The following article entitled All Hands on Deck was published in the recent issue of Med Ad News. Mark Schnurman writes a monthly column entitled Pitch Therapy for Med Ad News about pitching new business.

When I am with a new client working on a pitch, I am usually asked how other agencies handle the responsibilities of writing the deck. While revealing how a particular agency handles deck writing would be like revealing Kentucky Fried Chicken’s secret recipe, there are basically two different philosophies of deck writing represented by a deck dictator versus a deck democracy.

The deck dictator scenario is where one person writes every deck. The biggest advantage of the pitch dictator is that the agency is assured of a consistent flow and cadence to the deck with a low chance of inconsistencies. This typically makes it much easier for the audience to track with the presenters and follow the story. While this is the only significant advantage, the advantage is enormous and should not be overlooked.

The disadvantages of the pitch dictator are numerous. The most obvious is…

Click here to read the entire article.
http://www.pitchtherapy.blogspot.com/2011/07/all-hand-on-deck.html

Catch up on the latest Pitch Therapy blog post. This post comes to Pitch Therapy from Jim Joseph’s blog, Jim is President of Lippe Taylor Brand Communications and author of the book The Experience Effect. Jim discusses what he considers is Every Presenters Nightmare.=

I guess I should consider myself lucky that I lasted all these years without it ever happening to me. But yesterday it did. The moment I have dreaded for years … the moment that all public speakers dread.

I was speaking at the MDPA marketing conference just outside Washington, DC … talking about the evolution of social media especially as it relates to wellness. The MC of the conference makes a very articulate introduction for me and I confidently walk up onto stage. I say “Good Morning” with all the gusto I’ve got and hit the button to advance the next slide …

Nothing happens.

I click again, I point it at the screen, I click again … Nothing happens. Thinking that maybe something will save me I click again … Nothing happens.

I decide to give an intro to the slides while the IT folks figure out what’s going on — to buy myself some time … Nothing happens.

By the look on the IT guy’s face, I quickly realize that I am hanging out there on my own….

Click here to read the entire article.
http://www.pitchtherapy.blogspot.com/2011/09/every-presenters-nightmare.html

Filament President, Mark Schnurman will be speaking at the Association of Hispanic Advertising Agencies (AHAA) Conference this October in Miami. Mark has been asked to give an in depth look at the new business challenges facing agencies in today’s market.

Filament Inc.’s new business seminar is definitely not a beginner course on the ABC’s of pitching; it’s an in-depth, often critical, look at what experienced new business staff should be doing differently to help the agency win more accounts. In the session, you’ll learn how to break your agency of its bad, ineffective habits and make sure your agency takes home the prize.

Click here for more information about the conference.

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.

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.

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 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 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

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!

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

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.