How good is pitching!
It came as a big surprise to many of us when Scott Morrison and the Liberal Party pulled off a seemingly unlikely victory in the recent federal election.
There was much hand-wringing amongst the vanquished: What had seemed impossible to see in the days preceding the election had suddenly become clear in the days that followed.
Pundits speculated that Bill Shorten’s policy agenda was too ambitious. Changes to franking credits and negative gearing was scaring people. Meanwhile, ScoMo took a small target strategy to the campaign and didn’t seem to have any policies at all: No policies, nothing to criticise.
At the same time as the federal election was taking place, the advertising industry’s version of elections was continuing at pace.
It got me thinking, when you’re pitching, are you better off pitching like Scomo or the bill that Australia couldn’t afford?
Stretching the metaphor, if pitches are our elections, then ideas are our policies. And just like policies, some ideas run the very real risk of polarising your audience.
Is it worth going in big with ambitious ideas every time and potentially polarising your audience or are you better off being more conservative and putting safer thinking forward on occasion?
What’s the difference?
Conservative ideas feel like a pair of old jeans, familiar and comfortable. They demonstrate you understand the category and would be a safe pair of hands.
Ambitious ideas are more exciting and feel fresher, but they can be polarising as well. For every home run like Tourism Australia’s Dundee campaign there’s a swing and a miss like the Heart Foundation’s recent Heartless Words campaign.
Don’t get me wrong, I know that every advertising idealist reading this thinks the idea of pitching with safe ideas is crazy, but the recent election result tells me there is more than one way to win.
One critical question to ask is:
Are you trying to win this pitch or are you trying not to lose it?
The answer to this question should be instructive as to how you formulate your pitch strategy from there.
Thinking back to the federal election, it’s difficult to appreciate in hindsight just how the Labor Party was able to clutch defeat from the jaws of victory despite being in front of the Morrison government in the polls since it was formed in August 2018.
Perhaps they were too keen to win when they should’ve been trying to avoid losing instead?
How good is pitching!
The Creative Coach | Creator of 'Morning Musely' + 'The Future is Created' | Creator of Ideasy | Partner, Story Straight | Co-Founder, May8 | Ambassador World Creativity & Innovation | #facilitator #keynotespeaker
5 年Great piece Simon. Also worth considering when pitching to a client - are we going to be seen as a safe return on their investment or an unknown risk? You can be a safe pair of hands and still put up big picture ideas. You can actually get away with more when you are thought of as less of a risk than the others.
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5 年Nice analogy. Imagine if in pitches the incumbent spent their time bad mouthing the other pitching agencies. Or if there were hundreds of stakeholders (say, everyone at the client organisation) who all got an equal vote in the pitch. Or if the first agency knocked out got to give a preference onto its preferred competitor. The mind boggles.
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5 年Interesting take Simon. You had one party that adjusted their approach after reading the constituency versus the other that portrayed, in my opinion, that it was their time and their right. Thie alternative was unable to connect with the public (and un-popular), even though his party led most of the polls. I just don't think they read the play, whereas ScoMo seized on this and forged ahead and stayed on "plan" as they say. Whats that saying - don't count your chickens before they hatch!