Agencies need to learn to market themselves during the pitch process
Marketing trainer and coach John Scarrott takes a look at what agencies typically pay attention to during the pitch process, and how it might be steering them in the wrong direction.
When it comes to marketing themselves, to clients or the wider world, agencies are not as good at selling themselves as they are at producing the work for their clients – but they can be.
By seeing their creative output as the tip of the iceberg and spending more time on what’s beneath the surface, agencies can become as good at selling as they are at doing the work.
Arguably the world’s first landmark campaign demonstrating the partnership between planning and creative and working closely with the client was the famous”Amoco In My Machine” campaign in 1969. The planner of the small Aussie agency beat the pants off the 23 other major agencies vying for the business in the first ever major successful planner led new business credentials submission. None of the other 23 agencies had planning on board or knew what planning was or did. Is it on record? Yes, it is. Go to http://www.originplan.com and download at the very end of the ‘Author’ section. You’ll also find out how powerfully experienced the planner was with skills and experience gained at Unilever Australia.In some respects ahead of planning in the UK. This is an example of the industry eager to promote Australian creative campaigns but not the slightest bit interested in promoting highly innovative [and extremely profitable] Australian management skills.