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Melbourne v Sydney: Gruen’s The Pitch to take on a ‘State of Origin’ feel in new series

Anderson (centre) with panelists Russel Howcroft and Todd Sampson

Anderson (centre) with panelists Russel Howcroft and Todd Sampson

Some of the bigger creative agencies in Australia are setting intra-agency teams against each other for one of the most popular segments in the next series of the advertising and marketing panel show Gruen.

Speaking to Mumbrella Gruen host and executive producer Wil Anderson said they had made tweaks to the format to The Pitch segment, where agencies are asked to create ads to sell the unsellable, to attract some of bigger agencies to take part adding “a lot of it will be state versus state, State of Origin style”.

Anderson explained: “This year we wanted to get some new voices to pitch for us. In the past it was problematic getting some of the bigger agencies in to pitch on the show – because of their workload but also going up against a smaller agency on the TV there’s a risk factor, you don’t want to lose to a smaller agency on national TV but you also don’t want to come in as the big bullies either.

“So we pitched some of those big agencies and said what if we made it an intra-agency challenge – if we went to 303Lowe, DDB or whatever to get the Melbourne team against the Sydney team, and go up against each other. That has great benefits as we can get some of these great creatives involved, and we believe the spirit of competition within the company will mean we get a higher standard of pitches this year.”

Anderson said there would still be plenty of involvement from smaller agencies in the segment, but added he hoped the change would see more differentiation in creative executions .

“One of the things in the past that’s been occasionally problematic for that segment is when agencies come up with a similar execution for the idea, but we believe when you’ve got two parts  of the same company doing it they will come up with completely different solutions. It’s something we’re particularly excited about for this series,” he added.

Intra-agency teams from BMF, 303Lowe, SapientNitro and Havas Worldwide will be competing in the next season of the show, which starts next week.

The change also heralds a return for DDB to the show for the first time since the very first episode, when the agency produced what Anderson described as the “greatest ever” ad to appear on the segment, pitching whale meat as the ‘beef of the sea’.

Last year Clive Palmer ran into trouble after creating a campaign ad very similar to one made by 303Lowe for the show.

In another show Youngbloods from the Sydney and Melbourne will be competing against each other as part of the segment.

See tomorrow’s Mumbrella for a full interview with Wil Anderson explains why Gruen has been good for the industry, how they deal with conflicts of interest for panelists and whether this is the final season. 

Alex Hayes

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