Most agencies wait to be asked. We find that slow. The best pitches, in my experience, are the ones nobody has told you about yet, because there is no competition and nobody has had the chance to say no. Here is our process, refined over several years and two formal complaints.
1. Hear about it on a bike
Every brief we have never been invited to started on a Sunday ride. Perry hears a marketing director mention a “bit of a rethink” somewhere around mile sixty. By mile sixty-five he has told the whole peloton we are working on it. By Monday morning, so far as Perry is concerned, we are.
2. Find the person who actually decides
This is Dilla’s department. Within an hour she has the procurement lead’s name, their maiden name, their children’s schools and an opinion on their LinkedIn headshot. She does not use any of it. She simply likes to have it on the list.
3. Prepare the response
Malcom writes a forty-slide strategy for a brief he has not read, because there is no brief. It predicts the death of the client’s category, twice. DJ Dan arrives with his idea. It is the same idea as last time. It is, he assures us, epic.
4. Turn up
Timing is everything. Arrive five minutes after the invited agencies have started, and present from the doorway of meeting room B. Do not sit down: sitting implies you were expected. If security is called, thank them for their interest and leave a credentials deck on the chair.
5. Announce the win
This is where I come in. I send the press release before the client has decided, because momentum is a strategy. The client then has a crisis about a press release they did not approve, which we offer to handle, at our standard crisis rate. In most cases this is the work.
Lessons learned
- Invitations are a formality, and formalities are for other agencies.
- Always bring a second deck, in case the first one is confiscated.
- Barry should not be used as a decoy in reception. He is still banned from one building.
We have never formally won a pitch this way. We have, however, been mentioned in four of them, which I count as coverage.
