Last week, I finished working in Panama City, Panama with a number of communications professionals from North and South American.  Getting people from different organizations and different countries all with slightly different agendas to come together on a unified message is always a challenge.  That being said, the group made enormous progress. Thank you to the tremendous hosts in Panama who made me feel welcome in their wonderful country.
For those who have never been, Panama is an incredible country.  Very modern, yet the remnants of the US occupation of the Canal Zone are still very apparent.  For those of you that know of my love of fishing, a trip from downtown to the boat dock on the canal is about 40 minutes.  The fishing was amazing.  Peacock bass did everything but jump into the boat for me.
-Mark

On April 19 and May 2 Filament Inc. conducted its first two webinars with AAAA.  While Filament has delivered this content in person at agencies all over the world, AAAA convinced us that it was time to deliver the content, albeit in a more abbreviated version, via the web.  Apparently, we underestimated the demand for information on how to get clients to approve an agency’s best work because hundreds of people signed up for the webinar from agencies throughout North America.
Particularly encouraging were the amount of college students that signed up.  While it was only a fraction of the total audience, there were still a surprising number of college students from numerous different schools including Stanford University, Brown, Cornell, UT Austin, Syracuse and VCU to name a few.  In all, 27 different universities were represented.  It was great to see college students looking beyond their classrooms for ways to develop crucial skills.
AAAA does a wonderful job at helping agency staff and apparently college students improve their skills in a variety of different areas.  Click here for a list of AAAA workshops, webinars and conferences.

As we work with organizations, helping them with presentations, it has become clear to us that sometimes a great presentation should not be the goal.  We have seen people with very good presentation skills still deliver presentations that do not motivate the audience to action.  The fact of the matter is that the goal is not to give a good presentation, with good presentation skills. The goal is to be persuasive.
Persuasion training is a new offering from Filament that helps people to address the underlying issues involved with getting people to think or act differently.  For more information follow the Persuasion Training link.

The 4As year conference, TransformationLA http://transformationla.com/ this past week was a tremendous success. It was an honor to share the stage with so many industry heavy-hitters.

Not surprisingly, my Winning Large Multi-agency Pitches session let to some spirited conversation. While pitches can dominate an agency exec’s schedule, the session was a rare opportunity to have an open discussion about the new business process without the specter of a pitch deadline looming.

It was great to catch up with some friends.

Regards,

Mark Schnurman
President – Filament Inc.

A new blog post on Pitch Therapy about the Pistachios Super Bowl spot and rules that govern creative work.
For a while now, I have been working with agencies and watching TV wondering if our industry is truly creative or is it simply following a set of rules laid down by our advertising forefathers.  There is plenty of work that is incredibly creative but sometimes I feel like the work is being bogged down with outdated rules.  The two rules that I question the most are branding colors and calls to action.  The pistachio ad brilliantly lampooned both creative laws in two, perfect 15 second spots….

As part of Filament Inc’s ongoing work with AAAA, Brian Schnurman will be conducting How to Sell Creative Work to Clients Workshops in the following locations.
October 12, 2012 – Charlotte, NC
October 23, 2012 – Orlando, FL
The challenge with getting clients to accept great creative work is that the client often cannot see what makes the creative great.  This workshop will give you tools and language necessary to generate enthusiasm for your ideas and most importantly, help you get clients to willingly and enthusiastically follow your recommendations.

This webinar is designed to insure that your best ideas are accepted and not watered down through multiple trips back to the drawing board.  The end result is better work, less negotiation over executional details and less time spent implementing client’s suggestions.

The ICA, the Canadian Institute of Communications Agencies has asked Filament Inc. to present our Selling Creative Work to Clients Workshop in Toronto June 13, 2012. This is our first opportunity to work with the ICA and we look forward to meeting our Canadian counterparts.

ICA is the not-for-profit association for Canadian communication agencies, representing 75%+ of all national advertising. Their mission is to champion commercial creativity, amplify the industry’s economic impact, and to embrace and drive change.

Visit their website at www.icacanada.ca

The following is a blog post taken from Filament Inc’s Pitch Therapy blog, a blog dedicated to the art of winning new business.

Maybe I need a break from new business pitches because I am starting to see parallels in the most peculiar places. The most recent parallel was in last night’s Super Bowl Halftime show.

It seemed as if Madonna, in an effort to be FCC-friendly and inclusive, strayed from her irreverent style and settled smack dab in the middle of mediocrity. In an effort to make the show less lame, she added Trojan warriors, a high-tech stage, LMFAO, Cee Lo Green and M.I.A. All of which made the show busier but no less interesting. How often are the advertising equivalent of Trojan warriors added to your pitch? The result is the same… a busier, but no more compelling pitch.

Just like bells and whistles don’t make a boring halftime show any less boring, those same bells and whistles also don’t help to make a new business presentation any more compelling…

Click here to read the entire article.
http://www.pitchtherapy.blogspot.com/2012_02_01_archive.html

The 4As has asked Brian Schnurman to conduct Filament’s Selling Creative Work to Clients Workshop in Columbus, OH on March 6, 2012. Presenting creative work to clients or prospects is not as much about presentation skills as it about selling skills. Clients need to be transformed from “creative evaluators” to “creative champions.” If your clients are discussing the color and font, they are still in creative evaluator mode and this workshop will help you to turn clients into champions of your creative work instead of killers of great ideas.

This all day workshop, conducted by Brian Schnurman of Filament, Inc., explores how to turn creative staff from presenters of work to proponents of work, and how to sell the big idea instead of the details.
Topics to be covered include:

• Getting clients excited about the creative (both traditional and digital), so they are willing to take a risk;
• Helping clients understand the role of digital and viral campaigns;
• Creating more “theater of the mind” through set up, and physical delivery of concepts;
• Establishing your credibility with the client;
• Presenting ideas with greater impact, clarity and focus;
• Helping all types of clients understand and personally relate to the creative;
• Becoming more persuasive;
• Projecting enthusiasm for all work (not just their own work);
• Holding the listener’s attention and become more engaging;
• Handling difficult client objections and questions without becoming defensive;
• Presenting effectively as a team.

Schedule
8:30am Registration and Continental Breakfast (included in registration fee)
9:00am Workshop begins
12:00pm Lunch (included in registration fee)
4:30pm Workshop adjourns

Registration Fees
$250 per person, 4A’s members; $375 per person, Non 4A’s members

Click here for more information about the conference.
https://www.aaaa.org/pages/events.aspx?webcode=EventInfo&RegPath=EventRegFees&REg_evt_key=4f9bdd58-1610-4b47-a03f-d2864235fbe3