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Pitching
Why Did Adidas Steal Its Advertising Slogan
Clearly, Nothing Is Impossible For Adidas
Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising reported yesterday that they held an online all-hands London office meeting. They pointed to the now decades-old agency inspirational slogan: Nothing Is Impossible as proof that they get things done.
What most Saatchi people do not know is that Adidas outright stole the Saatchi slogan, flipped it and used it for 20 years.
A bit of history for Saatchi people (and anyone that will find this micro-story about client theft) a bit amazing.
Back in the 1990’s Maurice Saatchi and I pitched for the global Adidas account.
We lost, read about the sad yet very teachable moment here, The Worst Advertising Presentation – Ever.
We Lost. But Adidas Stole The Saatchi Slogan.
After the pitch, Adidas quickly stole our Nothing Is Impossible slogan and flipped it to Impossible is Nothing.
Insane. Right?
I never got an answer to this simple question… Why Did Adidas Steal Its Advertising Slogan?? I did ask Adidas. Maybe I should have asked their agency, Leagas Delany.
Client Thoughts On The Advertising Agency RFP Process
The Advertising Agency Client RFP – Go Or No Go
As an agency owner and business development director at Saatchi, I received many RFP’s — Request For Proposals. The reaction to receiving an RFP ranged from delight (YES, a big brand and client is interested in us) to dismay (a brand is asking us to respond to what is clearly an assignment that is not predicated on the client’s understanding of what we do for a living (example, asking us to build Android apps when we didn’t).
Responding to an RFP can be very time consuming and expensive for any agency. The costs include direct labor, out of pocket costs and the cost of deflecting staff attention from existing client and business development work. I outlined the cost of responding to RFI’s, RFP’s and actual pitches in my book “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches”. Believe me, the costs can easily go into the thousands.
The bottom line is for your agency to have a clear set of rules that dictate when you should respond to an incoming RFP. Swinging at every ball is not a great way to hit home runs and manage your business.
Some RFP Related Expert Opinions
I am a member of a primarily senior client Slack group. I asked the group for their thoughts about the RFP process. My question was about how many agencies are sent an RFP for a given program.
The Peter RFP Question:
“Here’s a quick question for people that have asked advertising / design etc. agencies to respond to an RFP… How many shops did you ask when you sent out the RFP? I have an agency client that is now sitting on 3 RFP’s and is a bit overwhelmed. I’m helping them cull the list but have this general question. Thank you in advance for any help.”
Answers:
Note, in the interest of privacy, I scrubbed out the name of the group members.
- Typically you go to 5-6, then cull to 3 agencies for a proposal. If it was a mailed RFP with no calls or capabilities first, don’t go after it.
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You can also ask the client how many RFP’s were sent out and they should respond to you. But when a client sends out to 20 shops for proposals, you can typically smell that out and it’s highly recommended an agency does not play in that space OR requests a more intimate process.
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Usually easy to spot the mass outreach RFP’s, they’re often sloppy documents with not much thought/consideration. Big red flag in my experience. Worth identifying which feel as though they have had most time invested in them for a measure on how ‘real’ the opportunity is.
- I’d also add from the agency side — try to get an intro call with the prospective client to talk through the RFP before you decide to submit and put the team through the proposal rigor. Sometimes once you get them on the phone — you often get a much better sense if you’ll be successful with each other.
- Also, it’s telling if they won’t speak to you before receiving a proposal
- Agree. Clients should do their homework and find the shops that they respect, thinking or work you admire vs. a fishing expedition. I usually advise around sending in the area of 6-7 with the expectation that 1-2 agencies will drop out / decline
- I agree. Somewhere in the 5-8 range feels right for an RFP. As a client, it is too much work to do more than that. If the client is not invested to really spend the time to determine if the fit is right, that tells you something. Personally, I have always liked our agency partners to feel like an extension of our team and respect what they bring to the table and the effort required to do the work.
Peter Again
I agree that it is up to agency management to really look hard at an incoming RFP and determine if this is an account you really want, can get and is worth the big effort. As my friends mentioned, it is incumbent on agency leadership to learn more from the prospective client before answering the RFP. If the client does not have the time for a call… drop it.
Being Mr. Nice Guy…
If you have an RFP on your desk today and are not sure if you should respond, give me a shout. I’ll spend a few minutes helping you make that decision. Gratis.
Getting Advertising Agency Sales Pitch Attention Via Hello Sir
How Your Advertising Agency’s Sales Pitch Is Like An Indian Shopkeeper
I was in the Indian states of Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and Delhi and Mumbai for the month of January. As a tourist, my attention was desired by many shop keepers, solo tour guides and taxi drivers.
The usual sales pitch come-on, the way for me to be enticed to turn and make eye contact, were questions. Essentially two: a questioning “Hello Sir?” or “Where are you from.”
While I always heard the question, I learned not to make eye contact in most cases as the ultimate offer being made was usually the same. I was being asked to enter a shop to buy something, generally, pashmina scarfs or a new suit, to receive an offer of transportation or some form of guidance. In some way, I was sad that I did not speak with everyone. That I dismissed their personal ‘pitch’ through silence. But, really, I had no choice if I wanted to get on with my daily plans.
Advertising Agency Business Development, It’s Sales Pitch And “Hello Sir”
Over the years, I’ve noticed that many advertising, design and PR agencies do little more than what the Indian shopkeepers did. These agencies simply find a way to wave their hands to say “Here we are” to prospective clients.
The agency sales message can be effective in getting attention for a fleeting moment, but the next set of words or information looks like all the other hand waving from other agency competitors. The agencies offer little in a customized sales pitch or insights that would help the client want to turn their head and want to hear more.
Sameness, or worse, being ignored, is a space that many agencies business development programs live in.
I’ll talk more about building strategic and action-oriented brand and message differentiation in the next couple of weeks. OK, I have actually been writing about this for years. But, I’ll deliver more direct ideas and collation of past thinking.
Most agencies have to get past, “Hello Sir.”
Hello Sir
Ask me how your agency’s sales pitch can break you out of the “pashmina” pack.
Anatomy Of An Advertising Agency Pitch: Part One
Anatomy Of An Advertising Agency Pitch
This interview with Tony Mikes, Founder of the Second Wind Network, is a first-person perspective by an advertising agency management and business development leader who sat on the client side of an important ad agency pitch. It is an enlightening review of how advertising agencies performed, or didn’t, in a new business pitch for the National Aquarium in Baltimore.
Frankly, A Must Read
The interview and perspective on agency new business pitching will be highly instructive for small, medium and large agencies… to say the least.
The interview first appeared in my book, “The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.”
It is very rare to have an advertising agency veteran sit on the client side of a pitch and give his impressions of the process and how the agencies performed. You will hear about what the winning agency did and what the losers failed to do.
The interview is over three thousand words so I broke it into two parts. I urge you to read both.
At the end of part two, I will give you my impressions on the lessons that every agency can learn from Tony’s experience and insights.
Tony Mikes
Tony Mikes was the Founder and Managing Director of the Second Wind Network, which today has over 800 small to mid-sized agency members.
Tony consulted with and advised advertising agencies and their leadership on best practices for almost 20 years. He provided members and clients with ‘old school’ agency wisdom and combined it with cutting-edge strategies. Before starting Second Wind, he was President of Pennsylvania’s Mikes & Reese Advertising from 1972 to 1988.
My Portland agency Citrus had been a member of Second Wind, and Tony was one of our advisors. Tony was an experienced mentor that could always help me resolve an agency-related issue or grab an opportunity and turn it into success. Sadly, Tony passed away in 2015.
The Anatomy Of An Advertising Pitch Interview
PL: You were on the client side of the agency selection table recently. How did that go? [Read more…] about Anatomy Of An Advertising Agency Pitch: Part One