The coherent pitch (making sense out of ambiguity)
A coherent pitch is much more attractive to clients than an extraordinary but unbridled creative idea. Making sense out of ambiguity.
The C-Suite Shudder
I don’t have a problem with C-words in job titles, even though there are too many Chiefs these days. You can be the Chief of pretty much anything it seems. CEO, CFO, CIO, CMO, COO, CRO, CSO, CTO, C3PO. But I shudder inside when I hear the C-phrase. I get …
Where I was on 9/11.
I can remember exactly where I was as the 9/11 atrocity unfolded. I was in Edinburgh then Brussels. The Brussels trip was for a pan-European advertising pitch on 10/11. As Gerry (creative director), Giles (bag carrier) and I dashed out of the agency, an account manager came dashing in saying, …
Attention to detail.
Competitive agency X sent a bespoke new business mailer to Blonde client Y. The creative thrust of said mailer was that Agency X would give its right arm to work on Client Y’s business. And the mailer included a fake arm. Only it wasn’t a right arm. It was a …
Follow the Shoe™. A cynical view of agency marketing.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBjEUyOw_00] Coffee with an ex-client turned into a conversation about “happening” agencies around the world. And from there to a revealing, client-eye view of agency marketing, agency models, agency philosophies and the ™ packaging of agency processes. Said client must have had thousands of cold calls, hundreds of chemistry meetings …
The first rule of Pitch Club
The first rule of Pitch Club is that you most definitely DO want potential clients to talk about your presentation afterwards. And they’re more likely to do so if they can actually remember what you said. We’ve all been there. You attend a presentation. Someone who didn’t attend asks you …
Giving clients what they need, not what they want
I’m in two minds about this old giving-clients-what-they-need-not-what-they-want adage. On the one hand it appeals to the image we agency types like to project of being top-table, C-Suite, trusted adviser consultant types. On the other I shy away from the intellectual arrogance that it implies. I suspect that many clients …
How best to not sell an idea
For anyone who bought what I wrote about not selling, this is a more narrowly focused follow-up about the implications of a not selling philosophy for the presentation of ideas to clients. On the one hand how do you satisfy the pressure from the agency to sell do the idea …
A level playing field does nobody any good
In the name of “doing the right thing” many clients run their pitch processes on a “level playing field” basis. It is good that they care about doing right by the pitching agencies – many don’t – but that care is misdirected. A level playing field approach means that all …
Fewer, bigger stepping stones
Fewer, bigger stepping stones. The secret of a good presentation. Each stone should be a big, significant, memorable point. And what carries the leap between each one is the personality, the enthusiasm, the storytelling ability, the belief, the intensity, the passion of the presenter. This way the audience has the …