The Importance of a Good Pitch
Pitching is crucial for business growth and success, especially in marketing and advertising. Professionals in our industry become accustomed to presenting their agency background and strengths, as well as campaign ideas and concepts to both potential and existing clients. Without doing so, our work as agencies would cease to exist.
That’s why it’s important to put the best effort possible into every aspect of every pitch. Yes, every aspect, even the little things. Here are some points you’ll want to make sure of before your pitch:
- All content is relevant, accurate, and up-to-date
- Every suggestion is backed up with reasoning and explanation
- Recommendations are made with both the target audience(s) of the campaign and the client’s interests in mind
- Content is (at least initially) presented in an unbiased manner
- PROOF, PROOF, PROOF.
Notice that last bullet point? Many advertising teams stress the first few, but scramble at the last minute, leaving little to no time to proof their presentation documents.
For example, in 2013, athletic wear powerhouse Nike pitched to a then-unpopular Stephen Curry as a potential spokesperson for the brand. Unfortunately for Nike, they did little to prepare for the presentation and did not take it seriously.
Not only was an infamous Nike powerbroker absent at the meeting, Nike mispronounced Steph Curry’s name when the meeting began! That’s not all. A PowerPoint slide in the deck featured Kevin Durant’s name rather than Steph Curry’s. Game over, Nike.
Years later, Curry is a massive success and, much to Nike’s dismay, rocks his Under Armour Curry 2 sneakers on the court. This is great example of how important it is to do ample research and preparation for every meeting and presentation, no matter the size of the account. The seemingly “small” loss in 2013 has turned into a mistake worth millions for Nike and has led to a tarnished reputation.
So, do your homework – all of it. You never know what the teacher will grade.
