We judge quickly – and once again the Super Bowl brings in a lesson for your presentation skills.

Whether you are a CEO or just starting out, whether in a speech or meeting or at lunch – every audience you have will make immediate judgments. (Malcolm Gladwell calls it “thin slicing” in his great book “Blink.”) From the superficial to the subtle – what you do and how you look, smile, gesture, and hold yourself – people will judge you – and fast. You never get a second chance to make a GOOD first impression!

Take a look at a humorous quick judgment here, from one of the best commercials aired in this year’s Super Bowl. There’s a second one that the same sponsor aired, though it's not as funny, and thus not as strong - but you take a look at and decide .

And here’s a question for you too – who was the sponsor of these commercials (the video is cut off at the end for dramatic effect so you won't see the sponsor.) The unfortunate thing about too many great and funny commercials is that we often can’t remember who the sponsor is – and if so they wasted the money. Made us laugh, but that’s a $2.5 million dollar laugh for 30 seconds when we won’t buy their product. Or remember them.

Give me a reply to this post, or email me at Bert@decker.com and I’ll let you know of the results. I’ll bet less than 20% can remember the sponsor.

So three good insights from the Super Bowl:

1. If you are making a presentation, It doesn’t matter how good your story, metaphor or visual is if it doesn’t hook into a point that you are making.
2. People judge quickly. Make sure you give them only the positives in your body language, energy, look and looks. It will make a big difference.
3. If you're spending millions of dollars, get your money's worth!