Greg Hoffman Speaker

Greg Hoffman Keynote Speaker

  • Global Chief Marketing Officer, Nike (2016–2019)
  • Author of international bestseller Emotion by Design (2022)
  • Keynote speaker at Mumbrella360 and Drake University (2024)

Greg Hoffman's Biography

Greg Hoffman is a global brand leader who helped define Nike’s emotional storytelling and cultural impact. Over his 27-year career at Nike—including as Global Chief Marketing Officer from 2016 to 2019—he led the creation of campaigns like “Dream Crazy” and “Equality,” elevating Nike into a brand synonymous with inspiration and innovation.

Recognized by Fast Company as one of the Most Creative People in Business, Hoffman has also been named among Business Insider’s 50 Most Innovative CMOs and AdAge’s Power Players. His 2022 book, Emotion by Design: Creative Leadership Lessons from a Life at Nike, has been published in 13 languages and serves as a guide for brands aiming to build deeper emotional connections with their audiences.

In 2024, Hoffman delivered keynote addresses at Mumbrella360, Australia’s premier media and marketing conference, and at Drake University’s Bucksbaum Lectureship in Business, where he discussed the role of creativity and authenticity in brand leadership. As founder and principal of the brand advisory group Modern Arena, he continues to consult with Fortune 500 companies, startups, and nonprofits on brand innovation and social impact.

Hoffman’s speaking engagements offer actionable insights into building brand loyalty through emotional storytelling, fostering inclusive creative cultures, and leading with empathy and courage in a rapidly evolving marketplace.

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Greg Hoffman's Speaking Topics

  • Emotion By Design Creative: Leadership Lessons from a Life at Nike

In this captivating and empowering talk, Greg shares invaluable lessons and stories that illustrate the transformative power of creativity, drawing from his extensive three-decade experience at Nike. Throughout his time there, Nike succeeded in infusing its brand with profound emotion, elevating the Swoosh beyond a logo, to become a symbol of human potential, while Just Do It" transcended being only a slogan to become a mindset embraced by millions worldwide. In his keynote, Hoffman shows us how we can all practice "Emotion by Design," by crafting products, stories, and experiences that make people feel that even their most audacious dreams are possible to achieve.

  • Never Play It Safe, Play to Win: How to Build a Culture of Innovation

If you don’t take risks, your brand’s potential may remain at a standstill. And as history has shown us, innovation breakthroughs are rarely created with caution. The challenge, whether a brand is old or new, is how do you first establish a culture of creative risk-taking, then protect it from those natural forces that try to crush it. In this dynamic keynote, Greg shows how to incentivize your team to take risks and think outside the box to inspire and serve audiences in new and exciting ways. He shares lessons on how to cultivate the two most important characteristics within your team to drive innovation; empathy and curiosity. Strive to create a business culture that allows the space to ask those two all-important questions that are so essential to the process of innovation: “What if? And why not?

  • Dare to Be Remembered: Define Your Brand Through the Art of Storytelling

No story worth telling should be forgotten. We want the stories of our brand to connect with our audience in a way that compels them to feel something. In short, we want them to be stories that stir emotions and are indeed, remembered. And when you have strong emotional bonds with your consumer, you’re able to transport them far beyond the products you serve them with and invite them to be part of an audacious future, together. In this compelling keynote, Hoffman shares insights and lessons from his experience leading Nike’s global advertising, on how to build and express your brand’s personality in ways that are both memorable and relatable, through world-class storytelling.

  • Creativity as a Team Sport: How to Cultivate a Culture of Creative Collaboration

The art of building powerful emotional bonds with your consumer starts from the inside out. In this talk, Greg reveals insights inspired by his experience working with the most successful teams within the world of sports, sharing how their mindset, composition, and playing style mirror that of the most innovative teams and processes in business. Building a creative “Dream Team” starts with embracing everyone’s creative capacity. Hoffman helps us recognize the power of diversity and how innovation happens in the intersections, where expertise, life experience, and perspectives meet. Audiences will come away from this talk with the tools to achieve their creative potential.

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Videos of Greg Hoffman

Creative leadership lessons from Nike with Greg Hoffman
Impressions of Sport: 20 Years of Nike Communication Design
The Marketing Genius Behind Nike: Greg Hoffman | E150
EQUALITY BY DESIGN

Articles, Media & Podcasts

Books by Greg Hoffman

Emotion by Design
Emotion by Design

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