Know-How Exchange : Other

“The thing is... I need to be unique and fun about it.”

Marci – IMHO, the thing is you need to be as unique and fun AS YOUR COMPANY IS ALREADY. Anything beyond that will appear obviously artificial to this potential client. I remember way back in the day we had a couple of guys speak to a Pepsi group, pitching their company’s wares. As each one took his turn at the podium, he took out a can of Pepsi, popped the top, then set it down. Neither ever took a sip. Their presentations were just as phony. They didn’t get the business.

I’d suggest (and fast, since you have limited time) that you focus on the key differentiating insight first. What is it that will make your client succeed? Look at where they are today, what they’ve been doing, and especially what the most successful zoos or competitive substitutes have been doing. Then boil it down to one big insight, the essence of your big idea and strategy.

THEN you can get creative. (And PS I don’t know how you can avoid presenting your company creds and specific proposal – I’ve done this before by leaving that to the end briefly, with a detailed set of leave behinds the client can read later…just be sure to summarize these two pieces with some killer bullets on 2 or 3 slides.)

Try to combine creative and fun, so it looks like one idea that carries thru, versus two different topics. Since you mentioned kids, I wonder if a unique approach might be to round up some kids from you and your team’s families and bring them to the pitch. What better way to show you understand this market than thru the eyes’ of the target audience? This would require some scripting and rehearsing so the kids know what their roles would be in the “meeting.” (and of course, subject to whatever child labor laws in your area so the lawyers don’t have to be called in ;)

You are bound to get a lot of “off the wall” ideas from this post. Here’s hoping you can pin them to your insight and strategy for the client, rather than vice versa.

Best of luck.

Quick! Get the book, "Beyond Bullet Points," by Cliff Atkinson. You can make a "straight" presentation and punctuate it with great visuals instead of boring business graphs and charts and bullet points.

If it's really an important presentation, you might want to get some outside help putting it together. It will be more expensive, but then you usually get what you pay for. Let me know if you want some suggestions or recommendations. You're not the first person to have a big presentation staring you in the face.

There's a balance between effective presentation and over-the-top creative.

Your #1 goal is to win the job. Presumably you've done your homework, known their business/marketing strategy, and created a plan that balances their resources with their goals.

The creative that you add must not detract from your core message (by making it about your company). Ideally, the creative should help the company be able to experience your marketing ideas through both the eyes of their company AND through the eyes of their target audience. For example, if you can find video footage of their audience experiencing the message (perhaps for a different company/product).

Gimmicks can easily come across as gimmicky. To play off of Cliff Atkinson's book - consider making a segment of your presentation using your words, but with children's voices.