After hundreds of thousands of pitches, to hundreds of thousands of clients, you'd the think the creative industry would have the process off pat. Sheer statistics would suggest pitching has now reached critical mass, a point whereby every presentation is the perfect presentation, an unfailing system for winning new business. It hasn't though.
Pitching is still as stressful, arbitrary, flawed and unpredictable as it ever was. So many variables are hard-wired into the activity, any certainty is negated every time. For instance, the decision-making panel may change at the last minute, or you may leave the boards in the cab (as happened to a colleague of mine). The whole show may even be postponed by a month or you may have raging flu.
All that said, there are some pitching mysteries we can unpick. One popular misconception is the notion that the speculative creative work should solve a client's problem. Of course, more often than not, the document inviting an agency to pitch will contain a brief to be addressed, and it would be foolish to ignore it. However, the team should never imagine this is the same as a brief they will be asked to tackle if they are fortunate enough to secure the account. The prospective client would probably deny it, but they actually want to see creative work that intrigues, surprises, entertains or stuns - even if it is a campaign they would never run in the 'real world'.
'The bower bird knows he's in a hard-nosed competition for breeding rights.'
You know those bower birds. The feathered fellow that builds a fantastically elaborate home, festooned with bits of sweet wrapper and pebbles, the better to attract a mate? That's pitching, right there. The bower bird doesn't need this ostentatious construction for any practical purpose. He'd be just as protected and warm in a basic nest. Nevertheless, he knows he's in a hard-nosed competition for breeding rights, so he needs to show what he's made of.
Many agencies could learn from the bower bird. It's so easy to drill down and down into the detail of a potential client's profile, wrestling over the minutiae to ensure every base is covered. That's one approach, and it isn't necessarily wrong (remember, pitching is still an inexact science). But inevitably, much of that detail will go to waste. There will never be enough time to cover it all in the average pitch. To my mind very broad, very impressive strokes work best. It might be all surface, but if the client is sufficiently bowled over by those strokes, they'll want to work with you so much, they'll trust you on the detail stuff. That's not to say you can afford to be utterly cavalier in your strategy, nevertheless you should never forget why you're there: to show off.
Self-belief is infectious. If you believe you are the best provider (and if you don't, you should consider whether or not you should be pitching) - then make sure the client knows it. There's a fine line between confidence and arrogance, and it's crucial to remain the right side of it, but mapping out an incredibly detailed solution to a brief is unlikely to be as attractive as a lively, engaging, impassioned display. The bower bird doesn't expect a female to inspect every twig of his creation, he wants her admire the glinting tin foil and colourful stones. He's not in the business of getting it right, he's in the business of winning.
Magnus Shaw is a copywriter, blogger and consultant
