Search Results for: pitch

Watch As Canada Pitches Clinton & Trump

Peter · August 30, 2016 · Leave a Comment

Canada Pitches Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump

I have worked with a few Canadian advertising and digital agencies on their business development programs. I even went so far as to learn Canadian. Even looked at a map of Canada. Note: my personal research indicates that 94% of USA citizens cannot find Toronto on a North American map.

For some reason, and this is way unexpected, Canadian agencies actually have a serious sense of humor. Something most American agencies do not. Crazy right? See what I mean in this post about unignorable agencies. This post includes Canada’s John St.

A head scratcher… Why don’t more advertising agencies employ humor in their new business programs? In most cases, agencies say close to exactly what the agency down the street says in the same way that the other agency says it. Dumbfounding if you think that agencies are in the business of helping their clients stand out from highly competitive packs.

Humor tells stories. Humor sells. Humor gets passed around. Humor goes viral (like the following video will.)

Now, With Even More Laughs

Today, I offer more from Zulu Alpha Kilo and its pitch for the Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump campaign accounts. As ZAK says:

After winning Ad Age Small Agency of the year in 2016, Toronto-based Zulu Alpha Kilo decided to break into the U.S. market with a tongue in cheek political satire. Frank Zulu is the fictional founder of the agency and a character created for Zulu’s parody website which pokes fun at the absurdities of all agency websites and even Zulu itself.

Ok, on to the Clinton and Trump pitch video.

The wall copy (think Mexicans and emails) alone is worth the price of watching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEvx7_Lc7Lg&feature=youtu.be

The Advertising Agency Pitch System

Peter · August 18, 2016 · 1 Comment

The Advertising Agency Pitch System

The Levitan Advertising Agency Pitch System is included in the book, The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches. Just in case you haven’t looked up yet, the book is available at the top of this page. A few thousand books have been read by your competitors — and some might be using my tried and true strategies in their next pitch — against you. (How is that for a sorta hard sell?)

An element of the pitch system is the Pitch Playbook that supports the book. These are essentially simple tools to help you manage the pitch process. Here is one of the Playbooks. The others can be seen right here.

Use the Playbook to get past the inefficiency of the standard pitch process and reduce your agency’s collective groan when they hear that you are about to embark on yet another new, sometimes random, pitch.

A Big Issue

Too many agencies pitch too many accounts too often. They do not have their very own advertising agency pitch system. This can be disastrous for a few reasons:

You are pitching accounts that do not fit into your business plan and model. Worse, you have little chance of winning the account.

You are using up agency brain power and money trying to win business that you should not pitch in the first place.

You are burning out your team.

You are spending thousands for the wrong reasons.

The Go Quiz is a tool to help you decide — should you pitch that new client account or not.

The Go Quiz – 11 Essential Questions

Does Your Ad Agency Use Storytelling In Its Sales Pitch?

Peter · February 12, 2016 · 1 Comment

Agencies Do Storytelling

Advertising agencies love the idea of being storytellers. Storytelling skills have become one of the ways that agencies offer agency brand differentiation. To be clear, here’s a definition:

Storytelling is the conveying of events in words, sound and/or images, often by improvisation or embellishment. Stories or narratives have been shared in every culture as a means of entertainment, education, cultural preservation, and instilling moral values.

I see three ways that agencies do storytelling:

The Agency itself has a story.

Frankly, this is an amazingly underused opportunity. Why don’t agencies use their own personal or business stories more often on their websites, in their new business programs and pitches? Need an example (yes, an obvious one): Ogilvy’s use of David. The

The Ogilvy website has David’s bio and the following ‘story’ about David that he wrote to his partners 3 years after he started the agency Hewitt, Ogilvy, Benson & Mather. He is writing about himself.

Will Any Agency Hire This Man?

He is 38, and unemployed. He dropped out of college.
He has been a cook, a salesman, a diplomatist and a farmer.
He knows nothing about marketing and had never written any copy.
He professes to be interested in advertising as a career (at the age of 38!) and is ready to go to work for $5,000 a year.

I doubt if any American agency will hire him.

However, a London agency did hire him. Three years later he became the most famous copywriter in the world, and in due course built the tenth biggest agency in the world.

The moral: it sometimes pays an agency to be imaginative and unorthodox in hiring.

My moral… This story reinforces the perception that Ogilvy is ‘imaginative and unorthodox.’ The agency delivers this compelling message neatly wrapped up in a founder story — not just saying it.

The agency sells its ‘storytelling’ prowess.

HubSpot published an interview “Have agencies Abused The Term Storytelling?” I did with Michael Donahue, ex-EVP of The American Association of Advertising Agencies about the art of brand storytelling . Is storytelling overused? My take? No, telling stories to help consumers build a better understanding of and a closer bond with brands works. However, how the agency describes this particular art must be distinctive. It’s the

6 Critical Elements Of A Sales Pitch

Peter · January 18, 2016 · Leave a Comment

6 Critical Elements of An Ad Agency Sales Pitch

If there is one thing you must do when selling a BtoB service (as in your ad agency’s services; a tech solution; a great media or creative idea…) it is making sure you understand the needs and motivations of the person you are selling to when you craft your sales pitch. Sounds obvious, right? Believe me, after interviewing a wide range of clients and ad agency search consultants for my book on pitching I have to say that many agencies do not follow this golden rule. We are simply not spending enough time really thinking about the buyer and her perspective.

A Sad Ad Agency Sales Story

I had this lesson hammered home at my first media to agency pitch when I moved from Saatchi & Saatchi New York to launch the brand new newspaper website NJ.com. I figured I’d start selling the new fangled idea of internet advertising to my friends at my old agency (this was 1996). I knew the agency inside and out and had worked with its Executive Media Director Allen Banks for years. My pitch included a hockey puck graph of projected Internet usage and a discussion of digital advertising that touted our news website’s newfound ability to track how website visitors viewed and interacted with online advertising.

Sounds like a great digital media pitch, right? Was Allen smiling? No. His reaction?

“Are you f*cking kidding me? We have made a fortune not really knowing how, when and for how long consumers have been looking at our ads. I manage hundreds of millions in advertising media placement. Knowing how much of it doesn’t work will kill our golden goose.”

My point in telling you this story is that I didn’t really think through Allen’s motivations and potential objections before I delivered my early online sales pitch about tracking and analytics. I had only thought about how wonderful the Internet advertising solution was. By the way, Allen was right. The Internet sure seems like it killed some parts of the golden advertising goose.

Here’s some more advice from the world of sales…

Yes, some of these 6 elements may seem obvious (and yes, I am repeating myself) — however, I know for a fact that not everyone in your agency truly understands these simple rules. Many of your colleagues, even the folks on your new business or creative idea pitch team, probably do not have much direct sales experience.

Think like the client. The presentation (it’s a sales presentation!) must be written from the client’s perspective. What are they asking for, and what do they need and want to hear? You want to win them over, not your colleagues. This is the key reason why you have to learn about the individual clients, and if you have time, create personas for any new to you decision makers before you ever meet them.
Involve them. Don’t make the presentation one-sided. Try to involve the client in a discussion. You might be able to motivate the stone-faced clients by asking them a few questions at the right time.
Answer their questions. If the client has specific questions, stop talking and listen. Make sure you answer the question and confirm with them that you have. Think all agencies do this? I know for a fact that they don’t. Sometimes in the heat of the pitch, agency presenters will consciously or unconsciously deflect and even ignor the client’s question so that they can get on with their scripted presentation. This can be a major lost opportunity for dialog and might put off the client.
Deliver value. The client has invited you into their world. Return the favor by giving them something of value in return. In most cases, this might be a serious insight or a creative solution. This is your chance to demonstrate why this client couldn’t possibly live without you.
Be dynamic. Clients want agencies that are passionate about their work and ideas. Show your passion, and find a way to show passion for the client’s brand and/or quest. In a new business pitch, you might want to actually ask for the job.
Be different. Again, if you are in a new biz pitch, know that the other agencies that are pitching are good, smart and could probably do the job. You have one chance to look and sound different. Think very hard about how you will stand out from the pack.

6 simple rules. They work.

Head over to this link to see my post on the 12 worst mistakes agencies make when pitching. You’ll like the cartoons as well.

Anatomy Of An Advertising Agency Pitch: Part Two

Peter · September 17, 2015 · 5 Comments

Anatomy Of An Advertising Agency Pitch: Part Two

This is the second part of my interview with Tony Mikes, Founder of the Second Wind Network. It is his first-person perspective on how advertising agencies performed in an pitch for the National Aquarium in Baltimore. It is enlightening and instructive… to say the least.

The interview first appeared in my book, “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.”

The interview is over three thousand words so I broke it into two parts. I urge you to read both – part one is here. At the end of the interview, I will give you my impressions on the lessons that every agency can learn from Tony’s experience and insights.

The Anatomy Of An Advertising Pitch Interview

PL: So to be clear, of the six agencies, how many wanted to know who from the client would be in the room?

Tony: Nobody else.

PL: That’s… crazy.

Tony: Yeah, I mean, I think that that’s a sin, maybe not mortal, but that’s certainly a sin. But nobody asked.

PL: Well that’s incredibly surprising considering the importance of making interpersonal connections. What else did the smart agency do that stood out?

Tony: There was a pitch leader, and he occupied the podium. The other three presenters sat on director’s chairs. The leader moderated the whole session. So anything that needed to be stopped or moved or changed or accelerated or decelerated – the leader had control. The leader read the room and controlled the flow.

PL: Did you have a sense that they were well rehearsed?

Tony: Yes. They certainly had rehearsed a lot. They started with a bang – without introductions. Dark room. Killer video. Which ended in a… here we are.

The video lasted about a couple minutes. It was really great.

PL: Was the video about them or about the client? [Read more…] about Anatomy Of An Advertising Agency Pitch: Part Two