PITCH LEADERSHIP
VERSATILE AND EXPERIENCED PITCH LEADEr
I have led and won pitches for everything from tech to telco, media to banking, packaged goods to cultural institutions, retail to gaming.
We all know the best idea doesn't always win. Here's a few observations about what does.
The most complete answer. Proving out an idea is more than filling the expanding list of deliverables. It signals the depth and breadth of talent on the team and the power of your idea to inspire them. Nailing a good strategic idea early is critical for the full team to shine. Spend too long waiting for the perfect strategy and this edge is lost.
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The best story. Even the best ideas can get lost without the best story to sell them in. Too often collaborative decks kill the story.
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The best team... will inspire confidence. Often pitches happen because clients aren't exactly sure what they're looking for. You have to show them. Don't make 'collaboration' and 'partnership' an excuse for your lack of conviction.
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The best plan. Will you hit the ground running? Do you have a vision that's as practical as it is exciting? Comms planning and agency capabilities can have a decisive role in addressing these questions.
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If you have an important pitch but your current strategic leaders are too stretched to do it justice, I can help.
WHY THE CHANEL PORK PIE?
Selfridges wasn’t a big spender. But they were prestigious. A-list agencies from W+K to BBH were vying for their business, jealous of the work DDB was consistently knocking out for Harvey Nichols and wanting some of that Awards fodder for themselves.
As an agency start-up with a few relative unknowns from Fallon we had an outside chance at best. ​For the final pitch we walked in with a gift of a giant pork pie - made in their own delicatessen - emblazoned with the Chanel logo atop its pastry crust. This was our idea. That Selfridges, unlike any other store, had bottled the kind of surprising juxtapositions that were fueling culture at the time. High/low. Fast/Slow. East/West. And all their marketing should do the same.​
We got there because we did something different strategically.
Rather than Vox pops, or social listening, or interviewing influencers, we turned to an author who’d just published a book on the psychology of shopping. And rather than interview him, we sent him to Selfridges for a day to walk around, observe people shopping and then report back on what he thought made it such an exciting store to be in. In particular, what made it different to other comparable stores.
He came back with transitions, juxtapositions and collisions. That was our idea.
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Different in. Different out.