Pitching adverts

Ollieda

Having always had a bit of an interest in advertising I came up with and idea for an advert for a famous sportsware manufacturer which I think would be really good.

I was thinking of pitching the idea to them to see if they like it but I'm worried about how to protect my idea so that I don't get turned away by the company, then see my ad on the TV later!

I've written basically a walkthrough of the advert idea and started on a storyboard and ideally I want to do some very basic filming just to best display the idea. I know that if I pitched with these ideas then copyright would protect me but I'm also aware that the company could easily just make a similar advert and get away with it.....and if i tired to sue I'm sure it wouldn't be hard for them to field a great legal team!!!

I can imagine that a lot of people will be thinking, "Don't bother, they have ad agencies to do it for them and they won't be interested in you" but I'd rather try it and get turned down than not bother at all and always think "what if?"

So if there's anyone out there with some experience then help would be very much welcome.

GiantMike

I have NO experience of this kind of thing, but...

Go for it. If I were you, I'd approach the company directly and ask to pitch to them, having made a record of your idea first.

If they like it, I'm sure they'd rather give you a princely sum (much less than a bunch of poncey 'creatives' would get) for the privelege of using it.

I tell you what, tell me what it is and I'll pitch on your behalf.

Pross

I think you can lodge a copy with a solicitor or something beforehand. An ex-colleague used to do this before issuing script ideas to TV bosses.

Cleat Eastwood

Bonjour, its a tough one this. There are so many variables to navigate through.

If its a big company it will probably have an advertising budget which will tie it down to a particular ad agency.

If its a smallish company it could well be looking for new cost effective ways to promote itself.

Your first choice then would be to decide who to approach, teh comapny themselves or an ad agency.

Smaller ad agencys are more likely to want to "borrow" your idea than woudl the larger.

Be aware though that the advertising business, liek all creative industries is notoriously idea hungry. There was a case a few years ago where a student claimed she had her idea stolen

This from the Guardian

"Two years ago it (the D'arcy agency) suffered a PR disaster when a media studies student accused it of stealing one of her ideas for a Maltesers campaign.

Liz Jones claimed the agency had ripped off her idea for a campaign showing Maltesers floating in thin air. She said she had written to the agency with the idea and received a letter rejecting it.

D'Arcy's legal team was immediately put on the case and managed to unearth an article published in the Daily Star in 1997 proclaiming that "Malteser blowing" was becoming a trend among schoolchildren. The agency sent Jones a copy of the article and she dropped her case."


Also be aware that agencys and creatives work to specific briefs, and have to include reference to the products colours, audience and lifestyle etc.

Also instead of filming the idea and wasting a lot of time in post production try using whats called an animatic. Its a mock up of the visual ideas you have but using digital cut outs, its essentially an animated storyboard. And if you have the visuals, then thats half the struggle.

If you do go down that route heres some software you may need (you can get it free, from some unscrupulous torrenter, but there are also 30 day demos available)

Adobe After Efects
Adobe Premier
Adobes Photoshop/illustrator
adobe soundbooth

Oh and if you do make a vid of it pay attention to the sound, its what can make or break a concept.

If you are canny enough you could also try making a smaller version of your idea without reference to the product (just use the animatic for example) and stick it on youtube. At least it covers you having a claim to the originality of teh idea and you can test reaction to it as well.

Heres a good link to computer arts who run masterclasses on all digital advertisng and promotion.


http://www.computerarts.co.uk/in_depth/ ... dvertising

There is also a method called the poor mans copyright, you simply send your self all of your artwork etc, which will datestamped by the post office and you simply stick in a draw and wait for your day in court, ha ha.

good luck. Go for it.

Ollieda

Thaks guys, especially Cleat Eastwood, lots of detail in there.

As my idea isn't olympic themed I reckon I've got a bit of time to work on it whilst everyone else is focusing on official (or ambush) olympic style ads. Going to have to get to grips with some of this new software.

tebbit

Two methods I used to use when I still did a bit of creative writing, first put a copy of everything into a big envelope and mail it to yourself, obviously don't open it, secondly again you need an envelope and get the bank to vault it, they used to (a long time ago) charge £25, but that was the early 90s.

oaky

Hi

I work in advertising. I guess GiantMike would call me a poncey creative. To be honest, if your idea is for a global brand, like say Nike or Adidas, I'd say you've almost got zero chance of it being made.

TV ads for these companies are made to be shown across the world so decisions like that probably wouldn't even be made in this country. Also, ads are generally created to answer a specific brief and convey a specific message. Your idea may be good, but wrong.

If it's for a smaller brand - or could be made to work with a smaller brand - I'd still say you've got no chance, but that's no reason not to give it a go. One way would be to find the name of the agency that creates the work for that brand (there could be more than one), then contact the creative director.

But remember that creative directors of advertising agencies see students everyday who probably have ten ideas for sports brands in their book and who would give anything for a job in advertising, so they're probably not going to take you seriously.

I suppose another way would be to find an agency who wants to win the business of the company your idea is for. If they like the idea they may try and approach the company with it.

Either way, you don't need to film the idea. Usually a script will do, maybe with some reference from YouTube to get the idea across. You can film it if you want, but your film isn't going to look as good as the finished thing so you'll be selling your idea short. The idea should be able to stand on its own.

I don't mean to be negative, but advertising is a really competitive business. Everybody in it wants to work for big brands and they have teams of people generating ideas every day. Most of which will end up in the bin. But all of that said, everyone's looking for a good idea. So who knows..

If you tell me who the idea is for I could try and find out who the agency is.

Radioactiveman

It amazes me the amount of money spent on advertising, would be interested to see how much difference ad campaigns make to well established brands/products that everyone knows about. I can see the benefit to new brands breaking through but not as much for the more established

Are people that fickle they would buy something just because David Beckham allegedly uses it ? , I guess so or the companies wouldn't spend the money on product deals/sponsorship etc.

oaky

But advertising is the reason everyone knows about them in the first place. If they didn't advertise, their competitor's still would - and then they would become the brand everyone knows about.

Responding to advertising/branding isn't fickle... Well, it is, but everybody does it.

guilliano

I've often wondered about advertising established brands. Would sales of Coca Cola drop by the amount it costs them to advertise each year for instance? Do people really pay that much attention to adverts? I know I don't. I just buy what I fancy. McDonalds adverts don't make me want a Big Mac. The new Mars advert with John Barnes just makes me hate John Barnes even more. Word of mouth is the only advertising medium that works well, and that is earned, not paid for.

Cleat Eastwood

I'm afraid advertising is far more insidious and feral than merely a means to generate money. Is all about creating and activating an emotional response in the general public. And it's amazingly powerful.

Coca cola spend millions on advertising not to recoup investment but so you'll associate it's brand with a particular lifestyle, or its colours with a particular product.

It does this, the media theorist Gillian Dyer suggests by "creating false need in the audience". Thats the insidious part.

Advertising creates in you a sense wanting to belong to a particular lifestyle or group and then associates a product with that lifestyle ( which it has artificially created).

From then on it needn't mention the product at all for it has become part of our cultural landscape.

So you may not want a burger after seeing a big mac ad...but chances are that if you do ever want a burger your first thoughts probably wont be for a Wimpy. (do they still exist, I'm veggie)

As a test...

Think on this; which campaigns or products do these represent.


"The name? It's Hartley, J.R. Hartley"

"Helps you work rest and play"

"Accrington Stanley..."

"Probably the best lager in the world"

Not one names the product.

and remember that advert for Becks Vier with 4 puppets dancing to the Flaming lips tune, every colour on screen was every colour associated with Becks. Rather clever I thought.

oaky

I don't want to become the forum advocate for advertising, but it works more - and in different ways - than you think. Do people really pay that much attention to ads? Most ads, probably not. But good ones, or ones that apply to them, they do.

The McDonald's ad didn't make you want a Big Mac because you're a cyclist so you probably don't even go to McDonald's. It's not aimed at you.

But think about this. Why did you use Coca Cola as an example and not Pepsi or Virgin Cola?

It's because Coke is the most popular brand. If they stopped advertising and Pepsi started advertising far more, when you wanted the name of cola to use in a forum post about how advertising doesn't work, you'd be more likely to say Pepsi.

I'd guess, when questioned, almost everybody would they aren't influenced by advertising. But go to their house and the cupboards aren't going to be stocked up with cheap supermarket own-brand goods and clothes from Primark.

And word of mouth is great. But how do you know the guy who recommended it to you didn't buy it because he saw an ad on TV?

oaky

Insidious and feral is a bit harsh.

I don't understand why everybody wants to be so anti-advertising. If you make a product or have a service to offer, what's so wrong with telling people about it?