Advertising agencies WDCW and McKinney compete to win an ad campaign for the food chain Subway in AMC’s reality TV show The Pitch.
The Assignment: Convince 18-24 year olds to eat breakfast at Subway
Tony Pace, Chief Marketing Officer for Subway:
“We launched breakfast in April 2010. We’ve gotten to a certain level and we want to take it to the next level. So what we’re here to talk about today is a single demographic target and that is consumers aged 18-24. One of my pet phrases is ‘I don’t want SOS—Same Old Subway.’ So you’ve got to do something that is additive to people’s knowledge of Jared and the Subway brand.”
In this episode, I recommend looking at three specific sections:
- The assignment. (4:20-5:09)
- McKinney staffers pitch their ideas to their bosses. (11:28- 16:00)
- McKinney’s winning pitch. (34:25-37:19)
What can we learn from this?
- Creating a good pitch takes time. It’s not something you “wing” in the room.
- Creating a pitch is often a messy, non-linear process. This is why you want to generate lots of ideas and test them.
- Before presenting an idea to a decision-maker, polish your presentation in front of friends and colleagues. In other words: rehearse.
Want to see the complete pitch before it was edited into the show?
Check out the complete pitch deck for McKinney’s winning pitch (lower left hand corner). Like all reality TV, The Pitch is heavily edited for time and drama, but we can learn from what McKinney did well, even in this heightened situation. A round of applause to the McKinney team!
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What Is The One Thing You Must Do When Pitching To A Celebrity?
May 22, 2012 at 9:00 am, Ben Taxy said:
Interesting. The way the teams pitched to each other to generate the eventual ideas is a step I hadn’t expected to see, but helps me to think about doing that with my own team.
May 22, 2012 at 9:39 am, Stephanie Palmer said:
When I watch The Pitch, it’s uncomfortable to listen to the rough pitches. Do you agree?
May 22, 2012 at 8:30 pm, Damian said:
Thanks for sharing this show with me… after we talked about it I watched this episode online. It’s the first reality show I can consider professional development.