Effective TIPS on making an 'Advertisement Pitch to Clients'. Important Do's & Dont's for Ad agencies while making presentations for Marketers

1. ‘TIPS’ for a
Successful
Advertising Pitch

2. Some important points to be remembered by an
Advertising Agency before a Pitch to a Client
Create an Idea that will
suit your Clients Brand.
Don’t ask your client to
change their Brand
positioning so that it fits
your Idea of a Pitch
There are 2 types of Agencies that pitch
a Client. One who tell you;
(1)These are the accounts we
have recently won
(2)And the second(rare ones)talk
about the clients they haven’t
lost in many years
It’s a big put off when an Ad agency
starts throwing technical jargons at the
Client. The Job of the Ad agency is to
simplify the things to a client. If the
client cant comprehend what the agency
is offering then the entire pitch made
will not work out for both the Client &
the Agency
Ad agency should try & void taking
fresh recruits to a pitch because;
Clients look for the agency’s cultural
values in each team member & they
are hard to come in a new joinee
AD Mania

3. Final Call
Presentation
to Clients
Assembling
the TEAM
Initial
Preparation
TIPS for a Advertising Pitch

4. Initial Preparation
Ad agency should make sure that their existing client does not have any problem in handling a
similar competing Brand
Ex: Lifebuoy should not have problems with their Ad agency, if it goes for pitching Dettol
Ad agency should not think that “research on the brand is a piece of cake.You are going to tell
your mother about her ancestors”
Be prepared, very prepared
Ad agencies should avoid working overnights for a particular Client. Be prepared in advance
& have a good sleep of 6-8 hours the day before your presentation
Don’t be Late to the presentation. Be on time.
Ex: Don’t be late especially if you are pitching for a Watch Brand. Industry experiences
states that a TEAM which arrived 15 minutes late was reject6ed & sent back by a
Japanese marketer who stated that he cannot work with people who didn’t respect the
clock

5. Assembling the TEAM
Marketers want People actually
working on the account to present
the pitch
Avoid pushing your best-looking but far from brightest
servicing people to present the pitch. These tricks are wasted
on a serious client. In case of a non-serious client suddenly
what should have been a pure business presentation gets
transformed into a “Who is the fairest of them all”?
Avoid bringing your entire team for the pitch presentation.
Marketers don’t want the situation where 10 people from Ad
agencies are presenting to 3

6. Presentation to
Clients
If multiple divisions of an agency are presenting ,everyone of them
need not take the marketer through the history of the firm. It comes
across as a time wasting or stalling tactics especially since clients want
to see only what you can do for their Brands. They can get the
background story with some judicious Googling. Or just assume that
they were paying attention when the first division of your agency were
presenting about the history
Avoid flinging your award wins in the marketers face. If you have been called for a pitch,
chances are the client team have done some basic homework about your accolades. Send it in
e-mail before the Presentation Day if you are that desperate for.
Its incorrect to assume that the client doesn’t get “Creativity”. He/She may not have gone
through all the award annuals but have a fair idea of what works for the brand
Avoid starting your presentation with “This is our idea for a TV Commercial & winding down
with “We will make this into a mass media campaign". Find an ‘Insight’ marketers cant ignore
& then couple it with a creative idea. Marketers aren’t obsessed with traditional media. If the
Ad agency can present a solid case study for how the execution requires only one medium
then clients will happily sign the deal
Ad agency should not start the presentation with “Our research showed
that”…….because its actually a small survey that the ad agency would
have conducted with very few respondents

7. Relying on the power of copy-paste could make you end-up looking like the
foolish agency that was too lazy to create a fresh deck for a pitch
“Don’t showcase as an advertising” just because one person from the
team that worked on the campaign recently joined your agency
An ad agency who is pitching should avoid
being greedy. A canny client can usually
smell an attempt to sell him a script that
could win you a award but which may not
help the brand from a mile off
Laziness will get you no-where.
Ex: If you have ever pitched for Reliance DTH & hen they don’t
buy your idea, you try palming it off to Airtel DTH.
There is also the case of an agency that tried flogging the same idea
with minor variations across two disparate categories. ‘Best hai mere
Liye’ for a Banking Brand transformed into Mere liye best Hai’
for a Telecom Brand

8. Final Call
Ad agency should decide
among theirselves,who
will answer which
questions raised during
the meeting so that
marketer doesn’t have to
deal with overlapping
soundtracks in the room
Don’t indulge in
arguments amongst
yourselves in front of the
marketing team. Be very
clear on the route you re
recommending. Have a
single agency point-of-
view
Ad agency should not tell
their marketers what they
would like to hear. Tell
them what you believe
they need to hear
Ad agency should not offer to
do artwork for free during fee
negotiation .Ad agency have
dug deep enough a grave for
themselves with all the
undercutting. Show some
love & respect for the value
your work brings to the table

9. A Few Don’ts for the Marketers
Don’t just go by good credentials of
the Ad Agency. Seek out 4 Clients &
ask how they feel their agency
performs because they are the ones
living with the work everyday.
Ex: Johnson & Johnson reviewed
their global media in this way to
really understand how other
companies use their media agencies
to develop solutions.
VISA is also doing the same activity
at present
Don’t ask the Ad Agency to
come back 3 weeks later with
creative ideas. It defeats the
purpose of why you are hiring
them. You are looking to find a
partner to collaborate with
you, not to work in isolation.

10. Anup George Rebello
Asst.Manager
The Catholic Syrian Bank Ltd