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Posts tagged THE PITCH

Why Isn’t FKM or Clockwork Home Services more evil?



clockwork_home_services_group_shotOk, so for the first time in The Pitch’s short life, I agree with their decision!  As much as my inner Canadian would have loved to have seen The Hive take the prize, they didn’t.  Even more interesting is the fact that the viewer poll on AMC’s website shows that 82% of the fans agree with that decision as well.  So what the heck do we talk about?

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:

FKM_presentation_imageFirst 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)

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The Pitch Fan Podcast – Episode Two (Premiere Episode – Waste Management)



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The Pitch Fan PodcastIn depth discussion of AMC’s new show The Pitch. Specifically the first episode the night of the premiere. Discussing the winners, losers, and all of the above! Are you a “Waste Into WOW” fan? Did Waste Management “waste” a good idea? Should SK+G get an award for worst presentation etiquette? Everyting from The Ad Store, SKG, Ray Johnson, Jerry Kramer, Paul Cappelli, and more.

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

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AMC’s “The Pitch” – Waste Management Exec’s Do It Again?



Now that the premiere of “The Pitch” has come and gone, what have we learned?  Well, it seems that executives don’t seem to like the same things “we little people” like.  Does that mean exec’s aren’t people?  Doubt it!

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”:

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Best of the Web – Episode One – The Pitch



It’s been almost two weeks since I saw the first episode (Sneak Peak) of AMC’s The Pitch.  So, after all that time (ha) there has been LOT’s of good stuff posted on the web about this episode!  Here’s the best of what I’ve found:

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

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Did Tony Pace Make The Wrong Call or Did He Fool Us All?



After watching AMC’s sneak peak of “The Pitch”, I was left feeling a little…let’s say unsatisfied.  Not with the show (which obviously I loved), but with the choice that was made by Subway’s CMO, Tony Pace.

While I have to admit, both campaigns were really great, I couldn’t help but wonder why Mr. Pace chose who he chose.  Although there was some brief commentary from him about his decision, it seemed like there was something deeper going on there.  Even from the beginning of the episode, Tony had made mention of “some” agencies use of animals in their campaigns; a not so subtle dig at WDCW’s previous Quizno’s commercials.

The comment seemed funny at the time, but it really got under my skin as I began to analyze this episode for my upcoming podcast.  Was that really just Tony’s way of warning WDCW against another weird animal commercial or was it a Freudian slip of some kind?

To make things even more interesting, AMC actually has a behind the scenes clip from the show that actually has Mr. Pace explaining his decision in more detail.  Unfortunately, the bias doesn’t seem to disappear.  In the clip, he actually admits that WDCW may have even had the better creative!  However, he defends himself by saying that he chose Mckinney based on a longterm ability to work with Subway.  Whawawwhat?

If this was the case, then he probably knew going in that he had real reservations about WDCW and their extremely creative creatives.  This really seems unfair to an organization that has taken it on the chin for their mistakes and that has clearly admitted them.  On top of that, here they are again putting themselves out there for all to see and criticize.

So, let’s talk about that criticism.  First off, I’m just as guilty as anyone else in rooting for the underdog.  And since WDCW lost, they are de facto underdogs.  However, if you check out AMC’s own viewer poll, as of today’s date, you’ll see that I’m not the only one who thinks that way (33% vs 67%).  On top of that, if you check out the twitter feeds and see what’s being talked about more, (zAMbies or Freestyle rap) you’ll see similar results.  It’s clear that their pitch was a fan favorite.

So, let’s talk about the not so “freestyle” freestyle rap that Mckinney commissioned.  It’s catchy.  It’s a little different.  However, it’s got some issues.  First off, since I’ve watched it several times, I can promise you that the hip-hop community will have some major issues with this.  He’s lip-syncing with headphones on.  Even Mckinney’s own Jonathan Cude admits that Mac Lethal is rapping so fast that he’s afraid to do it live without his headphones on.  I’m sorry, but this is a recorded video, not live.  So, what the heck does he need headphones for?

Anyway, I’m no rapper, but even the lip-syncing isn’t the best I’ve seen.  At least the original breakfast rap was impressive.  He was going so fast that I didn’t care if his lips didn’t match:

However, most of the Subway rap isn’t even that fast.  Case  in point, I’ve been following Mac Lethal on twitter now for the past week (just prior to the premier) and I haven’t seen him talk about the “freestyle” once.  I’m guessing he’s very aware of how he may have jumped the shark?  No matter how you slice it, the Youtube video of him “freestyling” for Subway has about 3,330 views as of today’s date, while his original breakfast rap has over 23 million.

I’m not here to dis Mac Lethal nor Subway’s Tony Pace.  As a matter of fact I applaud them!  Even Mckinney should get some props for finding Mac Lethal and putting that together.  However, I am here as a fan, to give Tony Pace a little reality check.  I don’t think that you are going to connect with that demographic (18-24) with a lip-syncing “PG” version of Mac Lethal.

With that being said, I’m going to go out on a limb here and say that Tony Pace isn’t going to admit that he may have chosen wrong.  I mean, why should he?  Here I am talking about the winner and the loser.  I won’t forget the zAMbie’s anytime soon.  I’m waiting for a good spoof on Saturday Night Live at this point!

Let’s face facts; Subway is a great brand and the closest thing America has to a healthy fast food option.  So, I’ll definitely stop in the next time I’m hungry for a quick (and not so greasy) breakfast.  And Subway’s execs will continue to count their well earned five dollar foot long money, all the way to the bank.

So what about you; have you tried their breakfast menu?  What did you think?

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