#365DaysOfWriting – Day Thirty-One
Working on a pitch in advertising can be exhilarating and exhausting.
On the day I successfully complete a month of writing daily, I had to do a lot of other writing – copywriting to be precise.
Yes, I’m a copywriter in a digital marketing agency. And today, I was working on a pitch.
At all the agencies I’ve worked in, there’s always been a feverish buzz when a pitch presentation approaches its deadline.
It all begins, though, with a brief.
What they say: “Oh guys, I’ve got this exciting new brief from a prestigious client to pitch for their account!”
What they mean: “Here come two weeks of exhilaration, followed by anxiety and last-minute heartaches.”
Yes, quite literally. Eventually though, when everything comes together, you sit back and wonder, “did we really pull that off?” There is a sense of pride at looking at good work you’ve done.
It should end with getting the business… sadly, that doesn’t happen every time.
But I suppose that’s the thrill of the business – not every batsman that scores a 100 guarantees a win for his team, right?
Some of the best creative thinking comes through in a pitch – naturally, you’d think, as the brief is more or less open (compared to when you actually have the client on board). Just sometimes though, I’ve seen clients making the mistake of giving a restricted brief, because ‘my brand can only do so-and-so’ or ‘low budget’. If you’re really looking at creative thinking strength, your brief should be as liberating as possible. This is just my opinion though…
