M&C Saatchi wins battle for Upton and Blanchett
M&C Saatchi last night won Australia’s most unusual creative pitch of the year.
The agency was triumphant in a one hour live brief, with Andrew Upton and Cate Blanchett’s Sydney Theatre Company as the client.
In the pitch, organised by STC sponsor Adshel and run in conjunction with AWARD, staff from Sydney’s leading agencies were briefed by the theatrical duo on a campaign which is to run on the outdoor company’s inventory across Sydney.
The aim of the campaign is to reach beyond the theatre’s traditional older Eastern suburbs audience. Upton and Blanchett told the agencies they wanted to communicate their strategy of turning the venue into somewhere that debate takes place before and after the performance too.
During the briefing Upton told the agencies: “Our aim is to spread doubt and start arguments.” He conceded: “There is a conundrum – if you have to sell hard to sell tickets to a show, clearly that show is a dog.” But he added: “If it’s a turd, we’re not going to polish it.”
Meanwhile Blanchett’s message to the agencies was even tougher – to come up with something “strange and unique while strangely familiar”.
The agencies then spent the next hour working on ideas over beer and pizza, before a panel including Upton and Blanchett selected a winner.
M&C Saatchi’s campaign idea – based around a mechanism involving sending the next line of dialogue from a play to consumers who’ve interacted with a poster – was selected as the winner. It will go live in a few weeks time.
Tim Burrowes founded Mumbrella in 2008. He worked on Mumbrella until 2021. At various points he was editor, content director and editor-at-large.
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A much fairer pitch process. This should be the standard.
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Love it, well done Saatchi. Wonder how PR agencies would handle a similar pitch process?
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yessssss I ROCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! woohooo
*bows to his adoring audience*
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next time I want to go to the theatre I’ll call Cate and the other bloke and get them to pitch me their concepts.
If they’re no good I’ll take the family to Transformers 2.
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