Name Rob Sherlock
Title Regional creative director, Draft FCB
Pitches Hard to tell… hundreds?
First pitch Honda Cars South Africa; copywriter, Lintas Johannesburg
Biggest pitch Samsung global; regional CD, FCB
Some creative statistician came up with the heady formula that an agency has to gain 20 per cent new business every year to stay in business. That's because 20 per cent of existing business will leave — the 'welcome to our home; oops, I forgot to lock the back door' syndrome. It almost always comes down to the way the pitch is conducted — of which there are many interesting forms. I'm happy to report that most new business reviews are conducted in a professional, progressive and seamless manner — but aberrations still exist.
Firstly, the 'Everyone's Invited'. Also known as 'the crapshoot', in every sense of the expression. It's fine when basic credentials are solicited, but a veritable nightmare when the whole shebang is called for. It's an orgy of excess, an
all-you-can-eat smorgasbord of sameness that must be impossible to judge.
Next, the 'Blindfolded Darts Contest'. This is where the brief is a moving target, the players are running around misguidedly thinking they've got a great shot at winning — then the client stays with the incumbent, because knowledge is power and power is accuracy.
Let's move on to 'Scorecard Schizophrenia'. It's an excellent way to form a basis of comparison, a la the Olympics, but not so good when you have an equestrian specialist judging synchronised swimming — someone from distribution judging creative. Or when your upside-down reading skills reveal questions that can't be answered by the brief.
And lastly, the mother of all piches, the 'Hurry Up and Wait'. You have 10 days to respond to the entire communications structure of the client organisation — one that has taken 20 years to develop. They want a 'total solution'. Then, after the presentation and near coronary collapse, the timing has miraculously lost its urgency — and has been put back two months. Or fades into Neverland.
Is the pitch working? Maybe There is no other way, but the process has to be streamlined.
