The Secrets of Advertising Agency New Business Pitch for Government Creative and Media Accounts

We have all probably thought of doing it but I never did until recently. I made a Freedom of Information Request to look at the pitch documents submitted by advertising…

Five Steps for Developing Social Media Strategy for Clients

Social media strategy can be difficult to articulate to clients, particularly in a pitch. I came across a stunning piece of thinking from Douglas Holt in Harvard Business Review which,…

Four Things Agencies Should Know about the Diageo Way of Brand Building (DWBB)

DWBB. Love it or hate it? I’m occasionally asked to speak to agency teams about DWBB. In my experience there is little love for it agency land. Here are the four…

A Formula for Clarity and Simplicity in Pitching Strategy to Clients (and to Everyone Else)

It takes a lot of discipline to create a clear, simple and concise strategy that is easy to sell to clients, accounts directors and creatives. Sometimes structured strategy approaches (like…

Offbeat Ideas Used by Global Agencies to Create Chemistry in New Business Pitches

It can always feel unfair after weeks of hard work for a pitch to come down to the ‘feeling in the room’ between the agency and the client. But often…

Six Tips to do an Advertising Agency New Business Pitch like Steve Jobs

A lot has been written about Steve Jobs presentation style and techniques so I’ve tried to condense the reading I’ve done into the six bite-sized tip’s I think are relevant…

Poor Budweiser could be next Trump tweet!

Trumpled. First it was New Balance, then Boeing, then LL Bean and now poor old Budweiser. As we all know, they are competing with micro-brew brands, which trade on ‘authenticity’,…