These communication tips are good - but your gifts are great

December newsletter View this email in your browser Hi erma – here's your final newsletter of 2015. Enjoy the articles and look out for the gifts we're sending you shortly. A small thank you for making this a great year. Shall we begin? Your message is concrete. Your argument is watertight. But are you opening your presentation in the most engaging way? These 8 presentation openers will grab your audience from the get-go Let's be honest... There are lots of quick shortcuts to customer engagement. But connecting with people for life means making and keeping promises. Here's a hard lesson in brand honesty from Volkswagen Warning: Totes emosh Why have Christmas TV adverts become such huge media events? How do the best ads make us weep like children every year? This is the obvious formula for John Lewis's emotional advertising Who's that trip-trapping? Matt Gillan is a Michelin-starred chef who wants us to eat more goat meat. To raise the Billy goat's profile, he turned to storytelling. And it was incredible. The mouth-watering Michelin-star storytelling of chef Matt Gillan Music does the talking Choosing the right words is hard. But what if the solution was in your stereo? Music (like emoji) is a universal language. Its emotion hits us at a gut level. Here are 5 scientific reminders that music is the ultimate communicator Charisma doesn't deserve our worship. Substance and honesty mean more. Here's why charisma is baloney Can the STOIC method help us defeat office presentation boredom? Top tips for interesting talks ©2015 Sparkol Ltd, Yeo Bank, Kenn Road, Clevedon, BS21 6UW, UK   unsubscribe from this list    update email preferences