It what? It itches? No, it “pitches”. In other words, we’re getting ready to spend long hours coming up with a strategy and creations that usually require weeks, even months of work.
Get set, it’s the least we can say! Between our teammates’ brains racking themselves out, their ideas flowing freely, their hands coming alive on their keyboards and their fights with the Mac’s mouse messing up under too much pressure… Let’s add the stress of the presentation and potential disappointment of not having been selected, and we almost wish we could check in at the hospital for a drip!
Yet, there’s a certain excitement building up in the pit of our creatives’ stomachs, like a rush of adrenaline flowing through their veins, a need for personal satisfaction that strangely resembles that of an addict in need of his fix.
Let’s talk about the challenges faced by communications agencies like ours when a pitch falls out of the blue…
1. Brief & deadline:
- Clients’ expectations? Usually rather vague.
- Information about the brand? A bit borderline at times, but fortunately conducting research is something we’re pretty good at.
- Deadline? Now that they know how to highlight! Arial 14, underlined, bold, written in red… The deadline is generally unmissable!
The greatest challenge is definitely the lack of information. Yes amigos, not sharing (the same) essential information with participating agencies and giving them all varying amount of time to get the job done… well, it’s a bit tricky.
2. The pick & choose:
Whoooaat? The pick & choose Dude! Roughly speaking, it’s when a company selects the best bits of unsuccessful agencies’ proposals and use them to brief their chosen communications partner. You mean they’re stealing ideas? Let’s not go that far, our ideas remain our ideas – it’s pretty hard to appropriate concepts if you haven’t come up with them yourself.
3. The what ifs:
Between the “We’re coming back to you asap” left at that and the “Maybe next year” without any justifications, our colleagues can’t help asking themselves a few questions. O anger, O despair! It seems they found a more creative bunch… Ki-diiing, we know everyone’s taste is different – and we’re pretty fair play at Beyond anyway. After all, there are plenty more fish in the sea.
There you go, now you know all about the Beyondian vibe during pitch prep! We hope it inspired you, we’re looking forward to receiving your call for tenders…