This document provides an overview and advice for pitching an immersive media project, including focusing the pitch on conveying the project's vision and story, tailoring the pitch to the audience, and following up in a planned manner. It discusses the key elements of an effective pitch such as structure, the ask, and follow up, and provides tips for practicing and customizing the pitch during the presentation. The overall goal is to communicate the project's excitement, opportunity, and value to gain support and resources.

1. September 4, 2012
StoryCode Immersion #6
Immersive Media Project Pitching

2. AGENDA
• Immersive Media Project Pitching Overview - 30 Minutes
• Pitch Workshop (5 minute pitch followed by comments)
Jennifer Warren / Andrew Leitch - Montauk Boys
Michael Broz
Josh Cook
Robbie Wilkins - One Day
• Assumes you have already lined up the pitch, getting the
meetings is a whole other conversation
• #storycode

3. OVERVIEW
• Primary goal - communicate the project’s vision
• Pitch audience - understand who you are pitching too
• The pitch itself - direct, clear, concise, with a concrete ask
• Pitch structure - what are the elements to a good pitch?
• Follow up - in a planned and organized manner
• Practice whenever you can - experiment with different
pitches
• Be over prepared but not robotic, think on your feet

4. PRIMARY GOAL - PROJECT VISION
• If successful the pitch audience will understand your:
• Story - what is the story?
• Audience - who is the target audience?
• Message - is there a meta-message the story conveys?
• Style - how will you tell it?
• $$ - how will it make money?
• Don’t lead with the tech or the number of platforms.
Lead with the story. The tech and platforms are part of
the style in which it will be told.
• Show excitement, pride, competency and commitment

5. PITCH AUDIENCE
• Know your audience (duh) - easier said than done
• Research the participants who will hear your pitch
• Understand what they are looking for - put yourself in
their shoes
• Tailor elements of your pitch to their interests and
concerns
• Your goal is to make them successful by supporting your
project - it’s simple human nature
• Know how much time you will have, plan to come in
under this time (leave time for conversation/questions)

6. THE PITCH ITSELF
• Limited time - make it short and sweet
• Focus on the most important, core and compelling
aspects
• Know your “elevator pitch” by heart
• Example:
It’s the story of a suburban mom who becomes a detective. It targets
women ages 25 to 45. Storylines will explore life in the suburbs and the
realities of consumerism. It will be told episodically via customized
tablet/social video app. The business model rewards story evangelists
and monetizes users who want to go deeper into the story.

7. PITCH STRUCTURE
• Personal introduction of the story - show you are
passionate about it and why
• Video trailer (keep it short) - introduce the story,
characters, and style in which it will be told
• Highlight callouts - opportunity to show innovative
thinking here, especially in monetization and story style
• Have a prototype? Consider showing it here
• The ASK - you must communicate what you are looking
for with the pitch: funding, introductions, collaborators,
etc.

8. PITCH ADVICE
• Don’t go deeper until you stop and listen for clarifying
questions
• If there is an empty pause, probe for questions
• “What’s your first impression”, “Does this make sense?”,
“Are you working in platforms or stories like this?”
• This lets the pitch audience signal what they are most
interested in - you can then customize your pitch further
on the fly to find points of mutual interest
• Record every question you’re asked - these are a
valuable window into what people are most interested
in, and can highlight unclear elements of your pitch

9. PITCH ADVICE
• If you have a pitch deck move beyond PPT - consider a
tablet presentation if one-on-one or Keynote, Jux, Prezi
• Presentation must be “designed” - should feel of the
style of the story
• 10-20-30 Rule: 10 slides, 20 minutes, 30 point font
• Keep each slide dead simple
• Include a single prominent image or a few key words per
slide.
• Keep a pitch journal - each pitch is an opportunity to
learn and improve

10. FOLLOW UP
• Always send thank you notes/emails immediately
• Don’t bombard your target - one follow up after 3/4 days
is good, if they don’t respond wait another week
• Follow up email - keep it under 5 sentences (short and
sweet)
• Refer to something specific you discussed to remind the
target of your story, its name, and its value
• Include a relevant URL and single phone number and
email address (avoid information overload)
• Close with a specific question (“Would you be interested
in coming on board as an investor?”)

11. RESOURCES
• Projeqt, Jux, Hype, Prezi, SlideRocket, Google
Presentations - free tools to help create an immersive
presentation
• Delicious.com stack of new storytelling tools

12. CONTACT
mike@storycode.org
aina@storycode.org
www.storycode.org
@storycodeorg