Events
Pitch game: Sell your idea in 30 seconds says Paritosh Painter
MUMBAI: The last session of PromaxBDA witnessed a candid and fun conversation between broadcast executives and agencies, who acknowledged the elephant in the room – pitching. For many agencies and their clients, pitching is a hot and sensitive topic.
The session with Namit Sharma, Abhijit Avasthi, Maxus South Asia’s Kartik Sharma and Reliance Broadcast Network’s Paritosh Painter was moderated by Reliance Broad Network CEO Tarun Katial.
Panelists had a unanimous answer to the three key points that one must prepare before engaging in a pitch. They are as follows: 1) Knowing what the client wants, 2) A unique idea and 3) Conviction to pitch the idea before presenting it to the client.
Sharma was of the opinion that one should share ideas in the time given. He said, “You have five minutes to convince the client. If he is not convinced in that time then you should move on to plan B,” he said.
Avasthi added, “You need to be ruthless to yourself while evaluating the idea so that you can get the best out of it.”
Maxus’ Sharma further added, “You need to work for the client, so that he can benefit and that should also be a point that one should keep in mind.”
Replying to Katial’s question as to whether ideas should be original or inspired, Painter said, “Ideas are generally original, but the client might not understand it at the first instance. At that point, one needs to give them referral points so that they understand it better. Hence they are original and inspired.”
On questioning about the tangibility of the idea, Sharma said, “It can be a combination of both. But pitching needs execution.”
An agency wins or loses a pitch on the basis of the execution. Maxus’ Sharma said, “A brilliant idea can help us win a pitch.” Stating an example, he said that there have been times when his team has gone unprepared for a pitch, but the client has liked the idea and they have won pitches. Indeed, he is of the opinion that winning or losing a pitch doesn’t depend on the tangibility of the idea.
When asked as to what happens when a tangible idea is not strong, Avasthi said, “Personally, since I come from the advertising background, I feel one needs to evaluate the idea and then pitch it. I have seen instances when my team has come up to me and we have brainstormed the idea because I am quite aware that they will not be able to polish it. So I try to pull out something breakthrough from their idea.”
Painter asserted that one should sell the idea in 30 seconds. He said, “I am generally convinced about my idea so that I can sell it. When I evaluate pitches, I first try to understand the intention of the pitch. Is it business or passion that is driving the person? If it is business then the person sitting in front of me has to do a lot of hard work to convince me, but if it is passion, 70 per cent of the convincing job is done. You just have to push the person the extra 30 per cent for you to say yes. And that person will do it, because a lot of passion drives him to do that.”
The discussion then took the curve of whether an experienced person’s pitch value is more than that of a youth. Sharma opines that the idea must be focused on and not the experience of the person. On the other hand, Avasthi and Maxus’ Sharma opined that it depends on the client. If the client is new then youngsters do present pitches, while if it is an old and important client then an experienced person should give the pitch.
Concluding the discussion with tips on what one should do after the pitch, Avasthi said, “The person should take ownership of the pitch and it is important that the other person is concurrent with that.”
Painter asserted, “One must do a thorough research on the idea and on the client.”
Concluding, Maxus’ Sharma said, “Ask a lot of questions and you will get rich insights. During the pitch have a feedback and close the pitch with a dialogue.”
MUMBAI: Disney Star India is in the running for this year’s IBC2024 Innovation Awards which are to be held on 15 September at 18 hours. The category for which it has been shortlisted is the social impact award for its work with India Signing Hands through which it brought the IPL 2024 coverage to almost 67 million hard of hearing and 34 million visually impaired fans on Star Sports.
Late last month, the IBC announced the finalists for the IBC Innovation Awards which celebrate and honour collaborative initiatives leading to ground-breaking solutions that address real-world media, entertainment and technology industry challenges. This year’s awards bring together under one roof IBC’s innovation and social impact awards to create a unified celebration of industry advances, with five categories now being judged: content creation, content distribution, content everywhere, social Impact, and environment & sustainability.
“This year’s entries once again showcased the global reach and appeal of the IBC Innovation Awards with projects of the highest quality received from six continents,” said chair of the 2024 IBC Innovation Awards jury Fergal Ringrose. “Meanwhile, constantly evolving delivery methods and audience consumption patterns demand that content producers around the globe must innovate dynamically in order to stay relevant and competitive in the modern media and entertainment technology ecosystem. I would like to sincerely thank our panel of judges for their diligence and ability to adapt, as we brought our three content categories together with environment and sustainability and social impact this year for our new-look IBC Innovation Awards.”
Former news anchor Sasha Qadri is set to host the awards in the auditorium complex at the RAI on Sunday.
This year’s finalists in the Content Creation category include:
* The National Football League (US), ESPN, Disney/Pixar and Beyond Sports for creating the first fully animated, real-time NFL alternative broadcast set in the Toy Story universe.
* Olympic Broadcasting Services and partners for live broadcast production with more than 200 smartphones contributing video for the Paris 2024 Opening Ceremony and a sea-based 5G network for sailing competitions in Marseille.
* Aspire for working with Vislink and FocalPoint VR to develop a virtual reality over RF wireless solution for the inaugural season of Aspire’s Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League (A2RL).
The organisations named as finalists in Content Distribution are:
* Claro for creating a new approach to pay TV in Brazil, integrating streaming channels and applications, delivering entertainment to consumers with a complete pay TV offer.
* NBCUniversal Operations and Technology for its pioneering project to transform the way its TV channels are delivered to consumers worldwide.
* The National Hockey League (Canada and US) in partnership with Verizon, AWS, Zixi, Vizrt and Evertz, for producing a 5G and Edge compute framework for assembly, control and delivery of live broadcast.
The Content Everywhere finalists are:
* LaLiga for working with Play Anywhere and Ease Live to enable true fan interactivity for itself and its worldwide broadcast and streaming partners.
*Red Bull Media House for bringing together real-time GPS tracking, data management and advanced visualisation to transform viewing experience across live broadcast, web widgets and AR mobile app.
* Franceinfo (France Télévisions) for working with PimpMyCompany to aggregate text/audio/video/photo messages from various platforms and broadcasting them live on air.
Apart from Disney Star, the Social Impact finalists are:
* CultureQ for a new technology platform developed by indigenous-owned tech company Kiwa Digital that enables indigenous peoples globally to revitalise their language and culture at scale, while retaining sovereignty
* Sesame Workshop for its Watch Play Learn Distribution Hub which allows government agencies and aid organisations to preview and request videos for children in crisis settings.
The Environment & Sustainability finalists are:
* France Télévisions for reducing CO2 emissions by 300 tons via a pioneering 100% glass-to-glass cloud production and private 5G network.
* GreeningofStreaming for addressing growing industry concerns about the energy impact of the streaming sector, with international reach and over 30 member organisations.
* Anton/Bauer for Salt-E Dog which harnesses the power of sodium chemistry to enable sustainable television production practices.
The Innovation Awards ceremony will also feature the presentation of the IBC International Honour for Excellence, which goes to an individual or organisation that has made an outstanding impact in the industry, and the best technical paper, with all papers being presented at the 2024 IBC Conference that runs 13-15 September in the auditorium complex of the RAI.
