There are days - although not many of them I must confess - when I think it would be so wonderful to live and work in London, as I did in the early 70's and then again in the late 80's. Of course one week of that awful weather would immediately drive me back to sunny South Africa.
However I do appreciate the quality of thinking that is evidenced in the marketing and advertising industry in the UK and in particular with some recent posts regarding The Good Pitch. My colleagues at ISBA- the Voice of British Advertisers - along with the AAR Group ( our UK partners at IAS) as advisors have done some excellent work on alternative ways of pitching.
This work was precipitated by the findings of research done among client companies where it was found that the current fully comprehensive pitching process was considered to be expensive in time and money, and not always completely necessary in some cases.
As a result ISBA and the IPA ( Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) developed some new pitch alternatives which we have examined and found to be very practical. We know that these alternatives will work extremely well in South Africa.
So keep a look out for news on:
* the chemistry pitch
* the tissue pitch
* the No Pitch, Pitch
and the * Pitch in a Day (PIAD)
which we will be making available from December 2013.
For more information in the interim visit www.thegoodpitch.com
Thursday 21 November 2013
Monday 18 November 2013
The client/agency relationship blog: Why person to person networking cannot be replaced...
The client/agency relationship blog: Why person to person networking cannot be replaced...: It occurred to me last week that unless we are out there networking for business, we cannot expect to maintain close contact with targeted i...
Why person to person networking cannot be replaced by social media networking - but can be enhanced
It occurred to me last week that unless we are out there networking for business, we cannot expect to maintain close contact with targeted individuals.
All of us are tempted to think that social media networking can replace individual one to one contact. The reality is that in today's world, we need both elements to work in order to maximize our contacts. It is so noticeable, for example, that when I am with some business colleagues on an Ad Forum Summit in New York - and I see these colleagues once or twice a year - we become even more active with each other on the social networks during the course of the Ad Forum week.
People love photographs and sharing thoughts with each other. From where I view things, social media networking helps to deepen this experience and sustain it in between personal interactions.
How we then use the social media networks tells our colleagues and friends about the roles that they have in our lives both personally and business wise. Sometimes these lines become blurred but the better we become at thinking about our social media networks strategically, the more useful they can become to us and to our colleagues and ever broadening network.
Ends
All of us are tempted to think that social media networking can replace individual one to one contact. The reality is that in today's world, we need both elements to work in order to maximize our contacts. It is so noticeable, for example, that when I am with some business colleagues on an Ad Forum Summit in New York - and I see these colleagues once or twice a year - we become even more active with each other on the social networks during the course of the Ad Forum week.
People love photographs and sharing thoughts with each other. From where I view things, social media networking helps to deepen this experience and sustain it in between personal interactions.
How we then use the social media networks tells our colleagues and friends about the roles that they have in our lives both personally and business wise. Sometimes these lines become blurred but the better we become at thinking about our social media networks strategically, the more useful they can become to us and to our colleagues and ever broadening network.
Ends
Sunday 17 November 2013
The client/agency relationship blog: Winning New Business - preparation for pitch day
The client/agency relationship blog: Winning New Business - preparation for pitch day: We are half way through the first Winning New Business course for agencies and I am very pleased with what we are accomplishing. The input ...
Winning New Business - preparation for pitch day
We are half way through the first Winning New Business course for agencies and I am very pleased with what we are accomplishing. The input from the delegates is great - and we are able to share quite openly in a safe space even thought there are competing agencies present.
7.15 in the morning is an early start but everyone is fresh and ready for the day.
The first three sessions were:
* completing a call for specific credentials and how this will be evaluated. Being competitive and having a point of view is essential if agencies want to stand out from the rest of the line up of agencies - could be up to 15 submitting specific creds in a pitch situation
* Chemistry - what is it and how do you handle the chemistry session? The four aspects of chemistry that can have an impact on whether an agency will be selected to go through to final stage or not.
* The pitch brief - final pitch - countdown to success and all that must be managed on the way through. Why the impact of the content of what agencies present at final pitch stage is the critical success factor. I guess we can write forever about the key to pitching success.
Rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal - and why there must be at least three of them before pitch day. I have drawn extensively from a number of sources - but Cleve Langton remains one of my best sources - his content in his book " New Business lessons from Madison Avenue " is by far the best.
The next three sessions -
* Managing pitch day
* pitch follow up and having won the pitch, how to on board the client
* New business prospecting - the process from start to finish
I am enjoying also re learning so much of what I already know and have passed on before. It is so stimulating.
Next year I plan to run these as in house bespoke courses for agencies, as well as making the content available on line through webinars. It is an exciting new venture for the IAS and we are well positioned to deliver this material.
That's it for now.
Johanna
7.15 in the morning is an early start but everyone is fresh and ready for the day.
The first three sessions were:
* completing a call for specific credentials and how this will be evaluated. Being competitive and having a point of view is essential if agencies want to stand out from the rest of the line up of agencies - could be up to 15 submitting specific creds in a pitch situation
* Chemistry - what is it and how do you handle the chemistry session? The four aspects of chemistry that can have an impact on whether an agency will be selected to go through to final stage or not.
* The pitch brief - final pitch - countdown to success and all that must be managed on the way through. Why the impact of the content of what agencies present at final pitch stage is the critical success factor. I guess we can write forever about the key to pitching success.
Rehearsal, rehearsal, rehearsal - and why there must be at least three of them before pitch day. I have drawn extensively from a number of sources - but Cleve Langton remains one of my best sources - his content in his book " New Business lessons from Madison Avenue " is by far the best.
The next three sessions -
* Managing pitch day
* pitch follow up and having won the pitch, how to on board the client
* New business prospecting - the process from start to finish
I am enjoying also re learning so much of what I already know and have passed on before. It is so stimulating.
Next year I plan to run these as in house bespoke courses for agencies, as well as making the content available on line through webinars. It is an exciting new venture for the IAS and we are well positioned to deliver this material.
That's it for now.
Johanna
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