Emotion by Design

Creative Leadership Lessons from a Life at Nike

By: Greg Hoffman

Narrated by: Greg Hoffman

Innovative strategies for success from former Nike CMO Greg Hoffman, who had a major hand in crafting Nike’s singular brand and was instrumental in its most high-profile breakthrough campaigns.

In Emotion by Design, Hoffman shares lessons and stories on the power of creativity drawn from almost three decades of experience within Nike. A celebration of ingenuity and a call-to-arms for brand-builders to rediscover the human element in forming consumer bonds, Emotion by Design is an insider’s guide to unlocking inspiration within a brand and building stronger emotional connections with consumers, using Hoffman’s three favorite guiding principles:

• Creativity is a team sport
• Dare to be remembered
• Leave a legacy, not just a memory

Over the course of a 27-year Nike career - from intern to chief marketing officer - Hoffman led teams in shaping and expressing Nike’s brand voice and identity through storytelling and experiences. Every story was distinct, yet the result was always the same: a strong emotional attachment between products and people - quite literally emotion by design.

With fascinating stories about Nike’s most famous campaigns, Emotion by Design shares Hoffman’s philosophy and principles on how to create an empowering brand that resonates deeply with people by unlocking the creativity within your organization and unleashing it out into the world.

©2022 Greg Hoffman (P)2022 Twelve

Critic reviews

"The branding lessons in Greg Hoffman’s Emotion by Design are invaluable for any business, big or small, and it gives you a blueprint for how Nike has created such strong emotional bonds with its consumers. Essential knowledge here.” (Daymond John, New York Times best-selling author and costar of Shark Tank)

“A brand isn't a logo; it's a story. In this guidebook plus memoir, Greg helps us see how a commitment to our creative practice can make any story better.” (Seth Godin, author of The Practice)

“Emotion by Design is Greg Hoffman's transformative and intensely personal journey building one of the world's most important, groundbreaking brands. It's a must-read if you work with creatives, and if you want to unlock their unique genius to build authentic brands and waves of support across your entire company.” (Laszlo Bock, author of Work Rules!)

story telling

stories drag and take long to deliver the message. Not very educational. too long of a storu

Great Listen

My 9 year old goes on walks with me and chose to listen to this book with me while we walked. while I'm sure many of the concepts went over his head, he really enjoyed listening, too, and still mentions the big foot story!

Excellent book on branding and starting a brand

Excellent book on branding and starting a brand and building a community with your brand. .

This Book Is For You

The stories Greg share gives insight to the heart and mentality required to execute at a high level. Book really explores how to act and be creative not just in what you make or offer but every nuance into making it come to live and reach people. Will listen and read a few more times because of how rich the content is.

Fascinating story and outlook

An amazing look at Greg’s career trajectory, approaches to DE&I and the creative process to some classic Nike campaigns. Highly enjoyed!

A very enlightening book

I have read this book multiple times since its release and each time I catch something new. A professional with his track record could have easily just written a book about all his successes (that could be interesting).

Instead, he chose to write a book that would give the reader a deeper understanding of brand building and connecting with the consumer. I appreciate that. If you’re a Marketing professional, like me, or just really interested in Marketing, I highly recommend this book.

Well Written & Narrated / OK content

I was hoping for a bit more from the former CMO of Nike. Overall the book is solid - but not my favorite business book on marketing. As a small business owner, I actually found it somewhat hard to relate to. As a sports and Nike fan though, it was an interesting listen - nothing super profound.. honestly not sure I would recommend.

Great insight from a Nike POV

Loved it. Awesome story of Greg’s life and work. Began to get a little woke at the end but that was expected as he lives in Portland and that is what Nike is selling these days. Overall a great story.

Fantastic, Informative, and inspirational

A great book for experienced and aspiring marketing, design, and product leaders. A lived experience and life lessons translated in a way that anyone can quickly adopt and implement.

Dare I say…boring?

Not helpful enough to be a professional resource. Not entertaining enough to be pleasure. Honestly, it felt like an underwhelming guest speaker at a conference except this one lasted 9 hours. The benefit is that I finally got comfortable with the 2x reading speed.