BITB -- The Digitally Integrated Pitch

A lot of my life as an account guy has been in your shoes – working in the general agency world. I started at DDB in the mid 90 ’s and I didn’t do much digital at that point. I think my first digital experience was my client Jansport backpacks asking if we recommended that they buy the URL jansport.com. We said yes. From there, my path has gradually included more and more digital until last year when I joined last year when I joined Sitewire. I say 99% digital because we’ve got some talented creatives and we pick up some branding work from time to time. But what’s important is that through all of these agencies, I have been very involved in new business – so I have seen new business evolve from no digital at all to being tacked on at the end to being an integrated part of a new business strategy. And that’s what we want to talk about today.
All of us know that new business is the lifeblood of our agencies. And the key to getting new business is a successful pitch. And these days, a successful pitch must have digital integrated – not just as an add on after media – but as weaved throughout from strategy to tactics.
Jay and I have been in hundreds of pitches – some on the good side and some on the bad. But we learned a lot through the process, and today we are going to share four best practices to make your new business pitch digitally relevant.
Like the skeptical cat – there are plenty of skeptical clients out there, especially among those without a lot of digital experience. That is why it is so important to convince clients that digital is worth the investment. Believe it or not – even in this era where it seems like all we talk about is digital, there are still plenty of clients out there who are uncomfortable with digital tactics. Clients these days are under a lot of pressure – we ’ve all seen the numbers around CMO tenure – and as a result, clients are often hesitant to move budget from a proven tactic. That’s why it’s important for you to give them the rationale they need to feel comfortable including digital in their plan. I work for a digital agency, and clients are coming to us just do digital for them – but this is still a key part of every presentation for us. I’ll share a few things we like to share with our clients that seem to inspire some ah-ha moments.
The old “what’s wrong here slide usually gets a reaction if the client hasn’t seen it before. This examines the percentage of time a week people spend with different media compared to ad spend associated with that media. And as you can see the death of the 30 second spot has been greatly exaggerated. That said the real story here is the disparity when you look at internet, newspaper and magazine. Consumers are spending almost 1/3 of their time with the internet, but advertisers are just allocating around 13 or 14% of their dollars there. We often pair this with a slide around how media habits are changing, showing digital and mobile rising, at the expense of newspapers, magazines and radio.
Speaking of mobile, there isn ’t a hotter topic in digital right now, with good reason. With in the next few years, just about very interaction we have with the internet will be through a mobile device, but there are still clients out there who aren’t sure they should invest in mobile. So, when I talk to clients or potentail clients about mobile, there are a few things that I like to point out to give them the scope of the opportunity. First, by Q3 of this year, half of all mobile phones will be smartphones. This is being driven by many things, including cheaper droids and the iphone going to Verizon. But as their contracts come up, more and more people are upgrading to smartphones and they begin using them. Along those same lines, there is critical mass using the internet. In fact, in two years there will be more mobile internet users than desktop internet users. In Q4 of last year, mobile phones outsold PCs for the first time. This means brands must have an optimized web site to be successful – especially if your client is inolved in retail or CPG in any way. If you match some of these stats with an image of a mobile optimzed site and non-mobile optimized site next to each other, you can usually make a pretty good point. Finally, I work with a few different retail clients, so this is something I like to point out to them. People are already using a smart phone to help them shop – you need to give them to tools to help them shop in your store to give you that advantage. And if you don’t you can be left behind. But the important thing to remember here about these statistics or whatever you use is that you need to give your clients the clear rationale to make this investment in digital. Arm them with the information they need to sell it to their boss – and themselves.
The final thing we ’ll talk about is showing the role digital plays in reaching your goals. That’s what it all about right, reaching goals? We know that consumers spend time with media in many diferent ways, with digital being a big part of it. So, when digital is presented as an “add on” clients won’t see it as a key part of their plan. And if it isn’t a key part of their plan, it becomes dispensable. When I approach a client about a digital initiative, I always want to think about the buying process and how I can illustrate the role our recommended digital tactics play as my clients’ audiences go through the relevant decision-making process. Not only does this show how important digital is, it also shows how key integrating your online and offline tactics is to the success of your campaign. Here’s one example of way you can demonstrate this.
You can also send me a note through Twitter or Email.

BITB -- The Digitally Integrated Pitch

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