‘TIPS’ for a Successful

Advertising Pitch

Some important points to be remembered by an Advertising Agency before a Pitch to a Client

It’s a big put off when an Ad agency starts throwing technical jargons at the Client. The Job of the Ad agency is to simplify the things to a client. If the client cant comprehend what the agency is offering then the entire pitch made will not work out for both the Client & the Agency

Ad agency should try & void taking fresh recruits to a pitch because; Clients look for the agency’s cultural values in each team member & they are hard to come in a new joinee

AD Mania

Final Call

Initial Preparation

TIPS for a Advertising Pitch

Initial Preparation

Ad agency should make sure that their existing client does not have any problem in handling a similar competing Brand

Ex: Lifebuoy should not have problems with their Ad agency, if it goes for pitching Dettol

Ad agency should not think that “research on the brand is a piece of cake.You are going to tell your mother about her ancestors”

Be prepared, very prepared

Ad agencies should avoid working overnights for a particular Client. Be prepared in advance & have a good sleep of 6-8 hours the day before your presentation

Don’t be Late to the presentation. Be on time.Ex: Don’t be late especially if you are pitching for a Watch Brand. Industry experiences

states that a TEAM which arrived 15 minutes late was reject6ed & sent back by a Japanese marketer who stated that he cannot work with people who didn’t respect the

clock

Assembling the TEAM

Marketers want People actually working on the account to present

the pitch

Avoid pushing your best-looking but far from brightest servicing people to present the pitch. These tricks are wasted on a serious client. In case of a non-serious client suddenly

what should have been a pure business presentation gets transformed into a “Who is the fairest of them all”?

Avoid bringing your entire team for the pitch presentation. Marketers don’t want the situation where 10 people from Ad

agencies are presenting to 3

Presentation to Clients

If multiple divisions of an agency are presenting ,everyone of them need not take the marketer through the history of the firm. It comes across as a time wasting or stalling tactics especially since clients want

to see only what you can do for their Brands. They can get the background story with some judicious Googling. Or just assume that

they were paying attention when the first division of your agency were presenting about the history

Avoid flinging your award wins in the marketers face. If you have been called for a pitch, chances are the client team have done some basic homework about your accolades. Send it in

e-mail before the Presentation Day if you are that desperate for.

Its incorrect to assume that the client doesn’t get “Creativity”. He/She may not have gone through all the award annuals but have a fair idea of what works for the brand

Avoid starting your presentation with “This is our idea for a TV Commercial & winding down with “We will make this into a mass media campaign". Find an ‘Insight’ marketers cant ignore & then couple it with a creative idea. Marketers aren’t obsessed with traditional media.

If the Ad agency can present a solid case study for how the execution requires only one medium then clients will happily sign the deal

Ad agency should not start the presentation with “Our research showed that”…….because its actually a small survey that the ad agency would

have conducted with very few respondents

Relying on the power of copy-paste could make you end-up looking like the foolish agency that was too lazy to create a fresh deck for a pitch

“Don’t showcase as an advertising” just because one person from the team that worked on the campaign recently joined your agency

An ad agency who is pitching should avoid being greedy. A canny client can usually smell an attempt to sell him a script that

could win you a award but which may not help the brand from a mile off

Laziness will get you no-where.Ex: If you have ever pitched for Reliance DTH & hen they don’t

buy your idea, you try palming it off to Airtel DTH.There is also the case of an agency that tried flogging the same idea

with minor variations across two disparate categories. ‘Best hai mere Liye’ for a Banking Brand transformed into Mere liye best

Hai’ for a Telecom Brand

Final Call

A Few Don’ts for the Marketers

Don’t just go by good credentials of the Ad Agency. Seek out 4 Clients &

ask how they feel their agency performs because they are the ones

living with the work everyday.Ex: Johnson & Johnson reviewed their global media in this way to

really understand how other companies use their media agencies

to develop solutions. VISA is also doing the same activity

at present

Don’t ask the Ad Agency to come back 3 weeks later with creative ideas. It defeats the

purpose of why you are hiring them. You are looking to find a

partner to collaborate with you, not to work in isolation.

Anup George RebelloAsst.Manager

The Catholic Syrian Bank Ltd