Madvertising by Martyn Forrester

Author:Martyn Forrester [Forrester, Martyn]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2016-06-13T12:11:55+00:00

We Should Be Talking To Each Other

Advertising agencies have the skills to change people’s attitudes to the point where they function in a prescribed fashion. So said Vance Packard in The Hidden Persuaders, and in no area of their operations do agencies have more persuasive skills than when it comes to pitches.

Creative pitches are the presentation of tentative advertising campaigns in the hope of winning accounts, when agencies stage spectaculars that put Spielberg to shame.

Speculative pitches are expensive. They cost from £25,000 to £150,000. With that many sovs at stake, it’s no wonder that dignity goes out of the window. An agency as intellectual as Boase Massimi Pollitt dressed up in yellow pages’ uniforms to pitch for the Yellow Pages account. The chairman and vice-chairman of another major agency took temporary jobs behind the counter at Kentucky Fried Chicken when they were trying for the business.

Agencies will go to great lengths to win pitches. When JWT was pitching for British Rail, they mobilised practically the whole agency of 500 people. Everyone who travelled to work by train had to fill in questionnaires by the dozen, and the use of company cars was banned for a week to encourage further research. Some employees were less faithful to the edict than others. A creative director went to a meeting in Manchester by train, but came back by air. This, he explained, was so that he could make an accurate comparison of the two modes of transport.

One of the nicest aspects of pitching is winning. Then the champagne flows as if it were Friday afternoon, and there’s a rush to put expenses through while the agency’s still in euphoric mode. Boase Massimi Pollitt celebrate their wins in characteristically witty fashion. When they heard that they had won the £2 million pound Royal Bank of Scotland and William and Glyn’s account, they sent an internal memo to all employees. Stapled to the tidings was a genuine Royal Bank of Scotland £1 note. ‘At last,’ the message read. ‘A client who makes something really useful.’

So what is it like to be a prospective client on the receiving end of all this agency enthusiasm, effort, and attention? What can you expect to happen to you after your initial approach to them to say that you’d like them to pitch?

Within three or four days of the first contact (sooner looks rather ill-prepared, later and another agency will have stolen their march), a team of three or four agency people (more and you’d consider them overpowering, less and you’d consider it insulting) will descend on you to ask intelligent questions that will impress you. They will tour your factory if you have one, and get out into the field and talk to your salesmen (in the hope that word will get back to you about how keen they are). The director in charge of the pitch will send you thank-you letters after each meeting, together with a mailing piece that

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.