Speculation advertising.. where do I start?

October 25, 2006 9:46 AM

How do I submit an advertising campaign/billboard idea to a company? Who do I approach? Is there a way of presenting my idea without their angency just running off with it?

I'm not in advertising. On a drive home the other day I thought of a simple and effective billboard for an outdoor equipment company.. my quick PS sketch made the ad for "North Face" eqiupment.

I don't think the idea has been done yet, and its elegant simplicity is quite effective and easy to pitch. I drew up a sketch and showed it to a few friends who lit up and said I should change my career to advertising. So assuming the billboard/poss ad campaign is a good one: How do I approach a company to present it? How do I submit it without having my idea stolen? Ignored? What is a good billboard/campeign worth? Would I be able to sell the complete draft? or do I need to supply full final design services if they like it? Is it worth my time at all?

posted by upc_head to work & money (6 comments total)

The big companies and the agencies I've worked with have policies not to accept unsolicited outisde ideas for advertising so that in the event that something like the outside idea ran, the person submitting that idea wouldn't come and get $.

In my last job, I would get unsolicited ideas for ads all the time and 99.9% of them were not something we'd ever use.

If you want to pursue this, contact the marketing department of the company where you'd think it might make a good fit. Odds are, they'll say thanks but no thanks, but they could take the idea and run with it. I wouldn't expect a big payday though. More likely, they'd give you a token gift and you'd get to tell friends you thought of some idea.
posted by birdherder at 10:01 AM on October 25, 2006

What Birdherder said.

The last agency I worked at went even further. To protect themselves from "Take the idea and run" lawsuits they actively repelled unsolicited ideas.

So unless you personally know the art director for North Face's agency, you're probably SOL.
posted by Ookseer at 10:51 AM on October 25, 2006

In addition to what birdherder and Oookseer said...

Honestly, I don't think you'd get in the door anywhere. Companies don't usually "buy" campaigns and especially not from people that they don't already have a relationship with. A company might pay someone to develop a campaign, but wouldn't be approached and then "purchase" it from the seller. If by some chance this all worked out, they might adapt it and thank you and give you some free fleeces, but you won't be seeing anything like what you might see if you were a consultant or their agency of record. FWIW, you wouldn't need to provide full services, since it is the idea you are pitching, not the execution.

Unfortunately, I don't think is worth your time. However, if you think you might have/want a career in this, I would work towards that and keep this in the back of your mind. You'd have better luck pitching NF or any other company if you were actually doing this full-time or professionally, and weren't just some guy who randomly thought of a campaign. Maybe you could attempt to get a smaller retailer as a client and this campaign could work for them. Or you could work with local small business that may not have a lot of money to develop an advertising campaign but would be willing to speak or work with you (I could see them paying you before NF paying you, which is sort of backward I guess).

Most major companies have no need for just a billboard campaign. Hopefully they'd have an integrated mix and the outdoor would support whatever they are already running in print, broadcast, online, etc. Sure, there is some cool execution that can be done with outdoor, but I don't think too many agencies/companies would want an outdoor campaign that doesn't reinforce whatever their current campaign is. But that's just my opinion.

Also, randomly approaching a marketing/advertising person and basically saying that you could do their job better (without any training/experience/etc) is probably not recommended. I think that applies to nearly any field too. I'm all for listening to customers and clients, but sometimes that comes off worse than people think.
posted by ml98tu at 11:26 AM on October 25, 2006

Basically, what everyone else said.

Just don't.

Agencies won't look at it because they could get sued.

A campaign idea is worth almost nothing. We throw thousands of them away every day. And I don't mean crappy ones. I mean amazing, wow-that's-great ideas that don't work for some really tiny idea.

The Bernbach (I believe) quote that covers it goes something like - "Everyone has ideas. My grandmother has ideas. My dog has ideas. Brilliant execution is the difference between us and the rest. Between you, the grandmothers and the dogs."

I used to teach advertising copywriting. I think I only got this question about once a week from a student who thought he could sell his great idea.

Unless your friends who said you should change your career to advertising are in advertising, they know nothing.

Execute it brilliantly. Then come up with another 6-10 campaigns. Throw it in a portfolio case, add a resume and get yourself an ad job.
posted by Gucky at 12:04 PM on October 25, 2006 [1 favorite has favorites]

Gucky,

Great quote but I can't find any reference for it. Any help?
posted by trinity8-director at 4:29 PM on October 25, 2006

trinity8-director, as the owner of over 100 books on advertising, I know I have it around here... somewhere, but where is another story. It's probably in the Copy Workshop Workbook or Hey Whipple or a Whack to the Head or... I'll dig and see what I can find
posted by Gucky at 3:30 PM on October 26, 2006