Team Talk: Christie and Shay
Christie Luxton and Shay Devery are Associate Creative Directors at Clemenger Brisbane. They share their own feelings, thoughts, emotions about pitching via a shit-tonne of analogies.
Christie Luxton:
Pitching is like trying to build someone else’s dream home, without knowing who they are, what they like, or what you’re building on. All while their crazy neighbour is throwing cats at you and screaming “craft the shit out of it!”.
Most creatives have a love-hate relationship with pitching. There’s something freeing about coming at a new client brief with no baggage and what seems like infinite possibilities. That fresh slate where you really get to show off what you can do. Plus, we’re all whores for the drama.
But pitching can also be a downward spiral of second-guessing, overthinking and politicking that leaves you feeling sicker in the stomach than the greasy pad thai you’ve eaten the last four nights in a row.
My approach is to try and avoid the whole circus as much as possible – grab your partner, escape the agency and just focus on the work. At the end of the day, the buck’s going to stop with you two and whatever you can squeeze out of your sleep-deprived noggins. All the agency workshops and round-tables in the world won’t produce an idea. They’ll just suck the life out of you.
That’s not the hardest part though. The hardest part – once all the could-be-lions, could-be-bankers and could-be-absolute-fucking-flops are out on the table – is to pick one idea and back yourself. Push those insecurities deep, deep, deeeeep down and commit. If you don’t believe in the work, you won’t be able to sell it. Clients can smell that shit a mile off. Lynx Imposter Syndrome, wafting out of a creative department near you.
The other thing about pitching that can require a bit of a mental shift, is recognising that you’re not just selling creative. You’re selling an entire agency offering. That means the strategist’s strategies, the data nerd’s pie charts, the media guy’s free tickets to stuff and yes, even the account service’s *begrudging cough* “skills”.
Jokes aside though, the agencies that win pitch after pitch are the ones where every single department is firing, working together to meet all facets of the client’s needs, beyond the creative idea. It can be hard for egomaniacs like us to accept that we’re not necessarily the sexiest people in the room. But sometimes a pimping Gantt chart is the thing that wins the pitch.
So stand back and let it shine! When the pitch is won, we can all head to the pub together, and bask in its gantty glory.
Shay Devery:
Pitching can sometimes feel like the reality TV version of agency life. You step out of a cheap, rented limo, wobble up the red carpet in your flashiest outfit, and meet The Bachelor. You get a few minutes to make a memorable impression before you’re booted off for the next contestant cruising up behind you. And they brought a puppy! Shit.
We love to criticise reality television for creating these contrived situations where people are forced into relationships without truly knowing each other. But that’s exactly what the pitching process does to agencies and clients. How can you build a genuine partnership in such a setting?
I’d love to see more clients take the time to get to know their agencies through working together, before getting down on one knee and handing over the whole account after a single date.
Pick a few potential suitors and give them each a small, paid project. Work on it together for a few weeks or months. Get to know each other. See if there’s creative chemistry. Make the account transition process reflect the reality of what it’s like to work together full-time – because that’s what you’ll be doing after the cameras stop rolling and Survivor starts up.
Contracts and procurement people aside, I see no reason why new agencies can’t be welcomed into a client’s business more slowly, over time. The agency will deliver better work if they’re tackling real projects and allowed into the fold with a more thorough understanding of the brand and business problems. And the client will really get to know the agency, warts and all, before they commit.
Clients and agencies both say they want to form genuine, long-term partnerships, which is why I’m always surprised at how we keep beginning these relationships inside a fictional bubble.
Doesn’t make much sense to me. But I guess I’m more of a Masterchef guy, so maybe that’s it.
