This Theme Sucks.

The IM Creative team recently found ourselves on a phone call with a team to whom we had delivered an in-person pitch.  The call was to thank us for our participation and let us know that we came in second to another company who won the business.

At first, we were disappointed.  Then, the stakeholder in question offered us a bit of feedback on our presentation:

"You remember that part where you talked about cliches and bad themes that you would never pitch?  You mentioned THE POWER OF ONE as an example of a bad theme.  That was a theme we had used before, and we were kind of offended, because we liked it."

FIRST REACTION: Oh snap.  Maybe we shouldn't talk like that anymore.

TEN SECONDS LATER: Oh hell no!  That theme is generic, and we are so not.  

Now... IM Creative has never shied away from taking bold positions.  They are a key part of our FEARLESS AUTHENTICITY.  As a company, we have a belief system that is pro-originality, anti-cliche.  If you decide not to hire us because we won’t deliver a generic theme, we are cool with that.  Here's why.

Corporate Meetings are about RETENTION.  At least, this one was, and we have yet to work on a corporate event that isn't at least in part designed to build an emotional connection between the brand and attendees.  We want attendees to leave the event feeling as though they chose the right company to work for, and that their company culture is special.

Quite literally, everyone I know has been to an event whose theme was THE POWER OF ONE.  Every company I've ever produced an event for has used this theme.  The first incarnation I remember was sometime in the mid 90's, and this tired old chestnut finds its way into pitch decks still today.  But not ours!!  The sad truth is that this theme is LAZY.  So is MAKE THE DIFFERENCE.  These are corporate cliches that have lost all meaning whatsoever and represent to attendees that your company doesn’t really care about their experience.  The total lack of thought, care, and originality in these is stunning.  What does it say to your employees that you would deliver to them the same theme that ANY OTHER COMPANY HAS/IS/WILL give to their employees.  You suck the specialness right out of the experience.  

So as IM Creative pitches bespoke themes that push our clients to really define themselves as different and special, what should we do when a client tells us they WANTED a cliche?  In this case... walk away.

The strength of our value proposition isn't in appealing to the lowest common denominator.  It is in raising the issues and ideas that will drive business forward.  I promise you every meeting that uses THE POWER OF ONE is ineffective for one simple reason: we've all seen it before.  Meetings and events are expensive endeavors that require us to look at every possible opportunity to engage our attendees in ways that motivate and create change.  How can you expect change to be sparked by a meeting theme that is the OPPOSITE of change?  You can't.  

All of this adds up to one of the key ways in which IM Creative drives value - REFRESHING CREATIVE is one of our five key pillars.  While the event we lost seems to be missing a creative opportunity, we can’t fight the fact that not everyone is ready to make the leap toward bespoke messaging.  For this reason, we are ready to move on and continue looking for opportunities that believe in being bespoke.  That’s where IM Creative shines.