Presenting Creative Work to Clients open workshop 10/19/11 in Chicago with Mark Schnurman

The AAAA has asked Mark Schnurman to host an open workshop for its members focused on Presenting Creative Work to Clients. The workshop is scheduled for October 19, 2011 in Chicago. 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.

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 becoming more engaging
• Handling difficult client objections and questions without becoming defensive
• Presenting effectively as a team.

Click here for more information about the conference.

Filament’s New Website

After toiling over every word of copy and scrutinizing every photograph, Filament Inc.’s new website is up and running. While the old site served us well, it was starting to look a little dated. A fresh look at the copy was also useful.

Thank you to everyone who helped make sure that the website captures the finer points of Filament Inc.  We are thrilled with the result.

Manny Awards 2011

April brings the yearly celebration of excellence in healthcare advertising. As in years past, Filament clients are well represented. 2011 marks the 10th year in a row that at least one Filament client has been nominated for Agency of the Year Category I.

Filament clients have been nominated in a number of categories including:

Advertising Agency of the Year Category I
Most Admired Agency
Most Creative Agency
Best Professional Advertising Campaign
Best Consumer Advertising Campaign
Best Self-Promotion Campaign
Best Disease-Awareness Campaign
Best Interactive Physician Campaign

Congratulations to all of our clients on a great year!

Mark Schnurman part of a webcast panel discussion hosted by Ed Silverman of Pharmalot

Mark Schnurman was part of a webcast panel discussion hosted by Ed Silverman of Pharmalot. The panel discussed the navigating the procurement process for pharmaceutical advertising pitches.

The panelists came from a variety of backgrounds giving the audience a look at procurement from different points of view. Other panelists included Michael Thyen, Director, Marketing & Sales Global Procurement, Eli Lilly and Deborah Dick-Rath, Senior Vice President, Healthcare Practice Leader, FactorTG.

Issues covered during the webcast included:
• How big a vote should procurement get in the decision making process?
• When should procurement get involved and what should their role be?
• What should procurement tell an agency before the pitch?

Click here to view the webcast.

Mark Schnurman now on twitter

Mark Schnurman is now on Twitter!  @markschnurman

Based on the success of the “Why Agencies Win” workshop at the AAAA Transformation 2011 conference and the amount of buzz the workshop created on Twitter, Mark has joined the twitterverse.

The goal is to provide a resource to agency executives and new business directors addressing issues facing our industry.  “The amount of immediately useful content on Twitter is fantastic and I hope to contribute to the conversation” says Mark.

Follow Mark at click here

Filament lights up twitter at 4As Transformation 2011

Mark Schnurman’s presentation “Why Agencies Win” at the 4As Transformation 2011 Conference in Austin, Texas generated nearly 50 tweets from the packed house.  Chairs needed to be added to accommodate the overflow crowd.   The question and answer session spilled over into cocktail hour.  Nothing says a workshop is productive like making people late for cocktail hour!

                                 

Having worked with numerous agencies on countless pitches, Mark crafted a presentation that helped the audience understand the habits of effective agencies.  Touching on topics like pitch discipline and leadership, Mark addressed the core parts of the pitch process that winning agencies execute at a high level compared to their non-winning counterparts.  

“It was a thrill to get so much positive feedback.  New business, regardless of the economy is always a hot topic” say Mark.

Agency Collaboration blog post about Mark Schnurman

Chris Yeh, author of the Agency Collaboration blog, posted his notes from Mark’s Why Agencies Win Presentation at 4As Transformation 2011 conference in Austin, TX.

http://agencycollaboration.com/2011/03/08/why-agencies-win-mark-schnurman/

The Agency Collaboration blog focuses on all the issues that agencies face when it comes to collaboration.  This includes inter-agency, intra-agency, and agency-client collaboration, as well as the technologies agencies use to meet their collaboration needs.

Pam Bloore starts Tips for Nervous Presenters blog

Pam Bloore is now part of the blogosphere!

Pam has decided to share her expertise on overcoming nervousness with her new blog.  Pam has always been passionate about helping people become more comfortable presenting and the blog is a perfect venue for her to talk to a larger audience.

Follow Pam’s blog here http://tipsfornervouspresenters.blogspot.com/

Mark Schnurman asked to speak at AAAA Transformation conference

Mark Schnurman has been asked to speak at the upcoming 4As Conference scheduled for March 2011 in Austin, Texas.  Mark will be speaking about the core skills and habits that lead to agency new business pitch wins.

Sharing the stage with Mark reads like a who’s who in advertising list.  Other presenters include:

John Adams                 CEO – The Martin Agency
Duff Stewart                President and CEO – GSD&M
Chuck Porter               Chairman – Crispin Porter + Bugosky
Dave Lubeck                EVP Director of Client Services – Bernstein Rein
Eric Mower                 Chairman/CEO – Eric Mower and Associates
Sharon Napier             President and CEO – partners + napier
Ignacio Oreamuno      President – GiantHydra
Miles Young                CEO – Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide

 

4As stages on a terrific conference and this year’s gathering should be no exception.  With the myriad of challenges facing the economy and the advertising industry, this year’s event should be very well attended.  To read more about the conference, click here.

Med Ad News Publishes Article — Clear all hurdles to win pitch news

The following article entitled Clear all Hurdles to Win the Pitch  ran in Med Ad News’ June 2010 issue.  Mark Schnurman writes a monthly column entitled Pitch Therapy for Med Ad News about pitching new business.  The article also appeared on Mark’s Pitch Therapy blog which can be found at:http://www.pitchtherapy.blogspot.com/

During the pitch process, clients are not just looking for the agency they should hire. More importantly, they are looking at the agencies they should not hire. An agency needs to clear a number of hurdles in order to win the business. Some of the hurdles are obvious: creative, strategy, capabilities. But some of the hurdles are more difficult to see coming: charisma, likability, chemistry.

First let’s take a look at the obvious hurdles. When it comes to creative, clients are not only looking for good creative (and you can define good however you like), but they are looking very closely to make sure that the creative is on strategy. Read more