Maybe it’s because I’m so used to my favorite shows getting cancelled just about the time I’m figuring out what night they are on.  Or maybe it’s because I’m just jaded from losing “Firefly” so many years ago?

Either way, I’m impressed with this network and their decision to support a show that has drawn lackluster ratings and impressive criticism. Way to go AMC!!! THIS DOG AIN’T DEAD AFTER ALL!!!

Here’s where I heard the news:

http://adage.com/article/media/amc-brings-pitch-back-a-season/236720/

I can’t exactly blame AMC, since the ratings haven’t been very good. Actually, they’ve been pretty darn lousy! My guess is that they decided to try for a hail Mary bump from Mad Men. What did they have to lose? One live podcaster unfortunately. Don’t get me wrong, I’ll still watch it, just not live.

So, here’s my rallying cry:

Almost all of the people I’ve interacted with are in advertising, marketing, sales, etc. So, we are the absolute best people to get this show the bump it needs! We can do it people!

However, if that doesn’t happen, what about changing the format? I have to admit, there is way too much time spent getting to know new characters for every episode. I’d love to see the same couple of agencies on a more regular basis. Now that’s what we want to see. Less chop, less characters, more depth of story. Come on “Story Matters”, right?

End soap box…

Whatever you think of this episode of The Pitch, you probably won’t soon forget a few things:

BooneOakley (cool name)
PopChips (also a cool name – cool idea)
The Conversation (strange name – founder that has an ego bigger than the company)

Now, I hate to be too critical of anyone in particular, especially anyone that has had bits and pieces of their “conversation” sliced and diced into a 45 minute tv show. So, I’ll take it easy on Frank. He’s actually much less of an evil-doer than what we’ve seen in previous episodes. However, he has created a culture that makes me cringe at the thought of it. I really feel bad for the employees at Conversation.

So, let’s talk about what he has done right. He’s clearly employed a dedicated and talented team. He’s also got a strategic & creative mind that is able to lead that team in a clear direction. That’s all good stuff!

The problem we see on the show lies more in his attitude than anything else. He tells his team right away what direction they are going in. And, when his team clearly doesn’t understand, he says he can’t wait to see what they come up with. Then, to top things off, he says, “it’s a dope idea that I came up with”. Wow! This guy has a lot to learn about leading people.

Let’s just hope, that as usual, the airing of The Pitch will enlighten him to his weaknesses as a leader. Please oh please, don’t put your head in the sand Frank!!!!

With all that being said, we have the complete opposite with BooneOakley. An organization that has clearly focused very hard on their people and the culture they provide. Maybe even to a fault? Maybe not? I know that I’d kill to work there; assuming Greg Johnson is on hand for all strategic meetings.

Once again we see a situation where the best ideas may not have won the day, but instead the ability to listen to the client, conceptualize ideas that meet the clients needs, and present those ideas in a way that hits the home run.

Episode #3 – The Pitch Fan Podcast.

Note AMC night changes to Sunday night.

Did you go through cell phone withdraw while watching? Did the Canadian’s blow it? Who’s the evil doer in this episode?

Clockwork Home Services (client)
-The Hive (Toronto)
-FKM (Texas)

@FrankAdman twitterchat:

Be sure to check out the book that David Oakley is featured in (affiliate link):

#ThePitchFanRockstars:
@TomRoyce
@barrycunningham
@CorporateHRGirl
@FKMagency
@The_Hive
@FrankAdman

Upcoming Episode:
popchips (client)
-BooneOakley
-The Conversation

The Hive takes a break from the pressure to play a game of hockey (video):

Check out FKM’s presentation of their ideas (includes two not shown on the show):

http://www.fkmagency.com/

Episode 104 Sneak Peak (video):

Even twitter seems to have died down over the past few days (compared to previous episodes).  But why?  I have a couple of theories:

Evil-doers:

First of all, everyone loves a bad-guy, right?  I mean, we as a viewing public love the drama of it all.  Much like sports, it’s just in our nature to want to cheer for someone, and of course having an oppressor makes it that much easier!  Not surprisingly, AMC & Studio Lambert know this.  And that’s why characters like Jonathan Cude, Liz Paradise, and Ray Johnson steal the spotlight.  But this episode has no evil-doers.  The closest thing we have is when FKM takes their employee’s cell phones away.  Although, some would say that was a blessing!

Underdogs:

To make things even more interesting, when the clients pick agencies that we (the viewing public) don’t agree with, we get even more enraged.  Now we are forced to pick an “underdog”.  I mean, who doesn’t love an underdog?  Just think back to WDCW; “The Democracy of Good Ideas” sounds almost like the American dream.  How can you go against that?

The unfortunate thing in this episode is that there wasn’t a clear underdog.  Other than the fact that one agency is from Canada and the other is from Texas, they seemed to be equals ready for some stiff competition.  Even though, when all was said and done, everyone still had their favorite, they probably weren’t jumping up and down for them at the end.

The Brand:

What about the brand?  What role does that play in getting the viewing public out of their seat?  Personally, I use Subway and Waste Management on a regular basis.  Do I take them for granted, most certainly “yes”.  Do I enjoy their brands, of course.  But, I don’t wear Waste Management t-shirts nor do I don Subway hats.

So for this brand, Clockwork Home Services, it seems like it should be even more exciting.  I’m sure that if my toilet was overflowing, I’d be jumping on the phone immmmediately!!  So, brand excitement should be there this time, right? Or was something else missing?

Creativity:

Here’s where the rubber meets the road!  Right out of the gates, Clockwork home services says, “don’t come back to us saying that we need to combine the brands”, “we are keeping these brand images”.  Wha, wha, what?

You could have just sucked the air out of the room, from a creativity standpoint.  That makes this really tough.  Take a minute to think about those logos.  Can you remember one in particular?  I can’t, and I’ve been knee deep in this stuff for at least two weeks.

So, even though all of my fellow sales and marketing professionals out there were probably yelling at the T.V. when it happened; The Hive took a big risk by going against their clients stated desires.  They saw that sticking with three separate brands limited their creative options and presented them with something they clearly weren’t interested in.  This was either brave or dumb; I’m voting for brave. (but I’m a little dumb

Of course, we now know what the final outcome was and what the client chose.  And it was good.  I will definitely remember “HELP”; not sure how that “helps” clockwork, but I’ll remember it.  Maybe it will have more of an affect once they start repeating the commercials every five minutes for the next two months?

Don’t Give Up Fans:

Anyway, between evil-doers and underdogs, winners and losers, we still love the sport of it.  Don’t get me wrong, it’s just as fascinating to consider the reasoning behind the decisions.  The personalities involved in choosing who wins and who loses is complex.  Even the quality of the presentations play an important role in the final outcome.

So, never fear, because you just can’t go through life without coming across those evil-doers; without rooting for an underdog, or without declaring a winner and a loser.  So, stay tuned for the next episode of The Pitch, because every sport has a slow game; even reality t.v.

If you have a comment that you’d like to add, please feel free to click the comment button.  Otherwise, if you’d prefer to shout at me, simply call and leave a message for The Pitch Fan Podcast:

816-623-3271 (24 hrs / 7 days)

Fan comment line:
816-623-3271

This episodes players:

Waste Management (client)
-SK+G (Agency #1)
-The Ad Store (Agency #2)

Behind the scenes:
-AMC TV Video Clip of Waste Management (Why they won)

Call in discussion:
-Socialtv
-Demographic input
-Culture affect on outcome

Best of twitter:
@jenclinehens
@ppcbuyers
@mrlamour

#ThePitchFanRockstars:
@Cmoyer
@ppcbuyers
@TomRoyce
@barrycunningham
@JennyDeVaughn
@sabreangel
@Krochmal
@MrLaMour

SK+G Attempt at viral video:

Ray Johnson (bald guy) moves to Chicago after “The Pitch”

The Hive shows their PR skills before their episode even airs:

Liz Paradise gives interview – no F-bombs this time.

After watching twitter all-a-buzz over the past few days ( #ThePitch ), I can’t help but see somewhat of a trend here.  Two pitches, one is original, but a little edgy (if that).  The other fits nicely into a box that could only hold a large corporate commercial.  Which one wins?  The one that makes the execs cry!

Now, with that being said, I also keep hearing that we don’t see everything and that there are numerous cuts & edits that affect the final outcome.  Which I imagine IS the case.  However, how can we as fans stand firm on our opinion without all the facts?  If only we had all the facts, we could be even more judgmental!

In case you missed it, here’s the commercial that won by SK+G:

And for your viewing pleasure, here is the one that lost by The Ad Store:

Now, to be fair, there are two things that I noted as I watched the “Why they won” video on AMC’s site:

1.) The exec’s at Waste Management noted the winning team’s Manifesto.  What’s that?

2.) The social media campaign was seemingly missing from The Ad Store’s campaign (and apparently pretty cool for SK+G).  Did The Ad Store really miss that?

Again, these kind of details leave me wondering if what we saw is really the whole story?  Maybe I’m an eternal optimist, but it’s so hard for me to believe that the exec’s could have chosen something that would be so… forgettable.

Anyway, I think the biggest question for me is WHY?

What I mean is, why does Waste Management want the public to think of them as a power company?  Is that going to make me give them more trash?  Nope.  Is that going to make me want to pay them more to take my trash?  Nope.  ”Maybe they just want a cleaner image”, you say?  Well, I guess that’s fair, but check out their site and you’ll see that it’s not really working.  I got pretty bored just looking at it; which tells me that I must be missing something?  I still think of them as a trash company.

If you want me to think that they collect all of my trash and turn it into beautiful, clean, green energy, they are going to have to convince me.  Show me some stats, some numbers, some behind the scenes science.  What’s the byproduct to these processes?  Which parts of my trash become energy and which ones get put into a hole in the ground?

We all know that humans produce a lot of trash and that anything we can do to reclaim that is good.  So, thank goodness for trash companies!  However, a feel good commercial isn’t going to stop me from holding my nose the next time a Waste Management truck drives by.  They collect on Monday morning’s here in my neighborhood.

I don’t mean to be critical, cuz our site here is still pretty humble.  However, this is a mult-billion dollar company.  Don’t tell me they don’t have a team of people that could be making this site HOT and their message crystal clear!  I just assumed when I checked their site, I would find lot’s of cool video’s and graphics; instead it’s just a bunch of boring text.  Too bad!

Just check out SK+G’s site.  Now that is cool!

Anyway, these questions are burning me up!  And the funny thing is that I’ve been following @TheAdStore and @SKGPR for over a week now on twitter and I don’t feel like I’ve learned anything new about them nor any insight into the show.  Come on guys…this is a real PR opportunity here.  And after that bald dude went all crazy in the board room and Paul Cappelli admitted to being broke, they both need it a lot worse than WM does.

Actually, to give @Wastemanagement some credit, they have been pretty active on twitter; running a chat just prior to the premiere and a viewer tagline contest in which they gave away an iPad.  Unfortunately, I still really don’t get their “pitch”.  Again, I guess we’ll see what happens.

Of course I wish the best to Waste Management and especially to The Ad Store and even SK+G.  They are all brave for taking the risk that comes along with being on “The Pitch”.  I just hope that they can use it to their advantage.

Be sure to check out our podcast on the Subway episode.  We’ll have our next episode up before next Monday night’s “Clockwork Account”:

Introduction to The Pitch (AMC):

Monday nights 8/9

Fan comment in line:
816-623-3271

Two advertising agencies go head to head for one clients business.

Subway (client)
-WDCW (Agency #1)
-Mckinney (Agency #2)
-MMB (Agency of record)

Behind the scenes:
-Ideasicle Podcast (Tracy Wong / Jonathan Cude)
-Democracy of good ideas (Tracy Wong Blog)
-AMC TV Video Clip of Tony Pace (why Mckinney)

Similarities to Mad Men:
-60 years difference; brainstorming the same.
-Basal instincts and desires the same.

Best of twitter:
@joeolsen
@natepuza
@ledbetterpr

Behind the Scenes Interview with Tony Pace / “Why They Won”

Will Burns (Ideasicle Video Podcast) Skype Interview with Mckinney’s Jonathan Cude

Will Burns (Ideasicle Video Podcast) Skype Interview with WDCW’s Tracy Wong

Tracy Wong’s Blog Post on “When a loss is not a loss”.

Behind the scenes videos at Mckinney