Adman David Fish, formerly of Initiative, SCA, Dentsu, WPP and more, has just released a book on the art of strategic storytelling, Winning Presentations. He spoke to AdNews:
Why write this?
I do a lot of work helping companies with their go-to-market strategies and getting clear on their value propositions and positioning stories. Within this, we get into how this all comes to life in a presentation that connects what they do with why their audience should care.
It turns out that very few people these days have either the inclination or the skill to take high-level stories and bring them to life in compelling presentations. Yet so many still rely heavily on a PowerPoint deck or set of Google slides to sell their sizzle or perhaps bore the audience.
The second motivation was that these same issues exist in the presentations that go out daily with strategies, ideas, media solutions, pitches and campaigns, all needing to deliver content that an audience needs to connect with, understand and buy into.
This book brings together all of the tools I train and coach on and opens this up to anyone who wants to create and deliver more compelling presentations; Presentations that help them win.
What problem are you solving?
First up, too many presentations are dull, overly long, self-serving and full of jargon. This makes them hard to follow at best while often becoming complex and confusing. This is made worse when they are not curated around the needs of a specific audience or clearly solving a problem that needs solving. As a result, few relish the idea of another hour-long carousel of slides being thrust in their face.
Secondly, too many people over-emphasise the importance of training the presenter and ignore the content and structure of what they are presenting. Even the most confident presenter will struggle with a set of slides thrown together from other decks with slides that don’t flow and don’t help them recall key points and keep the audience following along.
When you need your audience to take your content and do something with it, as is the case with most media strategy, ideas, and solutions presentations, the structure of the story, right down to the slides' layout, is significantly more important than many realise.
The presentation needs to support the presenter to deliver confidently and connect with the audience, for the audience to follow along and not get lost and then to take that content and present it to others after seeing it just once.
That is a unique challenge and one where very little exists to establish the fundamental skills needed to share content (often complex and detailed content) and then build on these skills with more advanced techniques for bringing the audience into the content, creating an emotional connection and giving them what they need to take your ideas forward with ease.
Every presentation can be presented on just one page, but few know how to achieve this level of strategic storytelling mastery. Let’s change that.
Who is the publisher?
I have self-published this with Publish Central and have Michael Hanrahan as my editor. His editing pedigree is pretty impressive, having worked with Oxford University Press, Random House, Hardie Grant, Overland, and John Wiley & Sons Australia.
I chose to go down this path mainly as it meant I would have the book out 3 – 6 months sooner, and I also get a lot more control over the layout as well as retaining all of the rights to the IP, which is critical as I will still be delivering the training courses both in Australia as well in the UK later this year with the possibility to extend this into the US next year.
When did you start writing it, and how long did it take?
It will be close to 12 months when the book finally arrives on shelves. I started writing in June 2022 and then worked with a book coach who blew my mind with what was needed in terms of structure and depth to make a compelling read and convert what I was used to delivering in-person work on paper without me.
Much like my training, having someone outline what goes where and why made all the difference early on. Ironically, there are many parallel fundamentals between what I teach and what is needed in a book structure; they are just called different things. Once I got my head around this, I spent most of December and Jan finishing the final manuscript, a mammoth 58,000 words, which went off to the publisher for three rounds of editing before we began working on layouts, covers, font, etc. It has been an amazing process with lots of new learnings, and I am looking forward to book two, which is already in planning.
Background
Before starting his strategic practice, Fishy held a number of senior leadership and strategy roles since leaving his last London agency role and heading to Sydney in 2007.
He was first tasked with building a national strategic resource to support the sales teams within SCA during his time as Head of Strategy. After five years on the sales side, he took on the Asia Pacific Managing Director role for Dentsu Aegis, charged with overhauling five specialist agencies across Australia and New Zealand.
In his time as Chief Strategy Officer for Initiative, he oversaw a frenzied period of pitching that led to a slew of new clients from Sony Music to Simplot and ME Bank while overseeing multiple new car launches for Hyundai. He joined GroupM, charged with designing a new future-focused agency model for the Westpac Banking Group. The result was Media Lab, an agile science-based community bringing together media, audience analytics and ad tech.
Rounding out five years at WPP and his last agency role as Chief Client & Business Partner saw him provide strategic leadership across group-wide transformation projects and key client marketing models and structural challenges. It was the perfect stepping stone to starting his own strategy practice, focused on helping leaders unlock the potential in their strategic thinking, their offer and how they take that to market.
Outside of the day job, David is an active competition aerobatic pilot. He was NSW Champion in 2017 and silver medal winner at the National Championships the same year. Always exploring the new frontiers of innovation and pushing the boundaries of his pursuits, he has been a British Champion as well as a World Record Holder in the field of aviation.
The book will be available in all the usual major book retailers.
AdNews readers can also purchase a copy directly from www.davidfish.com.au and use the code: adnews25 for a 25% discount.
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