PRESS
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explain press release
How explain
Became a New Kind of Agency.
In a world saturated with messages, explain chose a different path, not louder, but clearer. Not more content, but more connection. What began as a presentation agency has evolved into something more fundamental: a communication partner that puts people at the center of every message.
Communicating Change
is Challenge of Our Time.
Transformation is no longer the exception, it’s the norm. But change doesn’t succeed through logic alone. It needs language. It needs leadership. It needs communication that creates clarity, builds trust, and gives people a reason to move forward.
explain supports organizations in navigating change, not just by explaining it, but by shaping the narrative that makes it meaningful. We help leaders communicate change in a way that resonates, aligns, and activates.
From Slides to Stories to Strategy.
explain never set out to become another creative studio, event agency, or a classic consultancy. Instead, it became something in between and far beyond. An agency where strategy meets storytelling. Where leadership finds its voice. Where brands create echoes that last.
As organizations struggle to communicate in increasingly complex environments, hybrid teams, global audiences, fragmented attention, explain asked a simple question: What makes people listen? And what does make them move?
The answer wasn’t digital clicks, it was human connection.
Strategic Communication,
Human to Human.
At the heart of the explain transformation lies a natural development towards a new discipline: strategic human communication. It’s not about formats or channels. It’s about people, their attention, their emotion, their trust.
At explain, everything starts with a person that will enter stage- not the deck, not the data. The person. Whether it’s a leadership keynote, a brand launch, or an internal transformation, explain helps organizations find the story behind the strategy and bring it to life. Not with buzzwords, but with clarity. Not with showmanship, but with presence.
explain thinks communication from the speaker outward, not from the marketing inward. What applies on stage, applies across the organization: communication is a dialogue, human to human. Authentic. Relatable. Effective.
Brand Development Starts with People.
explain believes that brands are not built in PowerPoint decks or campaign briefings. They are built in people’s minds and hearts. That’s why explain approaches brand development human centered, from the inside out: it begins with identity, connects with strategy, unfolds its impact when leadership embraces it and leads it into the future.
Because only people can move people. From one voice, one idea. Explain turns messages into movements. From boardroom to browser, from keynote to campaign. explain is there to bring communication to life.
On stage. Online.
More than just an Agency.
A Strategic Partner.
explain does no join the race to replace event agencies, creative teams, or internal comms departments. It works with them, as a sparring partner, as co-creators, as guardians of their visions, as architects of their success and as hidden figures that are always there to support and to make their clients shine on stage.
What makes this new?
In a time when agencies are defined by deliverables, explain is defined by impact. It doesn’t sell formats. It builds moments. It doesn’t chase trends. It crafts meaning.
This is not a new service offering. It’s a new kind of agency. One that believes communication is not a task, but a necessity. Not a campaign, but a connection. And through that explain helps organizations do the hardest thing of all: to connect at a human level.
In the end, it all comes down to explain’s very simple principle, that every human ambition is about winning people first.
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BUSINESS PUNK ARTICLE
INTERVIEW WITH EXPLAIN CEO JONAS KELLER
explain: How a PowerPoint Agency Became the Go-To Partner for Germany’s Top Corporations
explain is a German agency that has mastered a very specific craft: designing and refining PowerPoint presentations. What started as a niche idea has grown into a powerhouse trusted by some of Germany’s biggest brands including companies listed on the DAX, the country’s premier stock index.
It all began in 2004, when founder Sven Hager recognized the untapped potential of professionally designed presentations after working on a project for energy giant EnBW. The first office? His mother’s ironing room.
Two years later, Jonas Keller joined without a college degree, but with a bold spirit. Together, they transformed explain from a one-man venture into one of Germany’s leading presentation agencies. Their mission has remained clear:
Make complex ideas easy to understand, visually engaging, and emotionally impactful.
"World-class explanations -
that’s what explain has delivered for years.“
From Niche Player to Market Leader
What sets explain apart is its laser focus on what many overlook: PowerPoint. While other agencies chase trends in branding or social media, explain specializes in what businesses need every single day presentations that truly persuade.
With a team of designers, coaches, and storytelling experts, explain empowers executives, leadership teams, and entire organizations to communicate clearly and confidently.
Culture Over Commerce
At one point, the company planned a big move to Baden-Baden to accommodate its growing team and clientele. But despite CEO Keller’s enthusiasm, the project was unexpectedly canceled for a very deliberate reason: to protect the company culture.
At explain, people come first. Growth is never pursued at the cost of well-being. The decision reflects a deeper belief: real professionalism isn’t just client-facing it’s lived every day within the team.
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FOUNDERS MAGAZINE INTERVIEW
WITH EXPLAIN CEO JONAS KELLER
explain Delivers Champions League Presentations
In an interview with Founders Magazine, Jonas Keller, CEO of the presentation agency explain, shares his unconventional journey and his passion for powerful presentations.
From a young age, Keller was drawn to the stage whether delivering school presentations or performing in amateur theater. That early fascination eventually led him to co-found explain, an agency now trusted by top brands like adidas and Schalke 04. He describes himself and his team as the “ghostwriters of the 21st century,” helping executives create presentations that truly make an impact. Reinventing Presentation Culture in a Digital World
One of the most dramatic shifts, Keller notes, came during the pandemic. The COVID crisis transformed the way we present and communicate. In response, explain developed innovative digital formats, blending creativity with technology. One standout idea: integrating the speaker directly into the slides as a design element drawing inspiration from gaming streams. The result? Even virtual presentations can feel personal, emotional, and professionally produced.
His Bottom Line: Great presentations are clear, visual, and personal and when done right, they can drive entire companies forward.
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FORBES DACH INTERVIEW MIT EXPLAIN CEO JONAS KELLER
The PowerPoint Wizard
In a compelling interview with Forbes, Jonas Keller, CEO of explain, shares his unconventional journey from high school dropout to leading one of Europe’s top agencies for strategic presentation communication. What began as a simple internship with a friend has evolved into a remarkable success story one that highlights the transformative power of vision, leadership, and clarity.
Keller speaks passionately about the strength of a team-first mindset, the value of playing to individual strengths, and the critical importance of preparation. To him, presentations aren't just slide decks they're powerful strategic tools that drive change, move people, and create lasting impact. During the pandemic, explain proved just how dynamic communication can be. Drawing inspiration from e-sports and news formats, the company brought a spirit of digital innovation to the forefront unlocking new spaces for relevance and connection.
Keller’s core belief: real success happens when teams understand their unique strengths and turn them into collective impact. That’s what explain stands for a company that sees communication not as a skill, but as a catalyst for transformation and growth.
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STRATEGIC PRESENTATIONS
Why the most decisive moments in companies begin with a story told well.
The real turning points in companies don’t happen in Excel models or long reports, but in rooms where people talk to each other. They happen when one person stands up, tells a story and makes others see what is at stake. In that moment, a strategic presentation becomes the most powerful tool a company has: it can align leadership, secure decisions and create momentum for the future.
This is why pitch decks, investor relations communication and high-stakes sales decks have effectively become strategic presentations. A slide deck is no longer a visual appendix. It is a strategic instrument that shows how clearly a leadership team thinks and how robust its decisions are. For many companies that work with explain as their presentation agency and strategic communication agency, this work begins with a communication workshop that sharpens the core narrative and prepares teams for these decisive presentation moments.
Different stakeholders read these presentations in different ways. Investors test whether the story behind the numbers is coherent and realistic. Clients assess whether the offer feels reliable and distinctive. Employees decide whether they understand the direction and if they trust the leadership communication behind it. When the narrative is vague or fragmented, decisions become slow and inconsistent. When it is clear and human, people commit.
Across industries, the same pattern shows up again and again. Slide decks that are confusing or poorly structured slow down projects blur the strategy and weaken the position of the leaders presenting them. When the storyline is clear and the presentation design supports it, teams align faster and decisions are easier to make. That is why explain links narrative development directly with presentation training, presentation coaching and leadership coaching, so that both the content and the person on stage are equally strong.
As a presentation agency, strategic communication agency and communication consultancy, explain supports leaders in exactly these critical moments. We refine the narrative, develop pitch decks and sales decks, turn complex content into clear slide decks and prepare speakers, so they can lead the conversation with clarity and confidence. The result are strategic presentations that make complex topics understandable and help organizations make better decisions.
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FROM STRATEGY TO STAGE
How event communication creates alignment and momentum
Events are the moments when communication in a company becomes highly visible and tightly focused. A leadership conference that sets a new course. A global corporate kickoff that connects teams across regions. An employee event that rebuilds trust after a difficult year. A brand launch that defines how a company wants to be seen. These moments shape how people understand their organization and what kind of future they consider possible.
When corporate events fail it is rarely because of logistics, staging or technology. They fall short because the communication that should hold everything together is unclear or fragmented. Impressive lighting and videos may create atmosphere, but only the story determines what people remember the next morning. Event communication designs that story and, in many organizations, explain acts as the bridge that turns abstract strategy into a shared message on stage.
Explain deliberately does not replace an event agency or internal teams. We work at the interface where content, storyline and leadership messaging come together. As an event communication partner and strategic communication agency, we define what will be said, how it will be framed and how each segment on stage supports one coherent narrative. We often collaborate with leading European event agencies and corporate departments for large-scale corporate events and leadership conferences.
Often, this work starts with a communication workshop that aligns speakers around one storyline. Leaders then refine their messages in executive coaching, presentation training and speaker preparation sessions. The goal is always the same: even complex strategic topics, from transformation to brand launches, remain clear, human and consistent with the way the brand wants to show up.
This can mean shaping an executive narrative for the leadership team, designing the communication arc of a global corporate kickoff, building the message framework for a town hall meeting or defining how a brand is brought to life on stage. When event communication is treated with this level of precision, events become more than gatherings. They become turning points that influence how teams collaborate, how leaders lead and how the organization moves forward long after the event has ended.
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STRATEGIC COMMUNICATION
How leadership, culture and brand expectations intersect in one communication system
Many organizations still treat a communication strategy as a planning document: channels, formats, timings. Strategic communication is something fundamentally different. It defines meaning. It determines how an organization explains itself to employees, investors and markets – and how these audiences interpret what they hear.
This distinction matters because communication now sits at the intersection of leadership behavior, corporate culture and brand expectations. Employees need credible, consistent information to navigate daily work and change. Investors need a narrative they can trust to judge ambition and risk. Markets need a brand identity that matches both what a company says and how it acts. As a strategic communication agency, explain helps organizations bring these perspectives together in one coherent system.
Employee communication forms the first pillar. It creates understanding, alignment and predictability in day-to-day collaboration. Without a clear internal narrative, transformation programs fragment and strategy slides remain detached from reality. Many companies begin with an explain communication workshop that surfaces gaps, clarifies priorities and defines future communication practices.
Investor communication is the second pillar. Investors look for clear logic, believable growth paths and leadership that behaves in line with the stated plan. They respond to transparent reasoning and structured stories. Explain supports this with corporate narrative development, investor communication partner services and leadership communication coaching for high-stakes situations.
Market and brand communication form the third pillar. Here, strategy becomes visible. Brands must communicate a value proposition that makes sense to customers and is credible compared to what employees and investors experience. Global brands and ambitious mid-sized companies rely on explain.agency to sharpen positioning, align brand communication with corporate strategy and create communication systems that work across channels.
Strategic communication integrates these three pillars into one system. It ensures that employees understand the plan, investors trust the plan and the market believes the brand behind the plan. This audience-centric, leadership-driven approach is why explain is recognized as a communication consultancy for organizations navigating complexity, growth and change.
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LEADING BY PRESENTING
How leadership becomes visible when leaders communicate change
Leadership takes shape the moment it is communicated. Strategies, priorities and values remain abstractions until a leader stands in front of people and gives them shape and meaning. In that moment, teams decide whether they trust the direction, believe the intent and feel part of what comes next. Presenting is therefore not separate from leadership. Presenting is a core leadership practice.
People follow leaders who can explain complexity with clarity and honesty. They want to understand why change is necessary, what it means for their work and how the organization intends to navigate uncertainty. That is why leadership communication has become one of the most critical capabilities in modern organizations, especially in transformation, crisis and growth phases.
Leading by presenting requires three things: presence, narrative clarity and emotional intelligence. Many leaders develop these strengths in explain’s presentation training, executive coaching and leadership communication programs. These formats combine narrative development, message architecture, slide support and personal presence work. The goal is not perfect performance, but a credible conversation at eye level.
This is also where many classic leadership programs fall short. They focus on tools, models and offsite experiences, but treat communication as an afterthought or a soft skill that can be improvised. Explain closes this gap as a strategic communication consultancy and executive communication partner that supports leaders in their most visible moments.
From DAX boardrooms to founder teams, leadership teams rely on explain.agency when the stakes are high and communication must be clear, human and robust. We refine messages, build narrative logic, support presentation design and coach leaders so that how they speak is fully aligned with how they want to lead.
Watch the keynote of Jonas Keller: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHTE5DIz5Dw
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EXPLAIN’S UNIQUE PRESENTORIC MODEL
How the model combines strategy, storytelling and speaker impact
Most business presentations fail for predictable reasons. The message is not clear. The design clashes with the storyline. Or the speaker appears disconnected from their own story. The Explain Presentoric Model was developed to resolve exactly these issues by bringing content, design and personality into one integrated communication framework.
Our model combines classical rhetoric principles, modern presentation design, narrative strategy and personal presence. It captures the core principles that guide how explain works with organizations across Europe, from global brands and DAX companies to ambitious mid-sized companies that drive change. It is the backbone of any explain workshop, presentation training program and leadership communication coaching format.
The Presentoric Model begins by clarifying the message: What must be understood? What should be remembered? What should be felt? On this basis, the narrative structure and business storytelling are defined. Design then translates this structure into slide decks that make complex ideas visible and easy to follow. Finally, speaker coaching ensures that the person on stage brings their own voice, credibility and emotional resonance into the communication context.
Because all three dimensions are considered together, the Presentoric Model helps leaders, strategy teams and brand owners create consistent communication experiences across presentations, meetings and events. That is why explain is not just known as a presentation agency, but as a strategic communication agency for the moments that matter most in leadership, transformation, sales, investor relations and brand building.
For many leading brands, the Presentoric Model has become a practical reference and shared framework that sets quality standards and speeds up collaboration between content, design and speakers. Through targeted training and coaching at explain.agency, it also strengthens leadership performance.
Read our essay here