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When I saw the way Steve Jobs did his presentations, I was in awe.

In fact, Apple’s marketing has been one of the most popular case studies for any company hoping to appeal to the masses when explaining complex geeky stuff.

Early in my career, I tried replicating some of Steve’s formulas:

• I removed walls of texts
• I used more images
• I avoided jargon

And yet, my audience couldn’t understand the core message I was trying to convey.

“What does this image mean? Is it literally a bird?” asked one VP.

“This looks great but what is the actual product we’re building?” asked the Head of Engineering.

“I don’t get why would anyone pay for this. How will this increase our revenue?” ask the Head of Business.

That’s when I realized just simplifying my slides doesn’t automatically make it compelling.

Thus begins my obsession with proper storytelling techniques in presentations.

Job’s message was made to stick

When I was reverse engineering Steve Job’s 2007 iPhone reveal presentation, I noticed some patterns that were familiar.

The patterns can easily be mapped to the 6 principles of the SUCCESs framework discussed in the book – Made to Stick by Dan and Chip Hearth.

In the book, the authors go deep into various case studies of good and bad messaging from various leaders throughout history. Most of the good case studies would still struggle to hit all 6 of the SUCCESs principle.

The fact that Steve was able to hit all 6 principles in one presentation just proves that he was truly a master storyteller.

Here’s how Steve Job made the iPhone reveal presentation so easy to follow and memorable:

1. Simple

Steve avoided going into tech specs.

Instead, he kept his message simple using concise yet meaningful language. He started each section of his presentation with a simple statement. For example, when revealing the iPhone: “Today Apple is going to reinvent the phone”. He even gave a simple definition of a smartphone:

He explained Apple’s “leapfrog” strategy (to not just match the competitors, but also surpass them) simply by using a quadrant with 2 axis – ease of use and “smartness”:

He built lots of context before revealing his innovation –the “multi-touch”. The name is easy to remember and understand compared to:

• multi-touch gesture recognition
• multi-point touch interface
• multi-point touch screen

2. Unexpected

The best way to get attention is to break patterns.

Humans recognize normal everyday patterns and ignore them:

• Hum of an engine
• Smell of candles
• Traffic noise

If you can anticipate people’s expectations, you present something different to subvert them. Marketers call this “subverting expectations”. This makes the message more memorable.

Steve starts by revealing 3 new revolutionary products:

• Widescreen iPod with touch controls
• Revolutionary mobile phone
• Breakthrough internet communicator

But later he surprised everyone by saying that it’s all just ONE device:

He didn’t stop there. Because he planted the idea of 3 products merged into one, he then revealed an edited image of a Frankenstein monster of a phone combined with an iPod:

With that, he created what psychologists call a “Curiosity Gap”. By now the audience excitement level is at 11. Not only were they laughing at this twist, but they also really wanted to know what this product ACTUALLY looks like.

Surprise gets our attention; interests keep our attention.

“Unexpected” is one of the most difficult principles for a presenter to pull off. It requires you to intimately know your audience so you can place a trail of breadcrumbs that is familiar and then subvert that expectation with something different.

Speaking of familiarity, this principle overlaps quite a bit with the next one...

3. Concrete

It can be very challenging to introduce something new to your audience.

In psychology, familiarity bias suggests that humans have a preference to stay within our comfort zone and overvalue the options that we already know, even when the unfamiliar options may be better. Steve structured his presentation to start with familiarity.

Familiarity is one of the main components of the “Concrete” principle.

If people cannot imagine your idea, it will lead to abstraction and confusion. People will form their own understanding if the idea is not concrete. Instead of jumping straight to the solution that the iPhone’s multi-touch will bring, Steve first explained the problem.

He argues that each application needs their own unique set of interfaces, and smartphone developers had to cut corners to meet the constraints of physical keyboards:

Notice how he is not presenting a problem that is most painful to everybody, but it is specific enough that it resonates with a group of people. By freeing up smartphone developers, Apple creates new possibilities in the long run for the customers.

Many people fall into the trap of being too broad. Steve was hyper specific.

Even then, he didn’t reveal the solution. He teased the solution by saying we’ve solved this problem already in computers 20 years ago:

• It has a big screen that allows for creative ways to display UI
• It also has a pointing device (the mouse)

The best part comes next where he combined the principles of “Unexpected” and “Concrete”. He left clues that led people to believe the solution would be a stylus:

But he then revealed the actual solution is your fingers on an iPhone multi-touch screen. Genius!

4. Credible

Just because you’re already an authority in your field, doesn’t mean you should shy away from tapping into your credibility.

In the first few minutes of the iPhone reveal presentation, Steve uses Apple’s rich history to amplify the credibility of his message.

Steve reminded everyone that Apple is not just a producer of products, they’re a revolutionary leader. He gave a few strong examples:

“Macintosh didn’t just change Apple; it changed the whole computer industry”:

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“We introduced the first iPod. It didn’t just change the way we listen to music; it changed the entire music industry”:

When further explaining the problem and solution of smartphone UI, he combined the principles of “Concrete” and “Credibility” by showing that Apple had introduced revolutionary UI in the past:

Credibility can come in many forms:

• Statistics and data
• Authority and expertise
• Testimonials and stories

Whenever possible, sprinkle in these credibility pieces to amplify the impact of your presentation.

However, be careful not to make outlandish claims yourself, it can easily backfire.

5. Emotion

Emotions can bring more weight to a message.

Steve started his presentation with a powerful statement: "This is the day I’ve been looking forward to for 2.5 years”. Apple is already a well-known brand that constantly creates innovative products, but when their leader himself is excited and shows emotion, it amplifies the anticipation.

He continued: "Once in a while a revolutionary product comes along that changes everything”. Notice how despite this being a powerful statement, it doesn’t connect as strongly compared to the first sentence? Personal stories elicit genuine emotion.

Emotions can also be projected onto others in a different form.

When Steve said: “First of all, you would be fortunate to work on at least one of these in your career”, this can trigger emotions in Apple employees who have worked hard on their products. This triggers the feeling of pride.

You could argue that this triggers emotions in non-Apple employees too.

Everyone else might be feeling a different emotion: FOMO (fear of missing out). They might be thinking, “I wish I could work on something revolutionary” or “I’ve done great things in my life, but nothing like this”. This one sentence triggered different emotions across different people at the same time.

He also showed the years of research invested, which basically says: “we were serious in the products in the past, and we are also serious and committed to this new product”:

In these examples, he is leveraging “Credibility” to fuel “Emotion”.

Think about what statements you can make throughout your presentation to trigger a wide range of emotions:

• Joy and happiness
• Nostalgia
• Curiosity
• Sadness
• Anger
• Pride
• Hope

Remember to not force “Emotion”. Utilize them if there’s a genuine angle for you to leverage. Focus on just one emotion if it’s too difficult.

6. Story

There’s nothing wrong with sticking to facts.

But when you take facts and weave in storytelling, everybody stops and pays attention. If done well, the story sticks. When stories stick, your impact is amplified. People will easily remember the facts BECAUSE of the story.

Story is a method of packaging facts in a compelling manner.

Same facts. Different packaging.

The entire iPhone reveal presentation followed a narrative structure:

• Starting with the history of phones (context)
• The challenges they posed (conflict)
• The smartphone developers and users impacted (character)
• Leading up to unveiling of the iPhone (solution)

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There are also themes of innovation, disruption and transformation. These themes appeal to the audience's aspiration and core values.

Conclusion

Steve Job’s iPhone reveal presentation was a masterpiece.

It encompasses all the principles of the SUCCESs framework from Made to Stick:

• Simple
• Unexpected
• Concrete
• Credible
• Emotion
• Story

It takes a lot of skill and practice to incorporate all 6 of these principles. But from my experience crafting and researching other powerful presentations, you can dramatically amplify your message just by applying one or two principles.

BTW, if you want to arm yourself with storytelling techniques, I’m building a workshop on how to craft powerful presentations that are easy to follow while deeply resonating with your audience.

Your brilliant ideas will be heard, and your influence will grow.

If you’re subscribed to my newsletter, you can join the waitlist with one click here.

If not, you can join the waitlist by registering here.

See you 😁