The Covid-19 pandemic has had an enormous impact on so many businesses and one of the most interesting to look at is that of digital marketing. Companies like TWO NIL have seen a great opportunity in front of them with so many people at home and plugged into their phones and computers, but at the same time they have clients who are in trouble and who don’t want to spend money, and their entire operation has changed. This means that they have had to go after the clients who are looking to spend ad dollars on social media and n the retail sector, but even that has been challenging because of the changing face of the pitch.
Creative
Prior to all of this took place the ad pitch was one of the most creative challenges which ad agencies were going through and the level of creativity was through the roof. The pitch is now virtual and that has forced these agencies to be creative, albeit in a limited way. We have seen some truly novel ideas come about, one agency even sent a glass of champagne to the execs home to coincide with their meeting, so that they could share a drink together as they pitched, this is the level of creativity which marketing companies now have to apply.
Focus on Video
The lack of human interaction is huge for ad agencies who relied on a warm and passionate manner which would hopefully woo those companies who they were pitching to. The face that this now doesn’t exist means that they have had to look at other ways of evoking emotions in their would-be clients, and that means that video more than ever is the most important aspect of the pitch. Previously we may have seen videos being used to showcase ideas or to support the pitch, now they are the large portion of the pitch and that is why content makers have more of a responsibility than they ever have.
Logistics
As anyone who has ever pitched to a big client will know, they have absolutely no time for errors or hitches, which is more challenging than ever before given the technical issues which could happen when using video conferencing. This has meant that one of the stars of the new pitch is the tech engineers who set you up with your connection. It is crucial that you have a back up plan if anything goes wrong, a creative way to explain away the tech issues which you are having, trying to put a smile on the face of a clear problem.
As much as some believe that virtual pitching will be the future of pitches, given the challenges which they present this in fact looks to be something which we will see the back of once everyone gets themselves back to work properly. For now however, the virtual pitch is the most important thing in the marketeers diary.
