needs (potentially your product or service).

If you find that your topic doesn’t have a change or transformation associated with it, moving from an undesired state to a desired state, rethink the angle of your presentation topic to come up with something that does.

To learn more about this specific storytelling technique and see how effective it is, see Nancy Duarte’s TED Talk,  the secret structure of great talks  or read a  free multimedia version of her popular book “Resonate ” online.

3. Describe what needs to be overcome and highlight why this will be difficult

Tip #3 from "15 Storytelling Tips for Business Presentations"

1. Brainstorm two or three obstacles or challenges that are in the way

What is it about your presentation topic that is difficult to overcome or why can’t the characters in your story (see Tip #1) have what they want (see Tip #2)?

If there is nothing standing in the way then you don’t have much to talk about.

Common challenges include time, money, connections, proof, education, a competitor, a market, a county, natural disasters, the economy, etc.

2. Narrow down the obstacles to focus on your situation

With a few obstacles in mind, think about how they are unique to your situation or maybe particularly hard to overcome in this specific scenario.

Narrowing down your challenges to the specifics helps to create intrigue and curiosity about your topic, especially if your audience feels that they are already familiar with the broader obstacles in question.

Instead of writing you off, your audience will be interested to know how these obstacles impact your own unique situation, and how you will try to overcome them.

Stories are rooted in conflict and tension, and it’s the process of encountering obstacles and then overcoming them that propels a story forward.

Without any obstacles to overcome (and therefore, conflict and tension), you don’t have the basic foundation of a story.

People want to know what you are up against and what you are going to do about it. This is why including the specific challenges you are facing is such a great storytelling technique for drawing your audience into your topic.

4. Emotionally invest your audience in the struggle (define failure or the status quo)

Tip #4 from "15 Storytelling Tips for Business Presentations"

1. Think about what failure means in your presentation

What happens if nothing works out and you fail at your endeavor? What are the short-term and long-term consequences of failure?

Or what would happen if we stayed with the status quo?

Put another way, think about what you are trying to help people avoid or solve with your presentation and why it should matter  to your audience .

2. Describe that failure in human terms that your audience can relate to

Set the stakes by describing what failure looks like in human terms that your audience can relate to.

For example: If your presentation is about saving for retirement and you are trying to push young people to start planning, paint the picture of what retirement looks like when you are short on cash and forced to continue working?

Bonus Step: Focus on the emotional aspects of the failure

How does your character feel (or should your audience feel) emotionally about that possibility of failure?

What does the stress or regret feel like for having not started planning for retirement earlier?

How painful could it be if it negatively impacted your children, forcing them to take care of you financially when you got older?

Setting the stakes of what’s involved lets your audience know whether they should pay attention to your presentation or get their cellphones out and check email.

If nothing is at stake within your presentation, then you will have a difficult time getting your audience to care and invest themselves in what you are saying.

5. Emotionally invest your audience in the outcome (define what success looks like)

Tip #5 from "15 Storytelling Tips for Business Presentations"

1. Think about what success means in your presentation

What happens if everything works out, the obstacles are overcome, and everyone runs off together into the sunset?

Think of what you are trying to accomplish with your presentation and why it matters  to your audience .

2. Describe that success in human terms that your audience can relate to

Drill down the success you are working towards into human terms, based on your audience’s own goals.

If your presentation is about saving for retirement and you are trying to push them to start planning, describe what retirement looks like (in detail) with all the money you need already saved up and sustaining your lifestyle.

What does it look like to have a well-planned retirement?

Bonus Step: Focus on the emotional aspects of the success

How does your character feel (or should your audience feel) emotionally about that possibility of success?

What does it feel like once the goal is accomplished?

For retirement, how relaxed and thankful would you feel, knowing that you planned ahead and didn’t need to worry about your future?

Or your children’s future?

Emotionally engaging your audience in the success of your story will encourage them to stay tuned and inspire them to take action.

Think of it from your own perspective. If there is no pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, why even bother heading off in that direction in the first place?

People need a reason to take action, which is why investing them in the success of your topic early on is such a great storytelling tip.

6. Challenge your audience’s assumptions by adding a twist

Tip #6 from "15 Storytelling Tips for Business Presentations"

1. List out the obstacles of your presentation

Go back and find all of the obstacles or challenges that you are overcoming within your presentation (see Tip #3).

2. Find an ‘obstacle within an obstacle’ or a chain reaction of obstacles

Looking at your list of obstacles, ask yourself if there is an ‘obstacle within an obstacle’ or a potential hidden twist to one of the obstacles that could jeopardize the entire outcome.

The twist might not have actually happened, but could have been problematic had it not been avoided.

Maybe you’ve convinced 3 members of the 4 member board of the viability of your project (which is already tough), but you need unanimity… and it turns out that the fourth member is your ex-wife’s father.

3. Add the twist partway through your presentation to create uncertainty

Add your twist partway through your presentation to lead your audience to doubt the outcome of your story.

If you are trying to add tension to your presentation, the last thing you want is everyone to know exactly where you are going and feel that they already know the outcome.

Gripping stories have twists and turns that not only raise the stakes of what’s involved, but they challenge the natural assumptions of the audience and make them reevaluate the potential outcome.

You can see this storytelling technique in action in just about any movie…you think you know exactly how the story will play out, but then a new element is introduced that throws you for a loop.

Adding an ‘obstacle within an obstacle’ or a twist, reengages the audience by creating curiosity and a loop with an unknown ending

7. Onboard your audience with an interesting metaphor THEY can relate to

Tip #8 from "15 Storytelling Tips for Business Presentations"

1. Find a hard to relate concept or “thing” in your presentation

Think of what you have trouble explaining in your story.

Maybe you feel that it requires “too much” explanation or that it seems a bit dry or hard to grasp.

2. Relate that “thing” to something that your audience is already familiar with

Think of what you can relate that “thing” to that your audience might already intimately familiar with?

Is your new product or service the “McDonalds of phone covers”?

Or was your ex-spokesman the “Tiger Woods of water polo”?

Howard Schultz, the CEO of Starbucks didn’t just talk about the trials and tribulations of the company (a long-winded story) at an investor meeting…

Instead, he related the company’s struggle to the journey of a spawning salmon that has to constantly fight its way upstream.

He even went one step further and pulled out a frozen salmon from an icebox onstage to create the extra visual impact.

See Bruna Martinuzzi’s short YouTube clip on  Leadership and Presentation Skills Training  to learn more about this storytelling technique.

Warning:  Choose your metaphor wisely as you will inherit all of the negative baggage of the metaphor that you use.

Metaphors are key to anchoring your story in the audience’s mind and can help you quickly summarize long-winded and hard to explain concepts in just a few sentences.

Applying this storytelling tip to your presentations will help keep your story relatable and memorable.

8. Show your audience exactly what you are talking about

Tip #9 from "15 Storytelling Tips for Business Presentations"

1. Find the critical detail(s) about your presentation

Look at your presentation and find the one or two critical details that you want to get across.

These are the points that you want the audience to remember if they only remember one or two things at all.

2. Show your audience exactly what it looks like

Use either a visual image, a video, or better yet, a physical object to show your audience exactly what you are talking about.

Example #1:  If your product is so skinny it can fit into a manila envelope… grab an envelope and slip your product into it.

Boom, point taken.

Example #2:  If your point that the United States debt of over $15 trillion, when placed onto pallets of $100 bills, is taller than the statue of liberty, show your audience an infographic.

To actually see what this looks like, see  a visualization of United States debt .

Seeing is believing, which is why visual imagery plays two vital roles in your presentation:

First, visuals can clearly describe or show exactly what you are talking about…often times better than words.

Second, assuming your imagery is on point, visuals can create an emotional reaction in your audience and get them to really ‘get’ what you are talking about.

Imaging the audience thinking:  “Wow, I can’t believe that product can fit inside a manila envelope, how cool is that!”

9. Highlight the important by cutting out the unimportant

#Tip 10 from "15 Storytelling Tips for Business Presentations"

1. Look through your presentation and highlight your most important details and points

Find the meaningful details that help to advance your story (the ones without which your story wouldn’t make any sense).

These are the details you want to keep and highlight throughout your presentation.

2. Evaluate the other details in your story and remove the unnecessary ones

With your critical details in hand, look at the other points you raise and see if you need them at all.

Do they help your audience retain your message or help to highlight your point?

If not, cut them.

Have you ever had someone over-explain something and you immediately started losing interest?

That’s exactly what you want to avoid.

Spend time on the necessary details that prove your point or make your case, and avoid everything else.

Vivid and compelling details (see Tip #14) are critical to the success of your presentation, but too many details (or irrelevant details) will overwhelm and confuse your audience.

You will always have more details and information to share with audience than you will ever have time to speak about…especially if you have been working on something for years (which is what often makes this tip so hard to implement).

10. Use sound effects to anchor important details in your presentation

#Tip 11 from "15 Storytelling Tips for Business Presentations"

1. Think of what might have a distinct noise associated with it in your presentation

Look at the details of your story and find one or two items that have a sound associated with it (or a sound you could make up).

2. During the delivery of your presentation, make or play that sound

When delivering your presentation, either make the sound of that object yourself, or play a recording of it to anchor it in your audience’s mind.

Maybe you’re talking about how we’ve come so far from the time of the old dial-up modem, you know, the one that used to go “ca-chink-shhhhhhhhhh”…

Or maybe you’re talking about cracked cell phone screens and you highlight the sound of your $500 cell phone kissing concrete for the first (and likely the last) time (crkkkkkkkk)… whoops!

Story Telling Tip Warning About Sound Effects

  • Don’t go overboard here. If you have a lot of sounds you could use, focus only on the important ones (see Tip #10) that would help add color to your story.
  • If you are playing an audio track (i.e.  not maki ng the noise yourself) make sure you have everything set up properly before the presentation. The last thing you want to do is get derailed by technology problems.

Adding sound to the details in your presentation will help anchor those details in your audience’s mind.

You can draw them into your presentation, either with a sound that they are extremely familiar with or one they are not familiar with (leading to curiosity).

Even if your noise or sound effect is way off, it can add a bit of humor to your presentation and create some relief!

11. Use silence to create emphasis and draw your audience into your story

#Tip 12 from "15 Storytelling Tips for Business Presentations"

1. Find a part of your story that you want to emphasize

This could be an important point or detail that you want to have sink in, a turning point in your presentation, or a self-reflecting question.

2. Pause in order to force reflection

During your presentation when you get to that important detail or point, pause for five or six seconds (it will feel like an eternity), and then continue.

Did you know that there are now more English speakers in China, than in the entire United States? [Pause…]

Using silence in a presentation is a powerful storytelling technique that creates anticipation and forces your audience to rethink what you just said.

It forces the audience to momentarily “fill the gaps” in their minds and creates a potentially crucial time for reflection.

It also helps you to pace out your story (see Tip #13) and create more breathing room for both you and your audience.

Ultimately, a story that draws the audience in and causes them to actively process what you are saying is a successful story.

12. Create a warm fuzzy feeling by sharing a personal or vulnerable experience

#Tip 13 from "15 Storytelling Tips for Business Presentations"

1. Think of your own personal story to add to your point(s)

Think of some of the important points you want to make during your presentation.

With a few in hand, see if you can come up with a personal story, either one of your own or one of a friend or family member that you can use to illustrate your point.

2. Tell the personal story as it relates to your topic

During your presentation, insert your own personal experience BUT keep it short and on topic.

While a personal story can create a bond with your audience, a rambling, irrelevant story will take you off topic and derail your story.

A story about the new car model you’re launching can start with an old photograph you found of your grandfather leaning on the hood of his car and how much he cared about craftsmanship.

Bonus Step: Choose a personal story that shows vulnerability

The more your personal story shows yourself as vulnerable or flawed, the more rapport you will build with your audience by telling it.

Adding your own experiences to your presentation will help you in at least 2 ways:

First, it’s a story you are already familiar with and it will naturally come out in a story format (kudos!)

Second, it will help frame your story in personal terms with a real example, which in turn creates a bond between you and your audience that fosters trust.

Warning:  Your personal story might even be the one thing your audience takes away from your presentation, so choose wisely.

13. Pace out your story to allow your audience to breathe

#Tip 14 from "15 Storytelling Tips for Business Presentations"

1. Find the natural breaks in your presentation

Look at your presentation and mark out all the different places when it takes a step.

In other words, see if there are natural breaks where you can make a long pause (see Tip #11).

If you can’t find many, think about re-organizing your presentation so that there are more individual pieces that you can pause in between, pacing the story out.

2. Make clear notes of those breaks and force yourself to take them during your presentation

Write into your script (or burn it into your brain) the note to take a pause.

A few seconds can feel like an eternity when you are in the spotlight, but your audience won’t feel that way (guaranteed!).

So pace yourself, it’s not a race.

Good stories have a pace or rhythm to them…everything doesn’t happen all at once, and you should never feel rushed.

Pacing out your story will give you and your audience a bit of brain space to process what was just said and ready yourself/themselves for the next part.

14. Turn your important data points into memory glue

story presentation ppt example

1. Collect the important numbers for your presentation

Find the key driving data points in your presentation, whether the numbers are big, small or medium-sized.

2. Turn your data into something interesting and memorable

With your important data points in hand, think of how you can relate those numbers to something visually impactful in human terms that backs up your message.

Let’s say your data point is that 25 to 30 million Christmas trees are sold every year during the holidays, you could create different visual images depending on your point.

If your point is “that’s a lot”, you could say that if you took all of the Christmas trees sold in a single year, and lined them up tip to stump, they would circle the entire globe (it’s true, I did the math)!

If your point is, “that’s NOT a lot”, you could relate the trees to grains of sand, and say that all of the Christmas trees sold in a single year would only fill up 25 to 30 coffee cups.

Either way, whereas 25 million trees is hard to comprehend, envisioning a line of trees circling the globe, or 25 coffee cups of sand, is a lot easier.

Adding visual cues about your important numbers will help anchor those details in your audience’s minds and give them salient points they can easily recall after your presentation is over.

The more you can relate your data to common visual elements, the easier your data points will be to remember.

The easier your data points are to remember, the more likely someone will be able to remember your main points days, weeks or months after the presentation.

15. End your story with a bang…and then shut up

#Tip 15 from "15 Storytelling Tips for Business Presentations"

1. Think about your core message and what you want someone to say about your story

What key point should your audience walk away with knowing or feeling after sitting through your presentation?

2. Make your final statement and make it memorable

Take your key point and make it memorable.

If you are struggling, see if one of the following mechanisms makes sense for your last statement or slide:

  • A call to action: “Join the movement”
  • A question: “So the question is, can we really afford the status quo?”
  • A quote: “And as Quincy Jones once said, ‘a big laugh is a really loud noise from the soul saying, ain’t that the truth.’”
  • A soundbite: “Yes we can”

For more ideas on ending your presentation, see our guide here .

3. Practice how you’re going to wrap up your presentation

Take the time before your presentation to practice what your last 3-4 sentences will be (yes, say it out loud).

This is will be  your last chance  during your presentation to make an impact and get your audience to take action and/or care…so you want to make sure the ending is as impactful as possible.

If you can clearly envision how you’re going to end your talk with a bang, and if you have practiced, you’ll get it right.

4. During the presentation, say your conclusion and then shut up, get off stage, or open up for questions

And that’s it!

No last rambling comments. No off the cuff stories or tangents. No nothing.

Say your last bit and be done with it.

With a clear-cut and well thought-out ending, your audience will sit up and take notice as your presentation comes to an end, and they’ll know exactly what you want them to do.

This is a particularly good storytelling technique for business presentations as it puts you light-years ahead of other presenters who unconsciously ramble on and on, as if they are afraid to end their presentation.

Ending with a bang additionally highlights how well organized and knowledgeable about your material you are.

How to tell a story?

Now that you have these storytelling tips down, you might be wondering how to bring it all together.

You may be sitting there with a pile of data and a number of different story angles to work with, but now you are wondering how you are going to bring it all together.

Well, in the same way that your presentation needs an outline, so does your story you tell.

According to Christopher Booker, author of  The Seven Basic Plots: Why We Tell Stories , all stories follow one of seven basic plot lines like the Quest, the Rebirth, the Rags to Riches story , etc.… plot structures that we are all familiar with.

By organizing your storytelling around a well-known plot like this, you’ll ensure that your story is easily recognizable and easy for your audience to follow along with (increasing the success and impact of the story you tell).

At the end of the day you can tell your story anyway you like, but following a standard plot structure will dramatically improve the effectiveness of your story when incorporating the storytelling tips mentioned above.

Now it’s up to you!

Those are 15 storytelling tips and tricks you can use to take your everyday material and begin crafting a story.

Some are simple, others take some time to figure out. But if you use even just one of them in your business presentation, you’ll be  one step ahead of 90% of presenters out there !

What’s Next?

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About The Author

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This Post Has 6 Comments

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A valuable list that every presenter should refer to before they step in front of an audience.

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Thanks Ian!

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Fantastic information. Thanks for sharing so freely. I’m a newbie at this and can hardly wait to apply what I have learned before I forget it.

Thanks Charlotte! Let us know how you do and if you learn any other new tips along the way! Cheers, Camille

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Lots of novel and useful tips here, so thanks for sharing. I especially like the advice about being vulnerable – but to date I’ve found that too hard to do! It’s interesting that you suggested using sound effects, too. I gave that same advice ( here ), especially for webinars, because novelty draws people in (and sticks in their minds so well).

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Being a good storyteller is extremely difficult, but I just love it when speakers know how to choose the right words and run a smooth but interesting story. I think that you should use all of these techniques that you describe selectively considering the audience and the effect that you want to have. I prefer to focus on the visual component – presentation and interesting eye-catching visual techniques. But at the same time, I have weak speaking skills (worse than I would like to have to make great presentations). Here is a good list of resources that I use to develop my speaking skills: https://www.thoughtleadershiplab.com/Resources I think this list will be useful. There are some examples of how to use the techniques that you describe.

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The Science of Persuasive Storytelling in PowerPoint

Table of contents, what is storytelling in powerpoint.

Let’s start at the beginning. The purpose of your slide deck is to persuade your audience and lead them to a conclusion. In order to do this, you need to grab and maintain your audience’s attention.

And the best way to hold your audience’s attention is to tell a story.

It’s not that surprising. Storytelling is as old as humanity. You see the story form in books, plays, films, advertising, religion, politics, and more. Stories have a unique and powerful ability to absorb attention.

Storytelling in PowerPoint is the process of translating your presentation’s argument into a compelling narrative.

Management consultants understand the power of storytelling in PowerPoint. And the ability to craft a storyline in PowerPoint is a fundamental skill of any new consultant.

Your storyline should follow an SCR structure

All almost every story follows the same narrative structure. It looks something like this:

  • The scene is set and the characters are introduced (situation)
  • Something goes wrong (complication)
  • They fix the problem and live happily ever after (resolution)

When storytelling in PowerPoint, you should use the same structure. But in the context of your slide deck, your storyline will look something like:

  • This thing is important (situation)
  • There is a problem with this thing (complication)
  • Therefore, we need to respond — and here is how (resolution)

In the next few sections, we’ll discuss how to craft this Situation, Complication, Resolution story in PowerPoint.

The three types of SCR storylines

Although the SCR structure is universal and should be applied to every slide deck, you can position the same SCR story in different ways.

As the author of the presentation, it’s important that you understand your audience and choose the most appropriate way to position the story.

Let’s look at three SCR stories that lead to the same conclusion:

  • We need to develop new capabilities to meet stakeholder demands
  • We are hampered by a lack of funding for capability building
  • We must develop a business case for the required funding for new capabilities

Positive (i.e. Springboard)

  • We could be the standard setters for service delivery in the industry
  • To get there we need to develop some critical capabilities
  • We must invest heavily in capability development

Negative (i.e. Burning Platform)

  • We are failing to meet the needs of the business and stakeholders
  • This is because we don’t have the capabilities we need
  • We must obtain funding to invest heavily in capability development

Questions to ask yourself as you write your storyline

Choosing the right positioning for your SCR storyline is difficult. It really depends on your audience, the context surrounding the presentation, and the objective you’re trying to achieve.

To help find the best positioning for your storyline, you should always ask yourself a few key questions. These include (but are not limited to) questions like:

  • Who is the audience?
  • What do they already know?
  • What do we want them to leave the room believing?
  • What is their current opinion or perspective?
  • What are their triggers and/or sensitivities?
  • Have we demonstrated what’s in it for them?

After you’ve answered questions like these, you should have a better idea of whether a neutral, springboard or burning platform storyline is most appropriate for your slide deck.

story presentation ppt example

Download 120+ strategy consulting presentations for free

Looking for slide inspiration? Download 120+ consulting slide decks from top strategy consulting firms, such as McKinsey, BCG and Bain!

How to write a PowerPoint storyline

The dot-dash storyline.

Writing a storyline for your presentation doesn’t happen in PowerPoint. In fact, you don’t open up PowerPoint until you’re completely satisfied with your storyline.

Instead of jumping into PowerPoint, you start by writing out your storyline in a text document using the dot-dash structure.

The dot-dash storyline clearly articulates every step of your slide deck’s argument:

  • The “dot” refers to the top-level insights that make up your argument
  • The “dash” refers to the data and analysis that support your insight

The storyline is written in a text document for two reasons:

  • It’s easier to identify faulty or missing logic when your storyline is written out on a single page, as opposed to across multiple slides
  • It ensures that you have the data to support each part of your argument and storyline

Here’s an example of a dot-dash storyline that we wrote as part of our Complete Guide Building to Strategy Slide Decks :

Example: Dot-Dash Storyline Australia Post is experiencing significant financial loss due to rising costs 2015-22 revenue growth was 5% p.a. and cost growth was 9% p.a. Annual profit/loss fell from +$10bn in 2015 to -$13bn in 2022 Management responded by addressing the main drivers of cost growth Employee and operational expenses made up 78% of 2015-22 cost growth Reductions in workforce size have been significant but exhausted Total workforce size reduced from 26k to 22k between 2019-22 Mail handled per FTE per year grew from 265k to 325k between 2019-22 According to employment agreements, maximum mail handled per FTE per year is set to 330k Productivity improvements reduced operations costs below industry benchmarks Processing cost per mail piece fell from $0.70 to $0.63 between 2019-22 Delivery cost per mail piece fell from $0.34 to $0.29 between 2019-22 Cost-side measures do not fully address the profitability gap, revenue opportunities must be considered Workforce and operations costs savings reduce 2030 forecast losses from -$32bn to-$16bn Revenues trailed forecast due to mail volume declines and shifting product mix 2022 revenue $106bn compared to forecast of $127bn 63% of the revenue difference was due to volume decline and product mix We identified 4 revenue-side opportunities to close the profitability gap by 2030 Increase prices on Direct Marketing and Advertising products Improve average net revenue per unit by optimizing product bundles Increase volume by improving proposition for Packages product Diversify into tangential products and services

Importantly, this storyline follows the Situation, Complication, Resolution structure that we discussed earlier. And it has clear supporting evidence for every claim.

Storytelling in PowerPoint

Once you’re satisfied with your dot-dash storyline as text, you can start moving it into PowerPoint.

There are two concepts that you need to grasp to master storytelling in PowerPoint:

  • Logic across the slides (horizontal flow): As you flip through your slides and read the slide lead-ins/headers, your presentation should communicate your overall storyline. These are your “dots” in the dot-dash storyline.
  • Logic within the slides (vertical flow): As you read an individual slide, the claim in the lead-in/header should by supported by data and analysis in the body below. These are the “dashes” in your dot-dash storyline.

Horizontal flow (logic across the slides)

One of the things you’ll notice about any strategy consulting slide is the lead-in. The lead-in is always the takeaway of the slide.

So instead of a slide lead-in like “Overview of costs”, the lead-in will be “Over the last 5 years, costs have grown 7% per year, which is double revenue growth”.

And when you line up all of the slide lead-ins from beginning to end, then together they should tell a complete story.

The best test of whether your storyline is fully communicated in the lead-ins is: can you fully grasp the story without reading any slide body?

If the answer is yes, then you’ve successfully articulated the slide storyline in your lead-ins (i.e. the “dots” in your dot-dash storyline).

Vertical flow (logic within the slides)

It is important that every statement or claim in your slide lead-in is fully supported by evidence.

Let’s take the example lead-in from above, which was “Over the last 5 years, costs have grown 7% per year, which is double revenue growth”.

The body of this slide should have two insights. First, it should show 5 year cost growth of ~7% per year. Second, it should show 5 year revenue growth of ~3.5% per year.

The cardinal rule is to show the minimum amount of data required to support your lead-in. Sometimes it can be tempting to show all of your hard work or technical skills. This is bad practice. Keep it minimal and simple.

Example of storytelling in PowerPoint

Enough with the theory, let’s look at a real-world example.

In the image below, you’ll see an Executive Summary written by BCG. We’ll review their Executive Summary, as it reflects the body of a slide deck and shows their story quite succinctly.

The Executive Summary is from the BCG report  Melbourne as a Cultural Destination.  You can download that report and 70 other strategy consulting presentations on this page .

BCG Executive Summary

There are two key aspects to this BCG storyline:

  • The bolded sentences reflect the full storyline and can be understood without the supporting evidence in the bullet points underneath.
  • The storyline clearly follows a situation, complication, resolution structure.

As mentioned, this storyline is reflected in the rest of the slide deck. And the presentation is a great example of storytelling in PowerPoint.

story presentation ppt example

Storytelling in presentations: Creating compelling content

  • Written by: Hannah Harper
  • Categories: Sales messaging , Visual communication
  • Comments: 1

story presentation ppt example

The Great Gatsby , To Kill a Mockingbird , Star Wars – epic stories that we go back to time and time again. Whether they’re in books, on TV, in films, or even on a podcast, we devour them and are still hungry for more. Compare that to the last presentation you saw. Did it have the classic logo slide? Or how about the one that shows you where all the offices are? Were there walls of text that you needed a telescope to read? Being such story-driven creatures, it’s hard to understand why we don’t imbibe storytelling in all aspects of our lives – work included – presentations included. It’s a mystery. But over the course of this article I hope to get to the bottom of it. We’ll delve into what makes stories so impactful for humans, and then look at how you can include storytelling in presentations to make them engaging, persuasive stories that leave your audiences clamouring to sign on the dotted line.

How to use this article

Much like a great story, we’ve got a great beginning, a compelling middle, and a killer ending, but we realise you might want to skip to the last page to find out who did it. Use the links below to navigate to your favourite section, or start at the very beginning – we’ve heard it’s a very good place to start.

The science of storytelling

Using storytelling to boost engagement and inclusion, storytelling: the persuasive tool, how storytelling makes things more memorable, how to include storytelling in presentations, impactful presentation openings, making your data memorable, telling a story with graphs and charts, crafting a compelling call-to-action.

Humans have been telling stories for a long time, but did you know stories engage us, they persuade us, and they make things more memorable? You probably did – I mean whether it’s Jane Eyre or Air Force One stories have power. But let’s pop the hood and figure out how this works in practice, and then see how we can apply it to our presentations.

Storytelling is a great way to stimulate engagement in your audiences and the reason for that comes down to a chemical in the brain called oxytocin. According to Paul Zak , whose lab is responsible for the discovery and much of the research to do with oxytocin, we produce the chemical when ‘we are trusted or shown a kindness’. It helps us to cooperate with others by heightening the empathy we feel.

Zak and his team did a few interesting experiments with oxytocin. In one they found that character-driven stories cause oxytocin to be produced, which in turn increased the subject’s willingness to help others. In another , they found that character-driven footage (that crucially had no narrative) did not generate the same chemical or emotional response in subjects.

Zak’s conclusion is that in order to generate this empathetic response in us, a story must grab our attention by developing tension. It’s that tension that audiences tap into and that leads them to empathise with the characters. And what do we know about stories that begin with tension? Well they’re like every great and engaging story out there – all that employ ‘the dramatic arc’ : the introduction is followed by a rise in tension, there’s a climax, and it all falls away to an ending.

It’s easier than you might think to apply the dramatic arc to your presentations. Instead of starting your presentation with a list of where your offices are, start by painting a picture of the challenges your audience faces. Immediately you introduce the tension that opens the door for your audience to get emotionally involved in your story. More on exactly how to do that later.

‘These aren’t the droids you’re looking for’, instead can I interest you in this great solution we’re offering at a fraction of the price? Wouldn’t it be great if Jedi mind tricks worked in the real world!? Sadly, the force is not with me. But there is a different tool I can use to persuade prospects instead: that’s right, a good story.

Storytelling has huge persuasive powers, as demonstrated by a couple of really interesting studies. Penn State College of Medicine found that medical students were much more sympathetic and open to helping dementia patients after taking part in an exercise whereby the patient told stories based on images they had been given. The University of Massachusetts Medical School monitored two sets of patients at risk of high blood pressure . One set was treated as per the normal method, the other set watched three videos that presented the stories of real patients dealing with high blood pressure. At the end of the study, it was the second group that demonstrated better blood pressure results.

Both of these examples show that our response to certain situations can be affected by storytelling. Stories persuade us out of indifference, they involve more of our brain and make us connect on a deeper level. According to the team over at Pressboard when we read something dry and fact-based the only part of our brain engaged is our language processing centres. But stories activate so many more parts in our brain – the sensory cortex, the motor cortex, the hippocampus – it’s all fair game when you’re telling a story.

We all want to be remembered, don’t we – whether that’s from an Oscar-winning performance many years from now, or just from a highly competitive pitch when the shortlist is being drawn up. But how do we make our content memorable? Well, it could be argued that you can be very memorable with an audacious pitch – just read about this situation our director Joby encountered – so maybe a better question is how can you make your content both memorable and relevant?

We’ve all done the trick where we have to remember a list of items, first by just trying to remember them in order, then by turning them into characters on a journey – think Sherlock and his memory palace. Stories help us remember things much better.

Nick Morgan, the author of Power Cues argues that all the information we class as important in the business world – things like facts and figures – this stuff just doesn’t stick in our minds at all. It’s actually stories that create ‘sticky’ memories ‘by attaching emotions to things that happen.’

So by telling stories in your presentations you better equip your audience to leave remembering what happened and, as we read earlier, more persuaded to buy your solution.

The trouble is that though the science may be true, few of us are blessed with the storytelling ability of J.R.R. Tolkien or Phoebe Waller-Bridge. So just how do we go about including more storytelling in presentations? Here are three practical examples where we can use the science we’ve just learned to make sure our presentations are more engaging and impactful, thanks to a healthy dose of narrative.

As we saw earlier, the attention span is a cruel mistress. It can so quickly jump from the presentation you’re watching to what you had for lunch, or to coming up with a pithy comeback from an argument you had seven years ago. This is why any presentation that starts by telling your audience who you’ve worked with, where your offices are, how many employees you have, and how your team is structured, just isn’t going to scratch their itch.

The team at Pressboard dug into this a little. They studied over 300 brand articles and measured them all against certain engagement criteria. They found that if the brand was brought up too early – before there was any semblance of a story in the article – the reader was far less engaged. Readers responded best when the brand was brought in as a character in the story a little later on.

So if you jump in too soon with all of that ‘who we are’ information, evidence suggests you’re going to turn off your audiences before you’ve even really got started. Instead, if we’re to follow Pressboard’s example we should begin with a story, and then introduce our brand or product as a character in that story after we’ve built up a little tension.

And how do we build up tension? Well there’s another character you can add into your story. Your audience. Stories generate empathy within us – we’re used to putting ourselves in the place of the main character – so you should craft your story so your audience can see themselves sleep-walking into huge losses, or stumbling into an unskilled workforce, or not noticing that change is on the horizon.

I think you’ll agree outlining the imminent doom your prospect is millimetres away from avoiding is more attention-grabbing that showing them an inspirational quote from your CEO.

It feels familiar doesn’t it – unsuspecting person inches from disaster, suddenly saved by chiselled superhero. And that’s exactly how we teach people to craft their presentation introductions. And just to get really meta, we’ve written a story about how it all works. Watch it unfold in the video below!

Telling stories throughout your presentation

Okay, so we’re off to a flying start with your story-rich presentation. What about the main body of content? You can still weave stories throughout these slides. Think of them like episodes in a series. The presentation (or series) might be about saving you from relying on paper records and switching to a digitised solution, and one slide (or episode) could be about the dangers of data protection and maintaining records safely and efficiently.

Just like you set up the challenges and hero over a few slides in your introduction, you can set up the shorter story in the same way, just using clicks and animation to talk about the ‘before’ and ‘after’.

Here’s a video of how the slide story from earlier might play out over a slide.

But often a roadblock for people is data – statistics, bar charts, line graphs, percentages – so many numbers that feel like they’re a key character in your story (often a character the higher-ups want you to include regardless). So how do you tell a story with data? First, there are some things you should know:

Purpose: The first question you should always ask yourself when including data in a presentation is ‘what is the point of it?’ Broadly it might fit into one of these categories: persuasion, dissuasion, reassurance, shock. And then you can take it a level deeper and add your story: we’ve got a number that will dissuade the audience from relying on paper records, let’s use it at the beginning of the slide where we talk about data breaches. This should stop you using numbers just for the sake of it. First build your story, then add your evidence.

But ‘with great power comes great responsibility’. Never was a truer phrase spoken about using data to persuade people. Think about this stat:

According to the World Health Organization there are 1.1 billion smokers worldwide.

Hmm… 1.1 billion is a big number. That must be bad, right? But hang on, there are nearly eight billion people in the world, so maybe it’s not so big after all.

Here’s some human nature: if you put 1.1 billion on a slide and make it really big – well that means it’s bad. If you put 1.1 billion on a slide quite small next to a far bigger number – say 8 billion – well that means it’s actually quite good.

Then with a liberal smattering of words like ‘only’, ‘almost’, ‘nearly’, ‘over’ – you’ve totally convinced your audience.

Well, not quite. It all seems a bit manipulative, and audiences don’t like feeling manipulated. To avoid this, you guessed it, you’ve got to start with your story and then use your stats as evidence that support the point you’re trying to make.

Let’s pull back our slide from earlier. We’re talking about how a digital solution helps you maintain records safely and efficiently. A good supporting stat might be the number of companies nationwide that have declared data breaches due to records being kept on paper. Let’s say the number is 64%. That’s nearly two thirds – let’s not just rely on a big number, let’s make this a visual part of our story too.

See how the stat supports the story – it’s much more compelling than just putting a big number on a slide – and it engages more parts of the brain.

But sometimes you just need to have a graph on your slide. A number cleverly woven into your story won’t do. What do you do in this scenario? First, you still make sure it’s there for a good purpose, and that it’s in the right place in the presentation according to the story arc.

Second, you tell a mini-story with your graph. Think of it like a short film: establishing shot, introduce the characters, increase tension, happy resolution. Easy. Grab a graph, and open up the animation ribbon – you’re gonna need it.

Establishing shot: Or context setting. For a film it’s things like location, time of day, season, for a graph it’s your axes and labels.

storytelling in presentations: charts

Introduce the characters: In your graph these are the data points. Animate in your bars. But wait.

Increase tension: If you animated both bars in at once your audience switches their processing power to the graph and ignore you as the presenter. You’ve given them a problem to solve – what does the data mean – and they’re busy trying to reach the correct conclusion. So increase tension. Bring in one data set first and call out a couple of points (the ones you want to direct audience attention towards for the big reveal later on). Pause.

storytelling in presentations: charts

Happy resolution: Bring in the second data set. The points you called out should have the most drastic difference.

storytelling in presentations: charts

If the story isn’t clear, go back to the purpose – try to summarise what the data is telling you in one sentence. Set the scene, create the tension, and then bring in your punchline. If there isn’t a clear punchline, then there probably isn’t a clear purpose for the graph in the first place. Be brutal, don’t bother your audience with it.

But what about your happy ever after? All good stories need great endings and presentations are no different. There are two parts to this: structure and call-to-action.

Novelists don’t often just start writing without a plan: J.K. Rowling came up with the main story arc for all seven Harry Potter books before she put pen to paper with the Philosopher’s Stone . In the same way we need to think about the structure of a presentation before we begin writing speaker notes and creating slides.

Presentations need to be structured around a value proposition – for help with that, head to our guide here – but why has that got anything to do with the structure? Having a tight structure means that your presentation will never fizzle out, and it gives you a great way to summarise your main points and get them locked down in the minds of your audience. There’s no flabby appendix full of the content that isn’t important enough to go earlier. It’s to-the-point, memorable, and leaves your audience eager for more.

Call-to-action

When a good story ends, it leaves a small hole in your heart. You were drawn into different worlds full of heroes and villains and good and evil. You’re left wanting more, but there is no hand reaching out to you from the dust cover to pull you inside. This is where books and presentations differ. In a presentation you finish by extending a hand and inviting your audience to take part in the next chapter of the story. If you tell a compelling-enough story, then why wouldn’t your prospect want to jump in?

A Journey to the Western Isles of Scotland is the most boring book I have ever read. Never have I had greater disinterest to visit a place than after reading that book. The ironic thing is that I have visited the Western Isles of Scotland, and I’d go back in a heartbeat, but the book – the story – did nothing to excite my wanderlust. My point being that even if the product is great, the way you sell it – the story – can make or break your sale. No-one will take you up on your call-to-action if your story is rubbish.

And finally, a note on the call-to-action itself. Keep it short. Keep it simple. Keep it snappy. Think of it as a sample chapter of the author’s upcoming novel – enough to whet your audiences’ appetite, but not so much that they forget the great story they’ve just finished reading.

Further reading

If you’re still hungry for insights on storytelling in presentations, check out some of the links below:

  • If you’re a fan of books and want to read about the inspiration you can get from flicking through a picture book, have a read of this article .
  • If you have your story and you need help turning it into a compelling visual presentation, then check out this how-to guide .
  • The Pressboard team did a half-hour webinar on ‘the science of storytelling’ , if you’re looking for something to dig into on your lunchbreak.
  • If you want more information on telling stories with data visualisation, we have the perfect how-to for you – check it out here .
  • If you’re looking for some extra help getting storytelling in presentations, take a look at our persuasive storytelling training on our Services page.

story presentation ppt example

Hannah Harper

Principal consultant, related articles, how to level-up your presentation visuals.

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Relationships are everywhere and if you can crack how to show relationships effectively on your slides then you’ll have your audience swiping right instead of left.

story presentation ppt example

How to improve your data visualization

In our information-rich world, we like to gorge ourselves on data. There are stats and facts for just about any topic you can imagine, just a Google search away. But are data on their own informative enough? When you’re presented with a wall of numbers, are you able to easily decipher the context, background and ramifications of all that information? Probably not – which is why data visualization is becoming increasingly important.

story presentation ppt example

How to write scripts for webinars, videos and eLearning

  • Sales messaging / Effective eLearning
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Webinars, videos and eLearning are excellent ways to push your content out to a wider audience. It’s really important, therefore, that the content we send out is engaging, and your script is going to do a lot of the heavy lifting. Here are five best practices to create compelling scripts.

story presentation ppt example

Thanks for explaining how storytelling can leave an audience to better remember a presentation and to be persuaded. My wife and I want to do something fun and are looking for ideas on how we can improve our business. We should go to a storytelling presentation sometime, and if we like it we should consider how to incorporate storytelling in our business meetings.

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story presentation ppt example

20 Great Examples of PowerPoint Presentation Design [+ Templates]

Carly Williams

Published: January 17, 2024

When it comes to PowerPoint presentation design, there's no shortage of avenues you can take.

PowerPoint presentation examples graphic with computer monitor, person holding a megaphone, and a plant to signify growth.

While all that choice — colors, formats, visuals, fonts — can feel liberating, it‘s important that you’re careful in your selection as not all design combinations add up to success.

→ Free Download: 10 PowerPoint Presentation Templates [Access Now]

In this blog post, I’m sharing some of my favorite PowerPoint tips and templates to help you nail your next presentation.

Table of Contents

What makes a good PowerPoint presentation?

Powerpoint design ideas, best powerpoint presentation slides, good examples of powerpoint presentation design.

In my opinion, a great PowerPoint presentation gets the point across succinctly while using a design that doesn't detract from it.

Here are some of the elements I like to keep in mind when I’m building my own.

1. Minimal Animations and Transitions

Believe it or not, animations and transitions can take away from your PowerPoint presentation. Why? Well, they distract from the content you worked so hard on.

A good PowerPoint presentation keeps the focus on your argument by keeping animations and transitions to a minimum. I suggest using them tastefully and sparingly to emphasize a point or bring attention to a certain part of an image.

2. Cohesive Color Palette

I like to refresh my memory on color theory when creating a new PowerPoint presentation.

A cohesive color palette uses complementary and analogous colors to draw the audience’s attention and help emphasize certain aspects at the right time.

story presentation ppt example

10 Free PowerPoint Templates

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It‘s impossible for me to tell you the specific design ideas you should go after in your next PowerPoint, because, well, I don’t know what the goal of your presentation is.

Luckily, new versions of PowerPoint actually suggest ideas for you based on the content you're presenting. This can help you keep up with the latest trends in presentation design .

PowerPoint is filled with interesting boilerplate designs you can start with. To find these suggestions, open PowerPoint and click the “Design” tab in your top navigation bar. Then, on the far right side, you'll see the following choices:

story presentation ppt example

Professional Style PowerPoint (Template)

These PowerPoint slides use more neutral colors and fonts to create a calm and elegant vibe. It also highlights quality images to communicate key points which is great in my opinion. Get it here .

story presentation ppt example

This simplistic presentation example employs several different colors and font weights, but instead of coming off as disconnected, the varied colors work with one another to create contrast and call out specific concepts.

What I like: The big, bold numbers help set the reader's expectations, as they clearly signify how far along the viewer is in the list of tips.

10. “Pixar's 22 Rules to Phenomenal Storytelling,” Gavin McMahon

This presentation by Gavin McMahon features color in all the right places. While each of the background images boasts a bright, spotlight-like design, all the characters are intentionally blacked out.

What I like: This helps keep the focus on the tips, while still incorporating visuals. Not to mention, it's still easy for me to identify each character without the details. (I found you on slide eight, Nemo.)

11. “Facebook Engagement and Activity Report,” We Are Social

Here's another great example of data visualization in the wild.

What I like: Rather than displaying numbers and statistics straight up, this presentation calls upon interesting, colorful graphs, and charts to present the information in a way that just makes sense.

12. “The GaryVee Content Model,” Gary Vaynerchuk

This wouldn‘t be a true Gary Vaynerchuk presentation if it wasn’t a little loud, am I right?

What I like: Aside from the fact that I love the eye-catching, bright yellow background, Vaynerchuk does a great job of incorporating screenshots on each slide to create a visual tutorial that coincides with the tips. He also does a great job including a visual table of contents that shows your progress as you go .

13. “20 Tweetable Quotes to Inspire Marketing & Design Creative Genius,” IMPACT Branding & Design

We‘ve all seen our fair share of quote-chronicling presentations but that isn’t to say they were all done well. Often the background images are poor quality, the text is too small, or there isn't enough contrast.

Well, this professional presentation from IMPACT Branding & Design suffers from none of said challenges.

What I like: The colorful filters over each background image create just enough contrast for the quotes to stand out.

14. “The Great State of Design,” Stacy Kvernmo

This presentation offers up a lot of information in a way that doesn't feel overwhelming.

What I like: The contrasting colors create visual interest and “pop,” and the comic images (slides 6 through 12) are used to make the information seem less buttoned-up and overwhelming.

15. “Clickbait: A Guide To Writing Un-Ignorable Headlines,” Ethos3

Not going to lie, it was the title that convinced me to click through to this presentation but the awesome design kept me there once I arrived.

What I like: This simple design adheres to a consistent color pattern and leverages bullet points and varied fonts to break up the text nicely.

16. “Digital Transformation in 50 Soundbites,” Julie Dodd

This design highlights a great alternative to the “text-over-image” display we've grown used to seeing.

What I like: By leveraging a split-screen approach to each presentation slide, Julie Dodd was able to serve up a clean, legible quote without sacrificing the power of a strong visual.

17. “Fix Your Really Bad PowerPoint,” Slide Comet

When you‘re creating a PowerPoint about how everyone’s PowerPoints stink, yours had better be terrific. The one above, based on the ebook by Seth Godin, keeps it simple without boring its audience.

What I like: Its clever combinations of fonts, together with consistent color across each slide, ensure you're neither overwhelmed nor unengaged.

18. “How Google Works,” Eric Schmidt

Simple, clever doodles tell the story of Google in a fun and creative way. This presentation reads almost like a storybook, making it easy to move from one slide to the next.

What I like: This uncluttered approach provides viewers with an easy-to-understand explanation of a complicated topic.

19. “What Really Differentiates the Best Content Marketers From The Rest,” Ross Simmonds

Let‘s be honest: These graphics are hard not to love. I especially appreciate the author’s cartoonified self-portrait that closes out the presentation. Well played, Ross Simmonds.

What I like: Rather than employing the same old stock photos, this unique design serves as a refreshing way to present information that's both valuable and fun.

20. “Be A Great Product Leader,” Adam Nash

This presentation by Adam Nash immediately draws attention by putting the company's logo first — a great move if your company is well known.

What I like: He uses popular images, such as ones of Megatron and Pinocchio, to drive his points home. In the same way, you can take advantage of popular images and media to keep your audience engaged.

PowerPoint Presentation Examples for the Best Slide Presentation

Mastering a PowerPoint presentation begins with the design itself.

Get inspired by my ideas above to create a presentation that engages your audience, builds upon your point, and helps you generate leads for your brand.

Editor's note: This post was originally published in March 2013 and has been updated for comprehensiveness. This article was written by a human, but our team uses AI in our editorial process. Check out our full disclosure to learn more about how we use AI.

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17 PowerPoint Presentation Examples That Show Style and Professionalism

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By Iveta Pavlova

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17 PowerPoint Presentation Examples That Show Style and Professionalism

There are way too many bad PowerPoint presentation examples that can bore you to death. Well, today’s post is not about them. We believe that it’s always important to show the good examples out there and follow their lead. We admit it, it was pretty hard to dig out the good PowerPoint presentation examples from the mass. We’ve added our opinion on each piece and why we believe it’s worthy of being included in this collection. Let’s begin!

You may be interested in  The Best Free PowerPoint Templates to Download in 2022

1. The Sketchnote Mini-Workshop by Mike Rohde

An eye-catchy PowerPoint presentation example whose content is fully hand-written. What we love about this design, is the high personalization level that is achieved via handwriting. It almost feels like the author is drawing and writing in front of the viewers’ eyes. A digital presentation that conveys a physical feeling.

2. 10 Ways to Spread The Love in The Office by Elodie A.

The following presentation is a real eye candy. We can’t help it, the cartoon style lives in our hearts. An incredibly appealing PowerPoint presentation that brings positive vibes and a good mood through vibrant cartoon illustrations. It gets bonus points for the usage of bullet points and little text.

3. The Great State of Design with CSS Grid Layout and Friends by Stacy Kvernmo

A presentation that tells a story is always a good example that everyone should follow. This PowerPoint presentation has a lot of slides that tell different mini-stories. The way they are depicted is really engaging – they almost look like a sequence of frames that make up a video. This technique really nails the viewers’ attention.

4. We live in a VUCA world by Little Dragon Films

A classy design of a PowerPoint presentation example – a dark theme and white font on top with just a single color accent – red. Such designs are really suitable for serious topics like this one. To soften the contrast between the black background and white font, the author has used a gradient on the background which gives the illusion of soft light in the middle of the design.

5. 2017 Marketing Predictions—Marketo by Marketo

A design that was made over a year ago but it’s still really trendy. In the following PowerPoint presentation example, we can see the combination of 3D shapes, beautiful hand-written fonts, negative space techniques, and more. The overall feeling is of futuristic design. Moreover, they used the color of 2018 – Ultra Violet for their color scheme. Maybe, they did predict the future after all.

6. 10 Ways Your Boss Kills Employee Motivation by Officevibe

Who doesn’t like to see a familiar face? We know your audience does! It’s proven that if you show a familiar face to your viewers, you nail their attention and boost their engagement level. This is the technique used in the following PowePoint presentation. Moreover, the inner slides of the presentation are also cartoons with big conceptual illustrations and little text. The formula for a really good presentation.

7. How to Successfully Run a Remote Team from Weekdone.com

We haven’t really seen many PowerPoint presentation examples with top-view illustrations. The following presentation really reminded us that when presenting to an audience, you should always think: How to make your design stand out from the rest? Well, this one really caught our eye. In addition, we love the bright colors, geometric shapes, and overall flat feeling, all of which are among the graphic design trends for 2022 .

8. SXSW 2018 – Top Trends by Matteo Sarzana

People love visuals and this is an undeniable fact. The whole PowerPoint presentation is built on high-quality photos, each including a little tagline in the middle. We love the consistency, we love the factor of surprise, and we love the high engagement level this presentation creates. Just make sure to back up such presentation type with a good speech!

9. How to study effectively? by sadraus

Semi-transparent overlays, geometric shapes, a video inside… Everything about this PowerPoint presentation screams “modern”. The grayscale coloring is accompanied by a fresh green color accent. The choice of images clearly suggests that the target audience is young people. The overall feeling that we get from this PowerPoint presentation – is youthful and modern.

10. Study: The Future of VR, AR, and Self-Driving Cars by LinkedIn

A presentation about the future should look futuristic, right? The following PowerPoint presentation example is proof that you should always connect the subject of your presentation to its design. Everything in this presentation speaks of futuristic: the choice of fonts, colors, effects, and even some elements look like holograms from the future.

11. 9 things I’ve learned about SaaS by Christoph Janz

A PowerPoint presentation example created in a consistent style by using a blue theme. Why did we include this presentation? We love the fact that the author has shown an alternation of text and visuals (from slides 7 to 22). This technique is proven to hold the attention of the viewer. Moreover, the way the graphics are presented (on a napkin) draws the interest even more.

12. How To Achieve Something Extraordinary In Life by Sultan Suleman Chaudhry

A PowerPoint presentation example that shows consistency and style by using a strict color scheme: orange, beige, and deep blue. Orange and blue are one of the most popular contrasting combinations widely used in all kinds of designs. If you are not sure what colors to go with, simply choose a tested color scheme.

13. New trends to look out for 2018 winter season by FemmeConnection

Geometric shapes and negative space techniques are among the  graphic design trends for 2018  which is why we see them often in PowerPoint presentation examples and other designs. In the following presentation, we can see a collection of women’s clothes presented in a very engaging way with the help of rounded geometric shapes, negative space technique, and the color pink.

14. Fear of Failure by Sultan Suleman Chaudhry

Speaking of the usage of geometric elements in the presentation’s design, let’s see another example. An elegant design decorated with circles, triangles, and more geometric details. What else we love about this presentation is that it only has one color accent – light yellow which looks classy and pleasant for the eye.

15. The Three Lies About Your Age by Sean Si

A great choice of fonts, beautiful semi-transparent geometric elements, and trendy futuristic colors. This is one of the PowerPoint presentation examples that we absolutely love. The story is engaging and the design is extremely appealing – a combination that keeps the viewers’ eyes on the screen from the beginning till the end.

16. Secrets to a Great Team by Elodie A.

Bright, fun, using lots of illustrations and cartoon characters – definitely our kind of PowerPoint presentation. Why do we love it so much? Well, cartoons are real ice-breakers between you and your audience. Moreover, cartoon characters are easier to relate to than a real human face. If you need to connect on a deeper level with your audience, this is your kind of presentation!

You’d probably like to learn  4 Invaluable Presentation Design Tips You Wish You Knew Earlier

17. How to Build a Dynamic Social Media Plan by Post Planner

A great presentation PowerPoint example with watercolor illustrations and backgrounds that look hand-drawn. We also see semi-transparent colorful overlays, high-quality conceptual photos, and great, useful content. What more would you want from a presentation, right?

We always love to hear your opinion about stuff. So, what do you think of these PowerPoint presentation examples? Do you think that you’ve created a presentation better than these? We’d love to see your own creations in the comments below if you want to share them with us.

You may also be interested to read these related articles:

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How to choose a story arc for your presentation.

Ann Kim Presentations

“Our startup could be profitable in three years. Our main obstacle is hiring, but I’ve got a plan to help us staff up in time.”

Let’s try that again: “We’ve got a big challenge ahead of us with hiring. Here’s some data to prove it. But I’ve got a plan to help us. And if we succeed, we could be profitable in three years.”

Or, how about this: “I’ve got a great plan to help us double our workforce, which is what we’ll have to do if we want to be profitable in three years. If we can’t hire up we may go out of business.”

There are so many ways to tell a story. In a business context, it’s just as important as in film or entertainment to think about the way you structure your story and select the right pieces of information for maximum impact. 

Ann Kim , Senior Portfolio Director at IDEO and instructor in our course Impactful Presentations , uses her decade long experience as a filmmaker, journalist, and designer (she served as the Chief Design Officer for the U.S. Surgeon General) to craft interviews, data, and observations into stories that inspire. In this Creative Confidence Podcast episode, she walks through the elements of a story, different story arcs, why and how to experiment with your story arcs, and shares examples from her work in the healthcare and entertainment worlds.

The elements of a story

The first thing Ann does when working on a project is to pull out the beats of her story, or rather the key elements she wants to convey. There are two approaches she uses: 1) Pour over all the data and “turn over every stone" or 2) Tap into your intuition, relax your mind, and ask yourself what the three to five things are that you remember most.

People tend to default to the turn-over-every-stone method, Ann says, but the best approach is a combination of the two. As you’re choosing your story beats, keep your audience in mind. What questions or presumptions are they coming with? How can you address those in your presentation? 

The main elements of a story are often context, conflict, climax, and closure. In the business world, context might mean research and data, conflict could be the challenge you’re facing, climax is the solution you’re recommending, and closure is the vision you have for the future.

“There's a ton of storytelling that's done collaboratively. And that's where it gets really fun.” Ann Kim

Asking “So what?” to surface impact

Before you begin pulling out story beats, ask yourself what impact you want to have. What do you want people to do or think after your presentation? 

An exercise you can use to clarify your impact is the “so what” test, one of the tools used in our Impactful Presentations course . Find a friend or colleague who is comfortable pushing back on you a bit. Give them a quick overview of your presentation and have them ask back, “So what?” Explain why you’re giving this presentation, and continue iterating your answer as they ask “So what?” a few more times. Continue until you get to an answer that embodies the impact you want to have on your audience and what they’ll get out of it. 

Ann likes using the so what test because it’s a way to put into words the stakes of your presentation. It forces you to articulate what you’re trying to convey to your audience and allows you to play around with different wording. “Oftentimes there’s too much to say and people feel compelled to stuff all the words into their story,” she says. How would you summarize the “so what?” of your presentation in just a few words?

Choosing a story arc your audience will connect with

There is no one right way to tell a story . But the way you choose to organize your information can be the deciding factor in getting your audience to take the action you desire ...or not. “The beats are the blocks of the story and the arc is how you pull those things together,” Ann explains. 

The arc is the choreography of your story—how it plays across time and in terms of emotion and how your audience is experiencing your story. “Creating empathy is a huge part of storytelling,” Ann affirms. As humans, we’re very attuned to story arcs. They can create anticipation and engagement, which leads to better retention and understanding. 

Going back to the elements of a story—context, conflict, climax, closure—organized in this order, they are a classic story arc called the 4 C’s. This arc works well if your presentation has a clear problem and solution.

The 4 C's: Context, Conflict, Climax, Closure

There are several classic story arcs that can be seen across hundreds of years of literature and storytelling. In our Impactful Presentations course , you’ll see more graphics and examples to bring these arcs to life.

Story Arcs

Lovesick is a documentary film Ann created about matchmaking for HIV+ singles in India. She used a classic linear story arc with a beginning, middle and end for the film. Chapterizing with title cards established context around the “rules of marriage.” She loved seeing the audience’s reactions to her film. When people in India watched it, the chapters with each marriage rule came across as relatable and humorous—putting into words unspoken rules that everyone knew about. In America, they were more educational, as people didn’t know as much about Indian culture. Keeping her varied audience in mind helped her decide on this story approach.

In a project for the Department of Mental Health for the State of Massachusetts, Ann’s team at IDEO created an illustrated video to help visitors to the site understand their purpose. The video shows what it’s like to be a parent trying to understand what help your child might need. It tells the story through the details of people’s lived experiences, using snippets of audio from real parents as the beats of the story. In this context, building empathy and emotion was critical to getting people to take the desired action—seeking medical help for a loved one.

Combining data and emotion to spark action

For the mental health video, Ann intentionally didn’t lead with lots of data points around wait times in hospitals or the number of children who suffer with mental illness, for example. A good story moves people to action, and data often fails to do this alone. 

“Part of what storytelling allows you to do is get to the why behind the data and provide what it means experientially for people,” Ann says. Data can help set context, but it’s important to show your audience what it means for them, for your end client or customer, and what the ramifications will be from the business side, too. Those takeaways are the beats of your story—not the numbers. 

If you’re presenting to a group of people who expect lots of data, as Ann is familiar with in her work in the healthcare industry, include it, but be selective. What kinds of stories and evidence will move people in the direction you want them to go? Acknowledge during your presentation that quantitative data is what might feel most like evidence to them. 

Experiment with your story to get it right

“You have to abandon the idea of your first draft being your last draft,” Ann warns. “It’s not about getting it perfectly right from the beginning. It’s about going through the motions of trying it.”

People often default to the linear timeline-style story arc—first this happened, then this, lastly that. Just recognize that bias, Ann says, and try out a few other ways of structuring your story before landing on one that feels good.

Ann Kim Experimenting with Story Arcs

Here are a few tips Ann has for experimenting with story arcs :

  • Jot down notes of all your potential story beats on sticky notes or index cards. Ann leans toward physical paper notes, but you can use slides in a deck as well. Try labeling each slide with what needs to be said and the takeaway, then add in details later. 
  • Don’t spend too much time making your first story prototype beautiful. It can be hard to change or critique a presentation you’ve already spent hours and hours making. 
  • Organize your story beats into groups to find the hierarchy—the main elements that other pieces will ladder up to. 
  • Name your story prototypes, ex. The Frankenstein or The Vision, to differentiate them.
  • Reorganize your story beats on index cards into several different arcs. Try them in an order that feels off. 
  • Try telling the story from your client or user’s perspective. What did they feel? 
  • Force yourself to share your story. You’ll get helpful feedback on how it’s coming across. You may also discover there are certain beats you don’t need.
  • Play with your story arc as you’re doing the work. Don’t wait until you’re completely done with a project to think about how to talk about your work. 

Often, a story is not one person’s to tell. “There's a ton of storytelling that's done collaboratively,” Ann says about her work at IDEO. “And that's where it gets really fun.”

If you’re working on a presentation with a group, Ann has a few ideas for ways to work together to find your story beats and the best arc for maximum impact:

  • For distributed teams, use a tool that you feel comfortable with that allows multiple users in at the same time. Figma, Mural, Miro and Google docs all came up as favorites for our podcast listeners. 
  • Plan for discussion as well as heads-down time to work individually.
  • Do an activity where each team member gets to choose seven story beats. Come together to share and see what you can learn from how each person interprets the story differently.
  • Assign team members to try out different story arcs with your agreed upon story beats. Present to each other and see what lands. 

Throughout the process of experimenting with your story, give yourself space to get it wrong a few times. “There’s this notion of people going solo into a corner, working it out and leaving the room with the story set,” Ann laments. “And that’s not the way it works.” Take the time to play around with your story now and you’ll have a much greater impact when it’s time to present.

Learn how to deliver presentations that spark a shift in beliefs, behaviors, and mindsets in our online course Impactful Presentations .

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What are success story slides.

Success story slides in PPT are brief presentations that highlight a project’s, initiative’s, or individual’s successes and good consequences. Typically, these slides comprise an introduction, issue statement, solution, and findings. They intend to give a clear story that highlights the problems encountered, inventive ways employed, and quantitative results.

What To Include In A Success Story Slide PPT Template?

When creating a success story slide in a PowerPoint template, it’s critical to highlight important parts that successfully portray the narrative’s successes and effects. Here are components to include in a success story PPT template:

  • Title:  Begin with a captivating and concise title that summarizes the success story.
  • Introduction:  Include the presenter’s name and any relevant contact details, such as email address or social media profiles.
  • Challenge:  Specify the initial issue or difficulty that the success story sought to solve. Explicitly state the challenges or problems that had to be overcome.
  • Objectives:  Describe the project’s or initiative’s particular aims and objectives. Make certain that these objectives are quantifiable and pertinent to the success narrative.
  • Strategy/Approach:  Describe the plan or method used to deal with the problem. Highlight any original or creative strategies employed to get over the challenges.
  • Implementation:  Describe the process used to implement the plan. The actions completed, resources used, and any partnerships or collaborations engaged all should be highlighted.
  • Results/Achievements:  Describe the success story’s results and accomplishments. Include both quantitative and qualitative statistics to demonstrate the project’s impact. Indicators like more revenue, higher customer happiness, cost savings, or any other pertinent data should be highlighted.

What Are The Uses Of Success Story PowerPoint Templates?

Success Story templates in PowerPoint can be used for a variety of applications in professional context. Here are some of the common uses:

  • Presenting achievements:  Success story PPT templates enable you to graphically present and organize your organization’s success, milestones, and success stories. These templates can be used to showcase important data, case studies, and good results to illustrate the efficacy of your products, services, or efforts.
  • Pitching to investors:  Success story PPT templates are used to provide a convincing narrative about your company’s development and success while seeking finance or investment. You can also display critical KPIs, customer testimonials, and examples of how your company has produced big outcomes to reassure possible investors.
  • Sales and marketing presentations:  Success story PPT templates can also be used to produce convincing sales and marketing presentations. You can offer real-world instances of how your goods or services addressed issues or added value to customers.
  • Employee motivation and training:  Success story PPT templates can be used to inspire others and build a healthy work culture by sharing success stories from individuals or teams. These templates can also be utilised in training sessions to illustrate best practises and success stories, which can serve as excellent learning experience for staff.

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SlideUpLift offers excellent PowerPoint templates for success story slides that will save you time while building one. Simply download the success story slide template in PowerPoint or Google Slides and make the necessary modifications. While on the job, when presenting to clients, the success story PowerPoint slide can help you engage the audience and set the stage for a successful presentation. However, it is critical to personalize and adapt it to your audience and circumstance.

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How to Storyboard your Presentation for the Best Results (Product Launch Case Study)

How to Storyboard your Presentation for the Best Results (Product Launch Case Study)

Anuj Malhotra

author-user

“Now at our studios we don’t write our stories, we DRAW them.” Walt Disney

Storyboards , one of the essential tools in making of animated movies, happens to be one of the most neglected practices in designing a PowerPoint presentation. The most common reason could be that many are not aware of this technique. If you have never done storyboarding on account of this reason, then you have landed at the right place. You’ll know why it’s absolutely necessary that you do it to get the best results from your presentation.

If you knew about it and still never followed it, we just hope you start doing it right away. Storyboarding is a must if you wish to save time, money, efforts and create a “deck that sells”.

What is Storyboarding and Why Should You Do It?

A storyboard is a written and graphic representation of your story and typically involves a series of sketches to pre-visualize how your story will unfold. In one word, it’s a blueprint.

This technique was developed by Walt Disney for his classic cartoon Mickey Mouse in the 1920s. The animators would first create detailed sketches of the characters and show the progression of the story. These sketches were tacked up to the bulletin and Walt Disney and his team would then review the entire flow of the story, move the sketches around and finalize the perfect storyline!

One problem here: Presenters aren’t animators who can design great sketches. They don’t have to be. Storyboarding can be simplified in case of designing a PowerPoint presentation. You don’t have to draw the kind of visual you want for your slide, you can simply write it down. Why do that even? Why add an extra step to the entire process? Here’s why storyboarding is essential to craft a successful pitch:

  • Storyboards help you to visualize the structure of your presentation- beginning, middle and end.
  • It gives you the opportunity and space to think-out your presentation, it's flow and content. Starting straight in PowerPoint murders that ability of the intellect.
  • It gives you creative ideas. The array of tools provided in PowerPoint will not set your creative juices flowing. A piece of paper will.
  • Storyboards act as your sketchpad where you can dump all the ideas and choose the best ones.
  • Storyboarding lets you focus on the idea and not the tool. (Click to Tweet This)
  • Storyboarding saves you a LOT of time. Rather than visualize all the information in your head, you can draw it out on paper, make quick changes and replicate the final idea quickly in PowerPoint.

To sum up, the basic rule of Storyboarding is to-

Start on paper, not in PowerPoint!

All successful presenters, including TED speakers, use this technique to craft their powerful stories and PowerPoint presentations. How do they do it? Here’s how:

7 Steps to Follow While Storyboarding a Presentation

For ease of understanding, in this article we are taking the example of a Product Launch deck (a hypothetical product) to be rolled out in front of the public and media. This has to be hard hitting and worthy of going viral. To ensure that you achieve the results, you need to brainstorm and storyboard. Here are the steps that you should follow for your million-dollar presentation:

Step 1: Answer the question- Why should the audience listen to you?

You have launched a new product in the market. Congratulations! But why should I care? What’s in it for me? Advertisers start here, presenters bury it in slide 32 of a 40-slide deck.

Unless you answer this question honestly, you’ll never be able to create a successful story. The “me, me, me” rambling will reduce your presentation to an uninspiring monologue. Look at how Steve Jobs pitches his products- each product and feature revolves around how it will revolutionize people’s lives.

You’ll never be able to infuse that magic in your presentations if you start straightaway in PowerPoint. If you dive into PowerPoint without any brainstorming, you robotically tend to follow “Click here to enter title” and so on. That’s why out of 3 million presentations given everyday (the number must have trebled or quadrupled by now), 99.9% are forgotten even before audience leaves the hall.

Ask the why - Why should the audience care? Since we are taking the example of product launch over here, the answer will be the same as the one that motivated you to launch the product in the first place. Is there a demand in the market that you intend to fulfill? Or a gap that you intend to bridge? That should be the main pitch of your deck. Jot down these points on a piece of paper or sticky notes or as you prefer to do it. This piece of information should guide the content and designing of the presentation, starting to finish.

Why should the audience listen to you?

Step 2- Prepare Rough Presentation Outline

This should be done on paper, not in PowerPoint. We prefer to use sticky notes for this as they can be easily moved around; you may use a paper, napkin or simply a marker and whiteboard to do it. The idea here is to give a rough structure to your presentation.

Jot down any outline ideas that come to your mind, we’ll refine them later. If the Title slide announcing the launch is the only idea that comes to you for the opening slide, write it down.

Here’s how your Product Launch outline will probably look initially:

Create a Rough Presentation Outline

Step 3- Remove the Weak Parts

The best part of doing all this on paper and not in PowerPoint is that it helps the presenter distance himself from his baby (presentation) and review the outline as a third person. This will ensure that the presenter separates the wheat from the chaff and keeps only the most relevant slides.

Here you have to ask yourself- Do I need an Agenda slide? Perhaps not if it’s just a 15-minute presentation. Does the audience care who the CEO of the brand is, who the product manager is and so on. I don’t think so. Do they need to know about the industry your product belongs to? That depends. And do you need a traditional thank you slide in the end? You are as well going to say it, why put these two words on the slide and waste time! Be a little strict with yourself and mercilessly chuck out the unwanted portions from the outline:

Remove weak parts of presentation

Step 4- Add Section Headers

Your presentation outlook looks good now. But you won’t obviously be listing out all problems the industry is facing on one slide as bullet points, right? Right? Or highlight all product benefits on a single slide? Remember the golden rule: 1 message per slide. That’s why you will be needing section headers. You need to let the audience know that you have concluded the problem analysis and are now going to speak on the solutions.

Section Headers help audience stay on the same page as the presenter

Step 5- Prepare Your Final Presentation Outline

Nothing is final. Even when your product launch deck is all polished and ready, you might feel or your boss might tell you to open with the third slide since that has the most hard-hitting fact.

But for your ease, you should finalize the outline before going into design. At this stage when you have the rough outline with section headers included, you step back and play your presentation in mind. Think yourself sitting in the audience. Would they be more interested to know the name of the new product in the market (say R.I.P Jeans) or would they be interested in knowing that they can now order customized distressed jeans! This is your call but keep in mind that you need to have a stellar opening to hook the audience and convince them to buy your product, service or idea. This is where the answer to step 1- why should the audience care, how will it benefit them- will help you in finalizing the outline.

Final Presentation Outline Can Depart from the Norm

Step 6- Storyboard the Presentation (Rough Sketches of Slides)

Now is the time to draw rough sketches of your slides. You don’t have to be a Michelangelo to do this. The sketch should be neat enough to be read easily by you and others with whom you wish to brainstorm. As we mentioned in the beginning, you do not have to draw a visual. You can however specify the type of visual you require; that’ll help you later find the perfect visual faster.

You can also decide the layout of your slide, colors, placement of visuals and text in storyboarding. Here’s how your sketches look at this step:

Storyboarding involves a series of sketches arranged in a sequence

Step 7- Convert sketches into polished slides

If you had started designing your slides straightaway in PowerPoint, you most probably would have designed a run-of-the-mill deck stuffed with anything you find on the web. Needless to say, your product launch deck would have lacked the storyline, the pitch and the punch it deserved. Knowing the elements- visuals, text, icons, etc. you need for each slide, you can now open up PowerPoint and effortlessly create a deck that sells. That too in no time as you only had to replicate it from a piece of paper! Here’s how the ideas on paper get transformed into brilliant designs and an unforgettable product launch deck:

Slide1: Opening presentation with impact

The above case study of a hypothetical product launch presentation gives you an idea how to go about crafting a memorable story that has a beginning, middle and end. Needless to say, the presentation slides would have looked nothing like the above if we had started right away in PowerPoint.

Microsoft PowerPoint is a great tool to visually pitch your ideas but it won't help you in idea generation. For that you have to rely on the age old practice of jotting down your ideas on paper, refine those ideas and finally bring them to the machine. This will save you a lot of time and your presentation will look thousand times better. Still need help with storyboarding your presentation? Contact our Presentation Design Services Team for any help.

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Business Strategic Planning Template For Organizations Powerpoint Presentation Slides

Business Strategic Planning Template For Organizations Powerpoint Presentation Slides

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Future plan powerpoint template slide

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Project Management Team Powerpoint Presentation Slides

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Brand marketing powerpoint presentation slides

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Launching a new service powerpoint presentation with slides go to market

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Agenda powerpoint slide show

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Four key metrics donut chart with percentage

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Engineering and technology ppt inspiration example introduction continuous process improvement

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Meet our team representing in circular format

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Blog – Creative Presentations Ideas

infoDiagram visual slide examples, PowerPoint diagrams & icons , PPT tricks & guides

story presentation ppt example

Crafting Visual Presentations: Transforming Dense PowerPoint Slides

Creating compelling visual slides in PowerPoint is more than just an exercise in aesthetics; it’s about enhancing understanding and retention for the audience. As a slide designer, I focus on transforming data-heavy dense PowerPoint presentations into visual graphics that tell a clear story. Read on to learn the techniques I use to declutter slides and make them more visually engaging.

Consider Splitting Slide Content

When I’m faced with an overcrowded slide like in our example, the first question I ask myself is about the necessity of each data point. Is it imperative to display all 12 table cells’ content at once? The slide below is an example of the table that I often see in business presentations, and in this article, I’ll show a few ways to improve it.

Crafting Visual Presentations Transforming Dense PowerPoint Slides default slide

The easiest way to improve overcrowded slides is to distribute the content across multiple slides, allowing each to breathe and stand out, fostering a series of visual slides that guide the audience through the narrative one step at a time.

Here I took only the information from the first column and visualized it on a separate slide. This gives you space to add more graphics and make content more readable.

Crafting Visual Presentations Transforming Dense PowerPoint Slides initial analysis

If you can break down the content this way, you will get the opportunity to play with the design. I can further enhance these slides with illustrations of the content. In this case, I added roadmap graphics and some design elements like lines and small triangles that support the reading flow of a slide.

Crafting Visual Presentations Transforming Dense PowerPoint Slides text highlight

Tricks for Dealing with Dense PowerPoint Slide

However, there are times when splitting the content isn’t an option, especially when designing for someone else. Or sometimes you may have a reason to show all the information together e.g. to demonstrate data synergy. 

In this case, you can use the following techniques to make even slides with lots of information still relatively readable. 

  • remove non-essential elements, like a heavy grid, which I can lighten or eliminate, and ensure the table remains cohesive and comprehensible.
  • make the text shorter – I often see several opportunities to shorten text by a few words. By replacing long words with symbols or abbreviations, you can easily create more space for visual elements. For instance, “and” can become “&,” and action words like “increase” or “reduce” can be symbolized with arrows.
  • look for repetitive words. If you have a table, you don’t have to write in every cell all the words, if you put them in the header row, for example.

Using those ideas you can usually simplify content by 10-20%. It’s not a lot, but it can allow you to improve the readability of your dense slide.

Crafting Visual Presentations Transforming Dense PowerPoint Slides ppt

Typography Tricks for Dense PowerPoint Presentations

One more trick is to work with fonts if you can. Replace the font you use, especially if you use wide fonts such as Verdana or Tahoma.

Some fonts are more suitable for dense slides. A switch from Arial to Calibri, for example, offers a more compact and modern look that’s still legible on screens.

Crafting Visual Presentations Transforming Dense PowerPoint Slides font

You can also consider changing the font size. Reducing it slightly can make a significant difference in space, especially when dealing with a text-heavy slide. But you have to be cautious – the text must remain legible for the audience, whether they are up close or seated at the back.

Crafting Visual Presentations Transforming Dense PowerPoint Slides font size

In Conclusion: Dealing with Dense PowerPoint Presentation Slides

Dealing with overcrowded slides is a common business reality, and I often need to tackle myself in my projects. I shared several ideas how you can make such dense content slides more readable.

  • consider splitting content into more slides
  • reduce content
  • play with typography 

In crafting visual slides, the balance between informative content and visual clarity is key. By breaking down the data, enhancing design elements, and optimizing the text, you can transform overloaded slides into clean, professional visual slides that effectively communicate their messages.

Crafting Visual Presentations Transforming Dense PowerPoint Slides how to improve overcrowded slide

If you want to elevate your presentations even more, see how to ensure the slides are readable and clear for the audience, so your message can be heard.

Watch the movie with full instructions here:

Follow our  YouTube channel  if you want to see more of such guides, and  subscribe to the newsletter  to get more design tips and slide inspiration.

Author: Peter Zvirinsky, slide design trainer and the founder of infoDiagram Reach out to Peter on  LinkedIn  or via his  slide design & training  website.

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  2. 10 Creative Storytelling Presentation Templates

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  3. Write a Story Using PowerPoint Story Writing Templates

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  5. 31 Powerpoint Presentation Design Tips, Ideas [with Examples]

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  6. 4 Steps PowerPoint Success Story Template

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COMMENTS

  1. Presentation Storytelling Examples & Techniques (2024)

    1) Hero's Journey. The hero's journey narrative archetype involves a hero who goes on a journey and returns as a changed person. This storytelling template consists of three distinct parts, or "acts," that include a setup, confrontation, and resolution. It makes for a well-structured and engaging narrative.

  2. Top 10 Success Story Templates With Examples and Samples

    Template 1: Customer Success Story Powerpoint Template. Narrate your customer success story with our content-ready template today! Walk your audience through the journey of identifying your problems, devising a solution, and finally resolving it to result in customer success with this diagrammatic PPT Template.

  3. Free Google Slides and PowerPoint templates about Storytelling

    There are many ways to share a good story! Storytelling is the social and cultural activity of sharing stories, sometimes with improvisation, theatrics or embellishment. The Google Slides and PowerPoint templates of this set share one thing: they have a well-connected structure for a great presentation about one way or another of storytelling.

  4. 10 Creative Storytelling Presentation Templates

    7. Project Storyboard Presentation Template. Prezi presentation Template with a creative storytelling concept. A storyboard sketch on an A4 paper - present your business ideas or add a story to any other topic. Storyboards are commonly used to visualize movies or animations, in a sketched out sequence.

  5. My Personal Story Presentation

    Download the "My Personal Story" presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides and start impressing your audience with a creative and original design. Slidesgo templates like this one here offer the possibility to convey a concept, idea or topic in a clear, concise and visual way, by using different graphic resources.

  6. Structure Your Presentation Like a Story

    Structure Your Presentation Like a Story. by. Nancy Duarte. October 31, 2012. PM Images/Getty Images. After studying hundreds of speeches, I've found that the most effective presenters use the ...

  7. 15 Actionable Storytelling Tips for PowerPoint Presentations

    Great for a smooth start, kick off your story (and the presentation) with this phrase and then tie it into your presentation message. "That reminds me of the time…". 1. Find your characters and make them the focal point of your presentation. 1. Break down your topic into the people (or characters) involved.

  8. The Science of Persuasive Storytelling in PowerPoint

    You see the story form in books, plays, films, advertising, religion, politics, and more. Stories have a unique and powerful ability to absorb attention. Storytelling in PowerPoint is the process of translating your presentation's argument into a compelling narrative. Management consultants understand the power of storytelling in PowerPoint.

  9. Storytelling in presentations: Creating compelling content

    Using storytelling to boost engagement and inclusion. Storytelling is a great way to stimulate engagement in your audiences and the reason for that comes down to a chemical in the brain called oxytocin. According to Paul Zak, whose lab is responsible for the discovery and much of the research to do with oxytocin, we produce the chemical when ...

  10. PowerPoint Storytelling: How McKinsey, Bain and BCG create ...

    Learn how top consulting firms like McKinsey, Bain, and BCG turn boring PowerPoint presentations into engaging stories using the Pyramid Principle and the SC...

  11. Storytelling Infographics

    Free Google Slides theme, PowerPoint template, and Canva presentation template. Storytelling is the art of, as its name suggests, telling stories, but using words and images and generally improvising. It is also a communication technique used in marketing or politics to transmit information. This technique seeks to attract the public's ...

  12. 20 Great Examples of PowerPoint Presentation Design [+ Templates]

    6. "Blitzscaling: Book Trailer," Reid Hoffman. If you're going to go the minimalistic route, I'd take note of this PowerPoint presentation example from Reid Hoffman. This clean design adheres to a simple, consistent color scheme with clean graphics peppered throughout to make the slides more visually interesting.

  13. 17 PowerPoint Presentation Examples That Show Style ...

    A PowerPoint presentation example that shows consistency and style by using a strict color scheme: orange, beige, and deep blue. Orange and blue are one of the most popular contrasting combinations widely used in all kinds of designs. If you are not sure what colors to go with, simply choose a tested color scheme. 13.

  14. How to Choose a Story Arc for Your Presentation

    They can create anticipation and engagement, which leads to better retention and understanding. Going back to the elements of a story—context, conflict, climax, closure—organized in this order, they are a classic story arc called the 4 C's. This arc works well if your presentation has a clear problem and solution.

  15. How to Take Your Presentation of Data Storytelling to the Next Level

    Borders, gridlines, background colors, and other extra decorations should take a backseat to the points, bars, or lines that actually represent the data. Here's a few hacks to help you out: Lighten or remove gridlines. Avoid borders and outlines, remove backgrounds. Get rid of 3D, shades and other 'special' effects.

  16. Success Story PowerPoint & Google Slides Presentation Templates

    Success Story templates in PowerPoint can be used for a variety of applications in professional context. Here are some of the common uses: Presenting achievements: Success story PPT templates enable you to graphically present and organize your organization's success, milestones, and success stories.These templates can be used to showcase important data, case studies, and good results to ...

  17. Free Google Slides and PPT templates with storybook structure

    Comic Style Storybook. Expressing narratives in a fun and imaginative way just got a whole lot easier with this storybook template! This vertical A4 Google Slides and PowerPoint design boasts the brilliant flair of pop art style, suitable to create engaging storybooks for school projects or personal enjoyment.

  18. How to Storyboard PowerPoint Presentation to Create a Killer Story

    Step 2- Prepare Rough Presentation Outline. This should be done on paper, not in PowerPoint. We prefer to use sticky notes for this as they can be easily moved around; you may use a paper, napkin or simply a marker and whiteboard to do it. The idea here is to give a rough structure to your presentation.

  19. Slide

    Recently Mike and I were conducting a session where these two responses came in back-to-back: Participant 1: I want to learn to create interactive data visualizations that enable my stakeholders to find the story. Participant 2: I want to develop a sharper editorial eye for what data to include to tell the right story.

  20. Crafting Visual Presentations: Transforming Dense PowerPoint Slides

    Creating compelling visual slides in PowerPoint is more than just an exercise in aesthetics; it's about enhancing understanding and retention for the audience. As a slide designer, I focus on transforming data-heavy dense PowerPoint presentations into visual graphics that tell a clear story. Read on to learn the techniques I use to declutter slides and

  21. Data Storytelling for Business

    You can help yourself with data storytelling, a technique that creates graphic and audiovisual narratives to present the data. Thus, this template will be the perfect resource: because you can represent that data using the storytelling technique, from which we have been inspired to include the resources. With colorful illustrations, an eye ...

  22. Free Kids Google Slides themes and PowerPoint templates

    Download the "Atrial Fibrillation in Children Clinical Case" presentation for PowerPoint or Google Slides. A clinical case is more than just a set of symptoms and a diagnosis. It is a unique story of a patient, their experiences, and their journey towards healing. Each case is an opportunity for healthcare...