Tom Monahan argues in the article Selling Your Ads Off that creatives might be able to sell via great ad ideas, but they are not very good at selling the ads themselves. While this rings very true, and his advice about writing down five reasons the client should buy the ad campaign (who doesn't do this?) it makes me wonder what on earth the Ad Execs job is, if not to sell the ad campaigns?
You simply must take selling seriously if you are going to get your best work through this obstacle course we call the approval process. Don’t fake it. Don’t prepare as you’re heading to the client’s. Take this aspect of your job to heart for pity’s sake. And, yes, it is part of your job—unless you work with suits who sell your best work 80-90% of the time. (In which case, stay as far away from the presentation room as possible.)
I presume he's never been at one of those large alphabet soup agencies where the creatives are never - but never - allowed into the client pitch. It's hard to sell when we aren't even there. What do you think about his column? How is the client pitch done at your agency? (Go easy on me, first post).
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He does have a point... As for those alphabet soup agencies that never let creatives come along on the pitch, sell your things to the AE. No rolling of eyes when they start 'putting the client-hat on' and question your ads from all angles - have answers! The only real way to sell great ads is to have an agency all pulling in the same direction - to sell the best work possible at all times.
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PermalinkGood points Dab. Creatives have to remember that AEs don the "client hat" for a reason- to make sure there are answers to those questions before walking into a meeting and looking like a fool. Maybe that is something more Creatives should think about when they are creating the ads.
Plus, I'm sure there are plenty of creatives who don't think so much about the selling of an idea as much as the creation of it. And that's understandable. But when you don't have a good AE out there on the line for you, sometimes you have to take matters into your own hands.
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