PITCHING (and we ain't talking baseball)

What does it take to win new business these days?

As outsiders (sorta) to the process now – though we participated in the thick of agency and consulting presentations for years – we wonder:  Has it gotten any better?  Any smarter?  Any more rewarding?

Talk to a new biz person about what it takes today and they’ll say:  Relationships.  Knowing the industry – and the client.  Smart differentiation.

Hmmm:  That’s the same old, same old.  With social media and big data and ROI top of mind, are the pitches any different?

We asked a few clients, since we’re impartial observers.  It’s “no difference” in no uncertain terms. 

“It’s all about them, not us.”

“The descriptions are interminable.”

“It’s words, words, words and no dreams.”

There’s more, but we’ll stop.  What’s missing, IOHO, is an emphasis on talent – and fit.  How will the agency or consultancy pick the right talent to fuel the business?  [Note we didn’t say ‘staff’ or make any promises.  We’ve all been in the room when profiles are submitted – and those individuals have one foot outta the agency.]  What’s the management philosophy for working together:  building teams, ensuring straight talk and appropriate accountabilities, driving results as a concerted whole?  Is there a process for ironing out issues and conflicts and challenges?

One rather savvy pro suggested, a few weeks ago, that HR could add a lot to the chase.  We’d second that and say:  So can communications and design.

WHAT'S GOOD FOR THE GOOSE ...

It’s always puzzled us why there’s so little fertilization among our communications disciplines.

Take the creative brief, for instance. 

A staple of advertising agencies, somehow the brief seems to have skipped corporate, public relations agency, and consulting worlds.  Outside vendors that take on, for instance, an annual report or the re-do of a Web site may, indeed, pull together some sort of framework that guides the project.  It’s considered a necessary (okay, even mandatory) road map, the architecture that not only keeps the messages aligned but the people as well.

When it comes to those internal professionals managing a major deliverable, we haven’t seen that kind of detail.   For sure, key messaging will almost definitely be established.  But the straightforward language and the thinking behind a brief isn’t always developed.  Such as:  Brutal honesty about what stakeholders believe and feel.  Visual and verbal statements that truly define the brand without ambiguity.  And identifying what’s important, what’s not and the metrics involved. 

Sure, there are templates to follow.  Lots of questions to be answered, from the whats (the project), and whys (reasons for being) to the whens, wheres, and hows. 

On the other hand, it’s not a deck or a massive tome.  In our heads, a creative brief needs to be true to its definition:  something that inspires (creative) and something that’s short (brief). 

What’s been your experience, dear readers?

IF WE WERE KINGS/QUEENS OF THE FOREST ...

We got thinking:  What would it be like if communicators ruled the corporate world?

[AdAge started us, running a story about the marketing department changes made by Newell Rubbermaid’s fairly new, i.e., 15+ months, CMO, a market researcher by background.  To date, he’s culled staff, established outposts in Shanghai and Sao Paolo, doubled research staff and spend, and winnowed down the number of agencies … so far.]

There’s one current precedent we know:  David Novak at Yum! Brands, also a marketing guru.  And if we were to expand the question into the design arena, Apple – and design chief Jony Ive – comes to mind.  [Obviously, many executives have great quals as communicators and marketers, but not a deep backgrounding.]

Here are a few perks of being corporate kings and queens:

• ·       Embedded teams in every corner of the company, reflecting the ability of communicators to influence change inside and out
• Public relations leading the marketing function, owning social media and content and …
• Change initiatives run conjointly with HR and IT
• A larger spend, all judiciously accounted for
• A cadre of the best and brightest senior talent to tap into, from communications and research to branding and marketing
• An experimental mindset, where pilot programs could take on, say, in-depth research into the power of third-party editorial media

Phew:  There’s more.  Rather than exhaust every possibility, we’ll open it up to you:  What dreams and wishes would you have come true as CEO communicator?

THERE'S A NEW WORD IN TOWN

Curious.

A few months ago, a software company, one not necessarily heralded for its innovation (or, at least, not like Apple), released a global study on creativity.  Or rather, on how individual humans perceive themselves and their countries as creative.

[Our curiosity was somewhat appeased by the fact that Adobe, the study’s sponsor, is launching a new suite of cloud touch applications.]  

What piqued our interest even more were the results:  Only a quarter of us are living up to our creative potential, with even fewer countries noted as creative.  [Japan, by the way, was ranked number one,

and Toyko lauded as the most creative city.]

Blame, of course, was duly assigned.  To the workplace, because of environments that emphasize productivity and its consequence, time pressures.  To the educational system and its teachers, called out as not-so-great judges of talent.

Yet, dear readers, fingers could easily be pointed at the very folks who practice creativity.  Why?  Those in the business of creative – architects and graphic designers, communicators and ad mavens, among others – oh-so-often emphasize the creative of the business.   [Emphasis ours.]  Pitches stress the proposed campaign’s linkage to the increasing of awareness, not to the changing of behaviors.  Copy points linger on, yes, benefits, but not those so inclined to move the needle.  Gorgeous and evocative Web sites extol the greatness of brands and of companies, but don’t get us to the information we need when we need it.  And how many news releases contain the facts and the impact on the product/division/business, rather than spokesperson quotes that are rarely if ever used by the media?

We have a Webster-ian proposition/solution.  Obviously, the word “creativity” has its own definitional baggage.  How about “strag-ivity,” a one-word combination of strategy and creativity that accomplishes what all clients and companies, consultancies and creatives desire? 

Or what David Ogilvy said almost 40 years ago:  “If it doesn’t sell, it isn’t creative.”