Digit 2005-04 - Clevernotions.com

pitch design
Do anything you can to put yourself in the
shoes of that brand’s customers,” says Paul
Mallett, managing director of digital marketing
agency Swamp.
Vox pops
He says before going into a pitch, he and
his colleagues often go out into the street
to speak to the public about what they think
about a certain brand or company. They
record the street interviews and then edit
them into a vox pop linear film to show the
client during the brief. This is a good way
of breaking the ice, as well as showing the
client that you’ve done
your research – plus you
can place some funny,
anecdotal comments
from Joe Public.
Glyn Britton,
managing partner at the
communications agency
Ingram Partnership, says
once you know you’re
pitching for a piece of
business, you should get
cracking straight away. “Two weeks is
regarded as plenty of time but it’s not
unusual to be given two days. It’s really
important not to sit on the brief – start work
on it immediately. Rehearsal is absolutely
key. Understanding the client’s business
is important but you’ll never do it better
than them.”
Ashley Friedlein, chief executive of
E-consultancy, says: “The most important
thing is to understand the client’s market,
customers, and competitors. The classic
mistake is for agencies to go into a pitch
meeting and tell the client what it needs.”
Once you’ve done your homework and
36 d
TOO MANY
PEOPLE
ASSUME
THE CLIENT’S
BRIEF IS SET
IN STONE
MARK CHALMERS
the time comes to pitch, it’s important to
send the right people to meet the client.
Chalmers at Strawberry Frog says never
send any more people than the client is
sending, otherwise they’ll be outnumbered.
“You’ll dominate the talking and have a couple
of spare parts. Quality client time is precious,
you need to hear what they have to say.
“When we pitched for the European Ikea
business there were three of us in a room
of twelve. It was great because the focus
was on our work. You could have heard
one of their elusive alun keys drop.”
You should avoid sending in the big
guns to pitch for work. The
danger is that clients will be
disappointed when they find
that the people working on
their business day-to-day
won’t be the people they
trusted their business with.
“The team who will do the
work are sent in – that is
a pitch basic,” says Britton
at the Ingram Partnership.
In terms of environment,
some agencies encourage clients to go to
their offices when they’re pitching. This gives
the agency more control over what the client
hears and sees as part of the pitch. This isn’t
always a luxury that’s available, though, and
if you’re pitching in a client’s office always
get there early to give yourself time to set up
and avoid fiddling around with laptops and
projectors when the client’s in the room.
Once you’re in the room, a lot of your
success will come down to the chemistry you
have with the client team. Ultimately, the client
reps are looking for someone they’re going to
enjoy working with. It’s important that you like
them too – you must try and gauge whether
Above: These mood boards
were made by Random
Media for Creativity
Incubator, a site aimed
at engendering creativity
in the work place. Using
mood boards in your
pitches gives you something
physical to hand to clients,
and gives you visual material
to refer to. An over-reliance
on PowerPoint-style
presentations can be
boring for the client.
TOP TEN TIPS
from Ashley Friedlein, chief
executive of E-consultancy.
www.e-consultancy.com
1. Most important of all, you
must show the client that you
understand their market, their
customers, and their competitors.
For example, you could do some
independent market research on
their customers to show you
understand them.
2. Question their brief but also
address all questions in briefs
to the letter and then give
more than they asked for.
3. When it comes to the creative,
don’t present three finished
options. Focus on demonstrating
your creative process, your
creative insight, and your
creative thinking. Don’t rely on
PowerPoint, but use multiple
media including mood boards,
environments, paper, and
models. Mix it up. Get them
inspired with your approach
and abilities. Present just your
strongest single concept and
how you got there rather than
pre-done variations.
4. Be transparent about costs.
The cheapest cost is not
always the project winner,
but transparent costing is
very important in building trust,
and trust does win pitches.
5. Have an opinion on how they
compare to their competitors,
be strong in your opinions, be
challenging, be brave. If they
really need help, don’t be afraid
to say. Often the bravest and
strongest opinions win through.
6. Flag up your relevant
experience – clients need
reassurance on your abilities,
strategically, technically,
creatively, and in your
process expertise.
7. Talk about return on
investment (ROI) and being
on-time, on-brand, and onbudget.
Use testimonials to
prove your claims.
8. Remember you operate in an
oversupplied market and clients
tend to choose on personality
whims. Therefore do as much
soft research about personalities
in the pitch as possible. If the
client has women on their pitch
team, then make sure you do too.
Phone several times before the
pitch to ask questions and get to
know them better.
9. Be animated and inspiring. Be
keen, look keen. Be confident,
but never arrogant.
10. If offered a choice, early slots
are better as the clients tend to
be fresher. If you are allocated
a slot at the end of the day,
make sure you are quick and
concise. In any case, keep the
whole presentation down to
45 minutes at the very most,
anything longer than that and
you risk boring everyone.