Last month Creativebrief MD Charlie Carpenter was asked to sit on an expert panel at the Art of New Business event held at LBi.

The evening opened with a keynote from David Kean, Co-Founder of The Caffeine Partnership, who talked the audience through best practice for pitching and how to get into a winning mentality. “For dog owners, be the person your dog believes you are when pitching.” And remember, there is no prize for second place “There is no second in pitching – if you’ve not won you’ve lost. Every losing agency gets told they came second.” 

Next came the Pecha Kucha sessions which focused on “creative selling – ideas for getting noticed.” 

Those taking part in this rapid-fire format included:

• Vince Medeiros, Publisher, The Church of London
• Rob Morrice, CEO of Stein IAS
• Matt Rice, co-founder of Sennep
• Ben Callis, Creative Director of Sapient Nitro
• Ben Tallon, Ben Tallon Illustration

Sennep win business by doing great work. Their app OLO, which is now built in to IOS had some fans in the audience. And it was brilliant to see how Sapient Nitro’s ‘tech ball’ was developed to maximise Standard Chartered’s sponsorship of Liverpool FC’s shirt. 

Good advice from Rob Morrice, saying “You never bore anyone into buying anything.” And a top quote from Ben Tallon “Pursue the happiness and you’ll go from strength to strength.”

The panel debate (hosted by Sarah Bradley from TAONB) then concluded proceedings and consisted of:

• Daryl Fielding, Brand Director, Vodafone UK
• Charlie Carpenter, MD, Creativebrief
• Stephen Maher, Chairman, The Marketing Society
• Helen Kensett, Founder, Convince UK

The stand out quote came from Daryl Fielding when she recalled walking into an agency reception and being “looked at like a cup of cold sick!” She went on to praise the receptionist at BBH for recognising her, taking her up to her meeting and knowledgeably chatting to her on the way. Daryl reiterated that receptions are a first impression for clients and they begin to judge agencies from the moment they walk in. She said the same about agency websites and other online showcases. This is where the customer experience begins, and agencies must consider that.

Stephen Maher suggested that 95% of outbound new business activity resulted in nothing, and it takes hard work and commitment to reach the other 5%. Interestingly though he gave a nod to the value of intermediaries in the search process, and urged agencies to “engage with organisations like creativebrief.”

The culmination of the panel discussion focused on the issue of paid pitches. Following some heated debate the panel agreed that the current situation is unsustainable (with the average pitch costing in the region of £187,000!) but that redesigning (e.g. curtailing) the process itself would be the best course of action, rather than paying for pitches.

Charlie gave examples of how creativebrief are already driving this agenda by empowering clients including Courvoisier, Dr Oetker and Foot Locker to confidently appoint agencies without full pitch processes – rather following shortened, strategically-led chemistry sessions that don’t require creative development.

There’s no doubt that these issues will be discussed in even more depth at the IPA’s ‘Good Pitch Week’ – a series of events designed to examine pitch practice and inject new thinking as part of the www.thegoodpitch.com initiative. The week commences on Monday 4th November 2013. For full information on the individual events see the Good Pitch Week.

Thanks to the team at The Art of New Business for a great event.

Audience members represented: