• Jon Steel - Understanding the basics of human communication. You don't target the consumers; you engage as willing accomplices both in developing the ad campaign and execution.

Best ads: 2 way communication

"The very best advertising is like the one end of a very interesting conversation and it was a conversation starter and it was a stimulus for a 2-way dialogue bet the brand and the consumer." Howard Gossage, planner '60s

"I speak to the masses but talk to them one at a time" - Spielberg, secret to success

Think about individuals.

- Useful - Work above ego - Be the one in the agency that makes connections bet brand and culture and the human context

However complex things become (tech dev) in the end we're still talking about basic human interaction. Find the common ground / common language.

JON STEEL LOOKS FOR: - Great writers - interesting & interested - comfortable talking to fortune 500, to watermelon vendor, to createst

PERFECT PITCH • stop using powerpoint (bec it makes the audience & presenter lazy, creates a barrier / easier to read a slide than do it) • deliver goods in the most creative way possible. • value of listening • importance of research • using presenters who are confident AND likeable • purpose of the pitch is to win, not necessarily be right.

• Johnny Cochrane's masterful demolition of the prosecution in the OJ Simpson trial
• Bill Clinton's presidential debates ("It's the economy, stupid)
• WInston Churchill
• Martin Luther King
• Calling cards of a London prostitute
• British Olympic team for 2012 Olympics -- it was inspiring, thrilling, story.
• Got milk
• Dirt is Good campaign

"I believe that many of the most important lessons about pitching are to be learned from outside of the agency business. At its heart, any presentation is a simple act of human communication, where the aim is to persuade the members of an audience to think and behave differently."

You can tell if the client says they "wanted more". They liked our ideas, they liked us, they liked our passion for those ideas. • Importance of client relationship

Table of Contents Introduction: An Audience with Steve Jobs. Chapter 1. Presentation Crime: Why Most Presentations Fail.

Chapter 2. Imperfect Pitch: The People of the State of California v. Orenthal James Simpson.

Chapter 3. Bill Clinton, Johnnie Cochran, and a London Hooker: Learning from the World’s Best Presenters.

Chapter 4. Making Connections: Planning the Perfect Pitch.

Chapter 5. Trevor’s Sledgehammer: Crating room for Thought.

Chapter 6. We Will Fight them in the Boardroom: How to Run a Great Idea by Presenting it Badly.

Chapter 7. Benign Dictatorship: Leading the Perfect Team Pitch.

Chapter 8. The Pitch and Beyond: How to Leave the Client Wanting More.

Chapter 9. The Perfect Pitch: London’s Winning bid for the 2012 Olympic Games.

Acknowledgments.

Bibliography.

Index.

About the Autho

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When you're pitching have the idea very early, then 'execute the hell out of it' (when a client asked Silverstein whether that was the best idea they could have come up with once, Silverstein replied: 'Is your wife the best woman you could have married?')

If you wear your heart on your sleeve (whatever your heart's like) it will be a better presentation.

We shouldn't hide our intuition from our clients behind facts and research. There's nothing to be embarrassed about.

One of the most powerful new business tools is the ability to say No. When the business isn't right for your agency, or you don't think you can win. Or you're doing too many pitches.

Win pitches on your own terms.

Rehearse, rehearse, rehearse.

Powerpoint is designed for the benefit of presenters, not the audience.

The presenter is the presentation.

Wordy powerpoint if always overkill for a presentation, and underkill for a leave-behind copy.

Bosses need to trust their teams and delegate properly. Small groups become demotivated very fast if they know the chief exec will come in and rewrite the pitch the night before. Either the CE is involved properly from the start, or not at all.

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Jon Steel and Generalists

Perhaps the seminal book on advertising account planning is Jon Steel's 1998 classic Truth, Lies and Advertising, written when Steel was working with Goodby Silverstein & Partners in San Francisco. He's now back in Britain working as a senior planning consultant for the giant WPP Group and releasing a new book titled Perfect Pitch: The Art of Selling Ideas and Winning New Business. He and fellow Englishman Russell Davies sat down yesterday for a splendid audio chat worth a listen if you've got a spare hour. Two of Steel's responses in particular are especially relevant here:

We need more generalists. And the way that agencies are structured doesn't leave much room for generalists. We want the sort of agency equivilent of Joe Cole and be given the sort of freedom to roam behind the front guy - which will probably mean nothing whatsoever to most of your listeners...

Oh, don't worry. I've had a prolonged debate with someone on the blog about whether agencies should be like 1970s Dutch squad...Total Football...lots of people who are good at everything.

But they should. And the best agencies are. If I think of the best pitches I've been involved in, it would be very difficult for the client to figure out who was the planner, who was the creative director, who was the media person, who was the account person because, you know, your presentations are so closely intertwined. The planner's talking about creative stuff and the creative director is talking about strategic stuff. That's the dream team for an agency, when you have people that are capable of thinking across disciplinary lines.

The people that you meet at the junior/younger level [applying for a WPP fellowship], are they as broad in their interests as you would like them to be?

No...

I remember Rich Silverstein saying to me several years ago, he said "why is it that all of our best planners leave? ... They all want to paint and write books." I said that's why I hired them in the first place. I hired them because they were painting. And I hired them because they were writing. And I hired them because they were into all this interesting stuff. And we've had two or three years great work out of them and they're going to pursue their interests again. That's fine! So let's find somebody else who can do that.

The most interesting people aren't going to be permanent fixtures in an agency unless the agency has a sort of forward-looking way of constructing its employment agreements. Good agencies that want really smart creative planners need to offer them less-than-full-time employment, need to support them in the other projects they have to stretch themselves creatively. A lot of companies still aren't up for that.