In our State of the Pitch Research, agencies regularly report they were told they were unsuccessful, but they were a close second. Most recently, an agency hearing that came a close second checked with the other two agencies to discover they, too, were told they were a close second.
But why would a marketer tell such an easily exposed lie? (and not realise that agencies talk all the time…)
A recent pitch resulted in the marketer informing us they were happy to debrief all of the unsuccessful agencies, something we insist upon. A few days later, the CEO of one of those agencies called me to thank us for running such a thorough and fair pitch process and to share their disappointment that they had come a close second. I was surprised because, based on the client scoring and comments, they were a distant third.
I checked with the other unsuccessful agency and discovered they were also told they were a close second, which was true, but nevertheless misleading, as they were still not in real contention.
Illustration credit: Dennis Flad
When I asked the marketer why they had told both agencies they were a close second, they told me they wanted to protect the agencies’ feelings. It is a relatively small industry, and they did not want to upset the agency, which would already be disappointed about missing out. It appears they are not alone in this thought.
It was clearly time to share the concept of the Silver Medal Syndrome with them.
Silver Medal Syndrome refers to the psychological phenomenon in which athletes who win a silver medal in a competition, such as the Olympics, often report feeling less happy than those who win a bronze medal. This is because silver medallists tend to compare themselves to the gold medallist, focusing on the fact that they missed out on winning the top spot. Bronze medallists, on the other hand, focus on being on the podium at all.
This is well-documented in psychological research, and as reported in Scientific American, back in 2006, psychologist David Matsumoto of San Francisco State University studied facial expressions following judo matches at the 2004 Summer Olympics. Observing eighty-four athletes from thirty-five countries at three different times—immediately after their matches, when they received their medals, and when they posed on the podium—they identified an interesting paradox.
13 of the 14 gold medal winners smiled immediately after they completed their winning match, and eighteen of the twenty-six bronze medallists smiled. However, none of the silver medallists smiled immediately after their match ended. Studying the silver medallists' facial expressions revealed that the expressions ranged from sadness (43%) to contempt (14%) to neutral (29%). It was not that the silver medal winners were less happy than the gold medalists, but they displayed distinct, yet negative emotions.
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld summed it up best when he said, “The Olympics is really my favourite sporting event. Although I think I have a problem with that silver medal. Because when you think about it, you win the gold—you feel good, you win the bronze—you think, "Well, at least I got something". But when you win that silver, it's like, "Congratulations, you almost won. Of all the losers, you came in first of that group. You're the number one loser. No one lost ahead of you!"
The problem is, if agency pitching were an Olympic sport, even if you come a close second, you still don’t get a medal. All you get is the dismal feeling that perhaps if you had done something different, you would be taking home the gold.
If you really care about the unsuccessful agencies’ feelings, please don’t tell them they came a close second, even if they did.
Woolley Marketing is a monthly column for Campaign Asia-Pacific, penned by Darren Woolley, the founder and global CEO of Trinity P3. The illustration accompanying this piece is by Dennis Flad, a Zurich-based marketing and advertising veteran.
Darren Woolley (left) and Dennis Flad (right)
