A Very Sad Story… The Worst Advertising Agency Presentation – Ever

This is a story about the worst advertising agency presentation – ever (I know, I was in it.)

This special experience, along with more stories, strong opinions and brilliant advice are in my book on presentations and pitching: The Levitan Pitch. Buy This Book. Win More Pitches.

If you buy the book and read it, I guarantee that you will win more new business. OK, you’ll have read it and act on my advice.

Oh, The Advertising Stories Podcast.

If your brain prefers to listen to and subscribe to my podcast because you want to listen to this story as a podcast, go hear, LOL, here: “Adidas And Saatchi – The Worst New Business Presentation Ever Podcast.”

Back to the beginning: I won my first pitch in 1984. For the first email service.

I was an account executive at Dancer, Fitzgerald Sample, New York’s largest “Mad Men” era advertising agency (Saatchi & Saatchi bought Dancer in 1987.) The pitch was for Western Union’s $15 million EasyLink Service. EasyLink was the first commercial email service and launched the same year as the IBM PC – the times were changing fast. We won the pitch and I learned how a well-oiled presentation worked from a new business team that won nine out of ten pitches that year. After I began working on the business, I asked the senior client why we won. She stated three reasons: [Read more…] about The Worst Advertising Agency Presentation – Ever