Digit 2005-04 - Clevernotions.com

pitch design
PITCH THEATRE:
THE LEGENDS
Saatchi & Saatchi, when
pitching to Toyota, put a
model of the car in the front
window of the agency. This
required the removal of the
window in order to get the
car in. When the client
turned up it was the wrong
model, so when he came
for the second round meeting
the agency put a second
model in reception.
Mediacom, the media
agency, pitched for the
Royal Bank of Scotland and,
to prove its commitment to
the bank’s business, included
a share certificate for half
a million pounds in the
company as part of its
presentation.
When communications
agency The Allmond
partnership pitched for
Weetabix, the agency
transformed part of its offices
into a supermarket aisle for
cereals, to demonstrate
its understanding of
Weetabix’s customer
visibility, profile, and
competition. They won
the business.
Advertising agency Publicis
once staged a pitch for an
Italian confectionary brand
in an Italian restaurant. An
obvious idea perhaps, and
a small detail, but it made
a big difference.
38 d
or not they are right for your business and
the kind of people you want to work for.
Ben Swindell, a creative director at
Holler Digital, says it’s important to get your
personality across during the meeting. “If they
haven’t met you before then they’re sizing you
up to see if they can work with you,” he says.
Chemistry set
You want your pitch to be memorable, and
you want the client to trust you and like you,
and one of the ways that agencies try to do
this is via the use of pitch theatre, which
makes it look as though they’ve gone the extra
mile for the client. From examples as extreme
as that used by Marsh and his associates to
win over British Rail, to just attention to small
details, gimmicks can
really help to make an
impression on the client.
Chalmers at
Strawberry Frog says:
“We do everything we
can to bring our proposal
to life. Since when did
someone say ‘pitch on
PowerPoint’? We are the
agency, we should be the
refreshing change to the
daily norm. We won
Emirates in Bloomingdale’s board room
in New York City, we’ve pitched in people’s
houses, we’ve even pitched in our pants.
Pitch theatre has to be relevant.”
On the other side of the coin, pitching
can be a long and arduous task for the
client as well as the agency, as they have to
have lots of different meetings with different
agencies. Anything that makes the process
more interesting and entertaining for the
client has got to be a good thing and will
score you brownie points.
However, experts were quick to mention
the perils of pitch theatre.
Kathleen Saxton, marketing director at
Saatchi & Saatchi, says that pitch theatre
can work wonders, but you have to research
the client. “It has to be relevant, smart and
memorable,” she says. “The best theatre
should all draw from the central idea the
agency is recommending and support the
team, rather than overshadow the thinking.
Theatre needs lots of rehearsing, so the
team feels comfortable with all the props.
“There is sometimes a risk that if you are
struggling to crack the strategy or overall idea
that pitch theatre will be ramped up to mask
the shortfall – especially in this market when
we all know that every agency on the list will
be pulling out all the stops.”
Pitch theatre tends to be more the
territory of advertising agencies than newmedia
design and graphic shops. New-media
experts are rather cynical about its value.
Adams at Mook says: “What we tend
to find with graphic design and online
advertising is clients are not taken in by
pitch theatre. They’re quite business-like
and want to see the quality of our creative
work. It’s less about theatre and more about
putting together a solid
creative pitch that they’re
impressed with.
“Very experienced clients
know whether they can trust
you to do their work based
on your previous work for
them or other clients.”
Bains at Lateral isn’t a
fan either. “We don’t do that
but it can work,” he says.
“It depends on who you’re
talking to. Every agency has
its own style. Ours is brutal honesty. We like
to think that agencies hire us because we’re
straightforward and no bullshit.”
Britton at The Ingram Partnership says
that the power of pitch theatre is limited.
“Quite often clients are seeing a range of
agencies, all of whom could deliver what
they need. Theatre won’t win it for you
– being prepared will. Be able to answer
all their questions,” he says.
More important is the need to keep a
pitch simple. This is especially relevant to
agencies pitching for new-media business.
Lateral’s Bains says: “The problem is that
in our industry a lot of the time you’re pitching
to people who don’t know the area.”
Although most clients have specialists
in-house to deal with new-media
developments and marketing, often the client
isn’t a specialist and throwing a load of Webspeak
at them is only going to confuse them.
“Make sure that you talk at a level they
understand. As an industry, we often talk
DO ANYTHING YOU CAN TO PUT
YOURSELF IN THE SHOES OF
THAT BRAND’S CUSTOMERS
PAUL MALLETT
PITCH
THEATRE
HAS TO BE
RELEVANT,
SMART, AND
MEMORABLE
KATHLEEN SAXTON