That's exactly what the company Mr. Prezident has done.

The Prezi starts with a voiceover and a shot of the team's office, making a clear and humorous reference to the presidential association that their company name plays on by calling it their (not so) oval office.

Next, the Prezi zooms in to the interior of the office where the team comes to life, fading in from outlines to an actual photo of them at work. The voiceover describes a group of people who are young and passionate about their work.

After this general introduction, we get to meet each of the main team members individually, getting a little bit of background on their lives and experiences that brought them to the company. This particular tactic really humanizes the company and makes a very effective use of the power of storytelling—you really feel like you get to know the team that is behind Mr. Prezident.

Next, the Prezi discusses some of the projects and brands that the team has already worked with, which helps to build their ethos and credibility. The logos of these major brands are displayed in frames on the wall to reinforce the message. After this brief discussion, the next step in the path zooms to the computer monitor where we are shown their work in motion while an integrated video plays music and demonstrates samples of their work.

Finally, the Prezi gives a demonstration of what it would be like to work with the team and an overview of their process of creating Prezis for clients.

So what's the point of this particular case study? It's not meant to be a referral to this company by any means. You've purchased this book because you want to create masterful Prezis, right?

The important thing to take away from this presentation is the sales pitch that's hidden in the larger narrative of the company. The Prezi introduces you to the team, gets you to relate to them through their personal stories, and shows you a portfolio of work. Walking you through the process of working with them follows this. The only thing it leaves you to do at the end is to contact them, and the Prezi ends with exactly that—details on how to get in touch. It's a well-crafted sales pitch wrapped in the team story.

Let's take a look at another awesome Prezi crafted to work as a sales pitch. This hand-drawn Prezi ultimately pitches a service that helps train change managers, who are depicted as superheroes attending school.

After seeing the disgruntled team, we see the school where they will be training.

The use of zoom with this feature is particularly effective. The Prezi zooms into various windows to make it feel as if you're actually entering the school. You can see this transition in progress here:

And once you're inside, you're in a training room with Professor Change, where you can see his super powers.

After training, we see the battered superhero now completely refreshed and ready to help facilitate change. And the Prezi leaves us with a pitch, letting us know what's next if we choose to work with this organization.

And the Prezi concludes with contact information on the very last screen.

Hopefully, through these two examples, you've gotten an idea of the way that Prezis can be used to engage users through a sales pitch but in a way that keeps them engaged along the way. This is similar to what commercials using video have long done but the Prezi tools offer some unique differences, including the fact that your viewers will be actively choosing to participate by moving to each new point in the path. This subtle detail increases the psychological buy-in of the viewer.

The multimedia tie-in

Larger organizations have also begun to incorporate Prezi into their larger advertising strategies. For example, CBS in the Netherlands created a CBS Outdoor campaign through Prezi:

Note

Full Prezi available at: https://prezi.com/dipjmhydzm-a/cbs-outdoor/

This Prezi prominently featured the CBS branding, and upon zooming in on the city, featured extra information on the outdoor billboards that were part of the city streetscape.

Perhaps most interestingly, this campaign was used on actual outdoor billboards. The cross-platform connections, along with the orange that makes this Prezi pop, stands out as a strong example of how to make a Prezi really communicate the message of your brand.

Visual appeal

Another way to make use of Prezi's unique appeal is to lean heavily on stunning visuals. These will come across especially vibrantly if the Prezi is viewed in fullscreen mode.

Tip

If your presentation is strong on visuals, include a message at the beginning suggesting that the viewer enter fullscreen mode.

The following Prezi uses powerful imagery to promote Rio de Janeiro:

Note

Full Prezi available at: https://prezi.com/kxm81xdvvanv/rio-de-janeiro/

In this Prezi, the scenery of Rio de Janeiro really pops. In addition, the famous Christ the Redeemer statue is a separate layer, so it moves at a different speed than the 3D background, creating increased visual interest. Finally, the hang glider in this image actually moves across the screen via an animation in the Prezi, really bring the scene to life.

Moving through the path in the Prezi highlights several attractions and interesting locations along the way. But another spot for potentially strong business appeal is a calendar of events as part of the Prezi.

Although the events on this calendar are somewhat generic (in that they don't match up with an actual calendar) it would be very easy for a business to include an actual calendar with updated events for the current month! Further details for each of the events could only be a short zoom away.

Note

Full Prezi available here: https://prezi.com/edmaw41a5s9i/pillowmints/

PillowMINTS used a Prezi that makes great use of the combined power of hand-drawn graphics with powerful photographic images. It opens with an intriguingly drawn quote from the book Oh, the Places You'll Go! by Dr. Seuss, as seen in the preceding screenshot. After explaining the gist of the business, this quote is later completed with a map that pinpoints all of the possible places one could travel to.

Here again you can see the consistently themed color, tied to a particularly powerful and memorable quote. In addition to that, the user can then zoom through these locations to see larger and equally powerful photographic images of each of these locations.

These examples show how graphics, both hand-drawn and photo-generated, can really help your Prezi stand out and draw in your viewers.