Page 118 - 100 Great Marketing Ideas (100 Great Ideas)

55 BE STARTLING IN WAYS
THAT INVOLVE YOUR
CUSTOMER

The advertising business is a cut-throat one, and agencies often
need to be very creative indeed in pitching for business—after all,
if they cannot promote themselves, how can they hope to promote
a client?

This means that many agencies have come up with eye-popping
ideas for promoting themselves, which means that other businesses
might be able to recycle the ideas for their own purposes. If you
are in a business-to-business marketing environment in which
you need to pitch to clients, you can learn a lot from advertising
agencies. There are many examples—this is just one.

The idea

Saatchi & Saatchi is a major London advertising agency, perhaps
most famous for its association with the Conservative Party during
the late 1970s and 1980s. However, like other agencies Saatchi
cannot afford to rest on its laurels—the agency still has to pitch for
business, and has done so in some remarkable ways.

When Saatchi was pitching against several other agencies for the
Toyota account, it arranged to have three Toyota cars suspended from
its office building. Having three cars hanging off a central London
office block not only made the newspapers—it also impressed the
Toyota executives when they came to Saatchi’s for the pitch meeting.
Needless to say, Saatchi won the account.

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