Campaign Crash Course: How to not suck at videoconferencing

Welcome back to Campaign Asia-Pacific's Crash Course learning series, in which you will learn valuable lessons and practical business tips on trending and essential topics from industry experts in just five minutes. Think of it as a mini mini MBA, if you will.

Lessons will cover the breadth of the marcomms industry, including technology, creative, media, strategy, leadership, diversity and inclusion and more. We'll start off by introducing you to larger topics and delve deeper into specific elements in the future. This series is designed to be useful to C-suite executives as well as those just starting out in their careers.

The 39th lesson in the Crash Course series will cover how to not suck at videoconferencing, looking at ad agency video pitches in particular. This lesson was originally published as Video Conferencing for Dummies - Ad Agency Pitching by marketing management consultancy TrinityP3. 

After 18 months of managing advertiser pitches to choose agencies using videoconferencing, TrinityP3 CEO Darren Woolley noticed few agencies—from the big holding companies to the small independents—had yet mastered video presentations. 

After sharing this with Simon Joyce, founder and CEO at the independent creative agency, Emotive, they found it amazing that companies who spend thousands of working days and millions of dollars producing hours and hours of video for their clients, appear to spend no time or money producing a videoconference, even if the outcome could result in winning a new client and increasing agency revenue. So they hatched a plan to turn the insights and lessons in managing pitches into an instructional video for advertising agencies.

In this lesson you will learn:

• All the different ways agencies have sucked during video pitches
• Tips for better lighting and framing
• How and when to use presentation decks
• When to carry on 'full screen ahead' 
• What clients really think of your clever backdrops.

Your teacher

Greta Lee Jackson is a presenter, actor and co-writer of this piece along with Grant McAloon. To create this lesson she worked with Darren Woolley, CEO of marketing management consultancy TrinityP3 and Simon Joyce, founder and CEO at the independent creative agency, Emotive.

The quiz

After you watch the above video, test your knowledge of social listening with this quiz:

Campaign Crash Course is an ongoing series with new courses to be released on Fridays. We are always looking for feedback and ideas. Have a suggestion or want to take part? Complete our feedback form or email our editors.