In this post, I will be explaining what a pitch is, critiquing different examples and analysing both the good techniques and aspects to avoid, as well as working towards the pitch for my creative project.
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What is a Pitch?
In business, pitching refers to presenting an idea to another party, usually to gain support from them. It could be an email, letter, presentation, conversation or even a few scribbles on a napkin, but the objective is to sell, market and discuss the product or subject to potential investors or customers. For this reason, it needs to give the audience a clear understanding of the project plan and goals, such as desired outcomes from the public and possible buy-in. To do so, the person pitching will need to gather and share relevant research, and create a compelling vision that will motivate the audience to follow the idea and make it a reality. Pitching is generally used to sell quickly in order to utilise the small amount of time provided with an important client. It is crucial to keep this in mind, since every aspect from the layout, to the length of the presentation, will either be scrutinized or will affect the opinions of the audience. It can be formal or informal and modern examples often include promotional material for crowdfunding products in order to draw people in (Kickstarter and Indiegogo follow this principle).
What Makes a Successful Pitch?
Sociologist James Hughes said, “The art of communication is the language of leadership.” The success of pitching an idea often depends on how something is said rather than what is said, and in this way, every pitch can be seen as an audition for leadership. The audience is taking you, as an individual, into consideration since this will determine the success of the project; if the idea is brilliant but the person is lacklustre, unorganised and unprofessional, it is unlikely that someone would want to work with them. Why provide funds to a person who would most probably waste them?
A pitch needs to be delivered in a way that instils confidence in you and your team if there is one, with vision and clarity. Here are some techniques on how this can be done:
- Include informative and illustrative information. Images alongside text can go a long way, and communicate the feel of the project in a more interesting manner.
- Good communication skills are key. This means getting to the point and conveying important info efficiently, so no massive chunks of text, rambling or going off-topic.
- Capturing the attention of the viewer is crucial – you need to hold their interest, so consider their attention span and make your proposition compelling and succinct.
- Positive and professional body language is also essential, as this not only says a lot about you but can also provide an effective technique in presenting. Keeping your shoulders relaxed, voice level and clear and stance open all show competence and professionalism. Show enthusiasm about your idea, since you’re selling it!
Examples
Below are a range of example pitches, good and bad, that I will analyse based on the three questions of what was good, what could be improved and would I fund the project?
Pitch 1 – Locked Down
The first pitch didn’t start out strong. The images that I was shown didn’t match what the person was saying, and although he had key information in his introduction, it came across as bland because of the uninteresting visuals. When we were told the name of the project, there wasn’t any change in what we were being shown on screen, and I was starting to get very bored with seeing 3D environments again and again. I liked that he told us a bit about himself before moving onto the project but this could have been structured better, since the main idea is what we need to see first, to hook us in (like a title). Another positive feature was that he included what the project would entail and referenced previous experience as well. I would have preferred to hear this all expressed with more enthusiasm, however, since he was monotone throughout the entire presentation. Outlining the goal of the pitch and why the audience should fund is incredibly important, and he told us this, but it was once again overshadowed by the pictures included. Something as simple as a blurry, low-quality image can ruin an explanation, which is what happened since I was under the impression that he wasn’t very prepared. It’s also good that he thanked the audience for their time and credited the music used, but to me, the font seemed a bit tacky.
Overall, the pitch had important detail and some material to give tasters for the project. However, a lot more variety was needed in the videos and images since they were the main source of evidence and were making me a bit bored. Because of this, and the fact that it seemed a bit wishy-washy, I wouldn’t fund it.
Pitch 2 – Not Any Smore
Not Any Smore, as a pitch, is immediately better than the first one because of the friendly introduction. Sarah, the student who is pitching her proposal, introduces herself, her course and the reason behind her project. This gives us an indication of her intentions and makes us feel more connected to her, therefore more likely to accept her proposal. The second that she tells the audience the name of the project, we see the logo appear on the screen and it creates a clear separation point between her introduction and the point where she starts talking about the work. Personally, I much prefer it when everything is aligned and clear in a pitch since the organisation shows competence and effective management, which would also be used in the project.
As I mentioned, with Locked Down, the logo’s font was not only a little tacky but was also shown at the wrong time, after it was already introduced, which wasn’t very professional. Sarah has done an excellent job of conveying the feel of her project and the key idea, just through the logo’s design, which is fun, cute and includes some key characters as well. You can tell she has considered the audience and tried to make it appealing as possible. As she starts explaining the synopsis of her animation, she uses clear language and doesn’t ramble, getting to the point quickly and delivering the story in a couple of sentences. I took a liking to it because it was simple to understand and also accompanied by some images and clips that give effective samples of what the project would look like. A key technique in making a pitch good, as I mentioned before, is including informative and illustrative information, meaning evidenced with visuals that back up the point. As Sarah explains, the things we see on screen are relevant and helpful in giving us an idea of the intended outlook. Furthermore, she has included some behind-the-scenes production, such as storyboards, initial concept design and an animation of one of the characters, which again, doesn’t give away too much but rather a taster of the production and is really good for a pitch.
Another important aspect of Sarah’s pitch that makes it successful is the fact that throughout her presentation, we flick back to her instead of just being shown clips and images. It reinforces that earlier connection, reminding us that she is behind the project, which is important because no matter how good the idea, the person working on it needs to be determined and passionate, otherwise, the result wouldn’t be good. Seeing her face and body language as she is talking makes us feel more included in the idea and is also far more similar to how an actual pitch would be, where the person would be visible at all times. She is visibly relaxed and often smiles as she describes the idea, indicating that she is excited about it and also making us more excited about it.
Overall, the pitch had an amiable and comprehensible feel and all of the key information was communicated directly and plainly, without any unnecessary waffle or attempts to exaggerate/cover up parts of the project. I was instantly captured by the idea based on the visuals, and further persuaded thanks to her geniality, so I would definitely fund or at least try to help with the final product in some way.
Pitch 3 – Silverfish Concept
The third example is about a show called Silverfish and is like a mix of the two pitched above. I couldn’t find the original video we were shown, but the link is a sneak peek of the same show. It isn’t the same as the presentation but it has the main idea that the creators were trying to present, which is what I’m going to be talking about below.
At the start, we get an introduction that briefly talks about the co-creator and his past experience in the VFX and animation industry so that we understand that he isn’t starting out fresh with this type of production and does have a basis for creating a show. The person then launches into the reasoning behind his project, starting from the very beginning and almost taking us through his thought process. He explains that Gravity Falls is one of the main inspirations behind this idea, since there are no other cartoons like it, and he would like to make something similar with his own personal experiences. I like the fact that he clearly justifies where the concept for Silverfish came from and why Gravity Falls was successful. It shows that he has done a thorough research and has a good basis of knowledge for his project. As he talks, matching images appear on screen, which isn’t as good as seeing his face and body language in my opinion, but is still far better than the pitching style of the first example. Our attention and interest are kept even as he is going into detail about his background and that of his project, partly due to the relevant images.
The next part of the video is when we see the first pre-production elements, which is pretty cool as he explains the synopsis of the show with creative and interesting descriptions, rather than a run-of-the-mill overview of what the show is about. Using phrases like ‘buried in mystery and lore’ is much more gripping and carries across the feel of the show, or at least the mood that they are going for. There is some funky mysterious music in the background to fill the silence and helps set the tone of all of the concept art we see on screen. I also like that he provides us with some feedback that he has already received from audiences across different social platforms since positive responses from others make a positive opinion from us (the viewers watching the pitch). He evidences his words with screenshots and also references some key points that link back to the original main source of inspiration, Gravity Falls. Personally, this is when things started to get a bit repetitive since the same title art is used for the third or fourth time and other pieces are repeated as well. There isn’t anything wrong with using the same pre-production throughout, but only if it isn’t on screen 24/7. The co-creator mentions that he and his brother aren’t animators, and gives the reason behind their need for funding, to hire a good animation studio and soundtrack for the whole show, as well as marketing art, which needs time. The honesty is appreciated but at times, I wish he was a bit more passionate about his idea. One way to do this is to give his own opinion on the show and what he hopes it will achieve in terms of audience impact, which would have made a deeper connection and also strengthened his resolve.
The end of the video has credits, like a real show, which is a nice touch. We also get a slideshow of the concept art, but since almost all of it was already shown in the video, I was less inclined to watch till the end. To conclude, the reason for funding or not really comes down to personal opinion for this one. The pitch itself was quite good and I liked that the video felt full even without flashy editing and transitions. It was relatively simple and straight to the point, even if the structure of the presentation jumped around quite a bit. I wouldn’t fund it because I don’t like how similar the style of the show is to Gravity Falls. I am aware that this is to do with personal preferences, however, and to what extent do you mind the work paying homage to other work. Personally, I like that Gravity Falls is unique and don’t really see the need for another show that has such a similar art style and storyline, so I feel that he would have benefited from a small portion in the video, where he goes over how Silverfish is different and “stands on its own” as he said, since we didn’t get a lot of reasoning behind that statement.
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My Pitch
Having done the necessary research and analysed three different examples, I feel that I am now ready to create my own pitch document and presentation alongside it. I decided to create mine in Powerpoint since the program is very versatile and allows for more decoration and personalisation than people realise. My aims are:
- Make the presentation aesthetic, dynamic and interesting
- Have the overall style match that of my project
- Have a good balance between images and text
- Present with confidence, passion and honesty
The first step was to pick a colour scheme. I haven’t chosen an overall palette for the project, but I do want there to be one for the pitch so that the audience gets an understanding of the tone and themes. Since my main focuses within ADDOED are surrealism and environmentalism, I knew that I wanted there to be a natural yet fantastical and dreamy colour scheme, with blues, greens and fun, magical colours. Using the website ‘Coolors’, which is excellent for colour combination generation, this is what I decided on.
I used Pinterest quite a lot throughout the construction of the document because I have boards created for the project, full of saved images and artwork that I can reference and use. I downloaded a few for decoration alongside pieces of text (again to carry across the feel of the world and themes) and also any necessary for the inspiration section, which made up most of the PowerPoint. This is because I wanted there to be a focus on the visual aspect of the project, and art gets people excited – it’s interesting and appealing for the audience to look at. For the same reason, I also used a lot of PNGs and shapes on every page, so that an aesthetic could be created, but also the presentation itself is more eye-catching and beautiful.
The main structure follows the template of my project proposal – I used the headings as a guideline for what information should be used and even some of the text was copied across, usually re-worded or summarised to fit the shorter format of the slides. Whenever I could, I tried to stick to bullet points or minimal text. At times, a paragraph had to be put in, but I do not have massive chunks of text anywhere in my presentation, because that’s incredibly boring in my opinion. Reading to the audience is the last thing I want because I have experienced that myself, and it really takes an interest or enjoyment out of the presentation. I want the people to be engaged and really connect with my idea, so I have put key info for them to skim read on the slides, and most of what I’m saying/adding to the text on flashcards, which I will be using as I am presenting.
Other than that, I categorised whenever I could, such as the inspiration section, in order to have an organised flow throughout the presentation, and used this to my advantage to add more visual interest. The main titles are accompanied by layered shapes and PNG images (almost like stickers) and there is generally a link to what the category includes (e.g. a broken disk for the music section). In my opinion, this will communicate the surreal quality of my idea and keep the viewers engrossed, in turn leaving them with a more positive outlook of my project and more likely to give support, or funding if that were my goal.
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》》»»» Pitch «««《《
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As mentioned above, I will be reading some of the text off of the slides, but most of what I’m going to be saying is on flashcards that I have prepared and numbered. I’d like to summarise what I will be saying for each one here.
.–.–.– Card 1 –.–.–.
Side 1:
For the first slide, I am going to reiterate the first bullet point, which is essentially my project idea in one sentence. I will then talk about the key theme and how I will be exploring this, with environmental problems and major ideas translated fantastically. I will explain my reasoning behind this, as well as back up the example with a statistic. The slide with the images is purely a visual prompt for the audience and I will guide them through the imagining part by saying “imagine your dream world and a race that destroys it” (in shorter words).
Side 2:
Continuing onwards with the first slide of the inspo section, I expand on why I want to avoid that type of art by talking about the use of guilt and how it affects the audience. To transition into the next part, I say “this is the type of artwork that inspires me instead” and go on to describe the mix of surrealism and nature. I will give a quick analysis of one of the images; at first glance, it looks crazy but there are hidden meanings in the imagery, such as the butterfly hot air balloons which could represent our dependence on nature. I will also mention how great nonsensical art can be, because surrealism is open to interpretation, but doesn’t have to be interpreted either.
.–.–.– Card 2 –.–.–.
Side 1:
Here I will talk about why I have included photography and give examples of my ideas, such as with the boat picture. The fact that most of my ideas are visuals pushes me towards animation. The music category is also included, which surprised me. Using the links on the slide, I will talk through some of my favourite parts of the videos and which areas of the styles I could use in my work.
Side 2:
I am planning on asking the teacher if I can do a lyric-type MV product before then moving on to the final category of inspiration, which is animation. Like the music section, I will show some of each video to the audience and comment on what I like and what I’m planning to take from them.
.–.–.– Card 3 –.–.–.
Side 1:
Card 2 runs over into this one, where I have listed the three main reasons why I have added the shorter animation to the pitch. The first is that there’s a deer, which I want to have in my animation, the second is that the background and foreground elements are still, which I am thinking of doing for some parts of my animation to save time and the final reason is that the long take would work well for certain parts of my animation because of the fluidity. I go on to explain why I have chosen to do a 2D animation again for my final product and why I am also thinking of experimenting with other formats.
Side 2:
For the ‘why’ slide, I have written a little extra, but most of what I am going to say is on the PowerPoint. I will add to the explanation I have written my talking about my goal of influencing even just one person with my work. I will then go through the bullet points of my target audience page. On the card, there is a quick definition of an idealist and reasoning behind the inclusion of artists and the target age group – all of which I will read out.
.–.–.– Card 4 –.–.–.
Side 1:
For the final card, I have added some more justification behind my target audience choices. I will talk about the people who oppose the core message of the project, and how I hope to reach them, as well as why I haven’t included those who do believe in climate change, but just aren’t taking action (which is most people). This links to the purpose of my project, which is to achieve a unique understanding, rather than directly inspire action, which I will explain.
Side 2:
The last small paragraphs of writing refer to the scheduling and pre-production parts of the pitch. I haven’t written anything for the resources slide, since it’s pretty self-explanatory, but I do add detail to the deadline dates. I will also talk about my new method of planning this year, which is digital planning – something I am using for both my personal and work life. Finally, there is a brief description of each of my pre-production slides including why I have created what is on each and some plans for future concept design.
Post-Pitch Reflection
12/01/2022
After successfully pitching my idea to my classmates and teacher, I think that it would be appropriate to reflect on how I think it went, as well as some of the feedback I received after the presentation.
In my opinion, the pitch went really well! I’ve always had stage fright and have worked hard to try and absolve that fear for years, but I have never quite managed to present something in front of a group without stammering, stuttering and shaking. I couldn’t even make eye contact before. This is why I am proud of myself, first and foremost, for being able to stand in front of my classmates and explain my idea from beginning to end without the restlessness showing in my voice or behaviour (too much). The PowerPoint itself was never the issue – I am confident in my ability to produce high-standard, aesthetic work that matches the theme of my project and carries my ideas across through images and information – it was the presentation that I was most worried about. I practised a lot; presenting to my brother, myself, even to my plush animals in order to have a bigger audience, all for preparation to stand in front of an audience and express myself clearly. I had everything memorised and I also didn’t worry as much as I would have before the day, which helped a lot. In the end though, no matter how hard you prepare, your plans aren’t usually executed to perfection.
With a live audience in front of you, it feels entirely different, and you sometimes have to adapt on the spot according to your intuition. This is what I did throughout the entire presentation. I was first, so it was really nerve-wracking in the beginning, but after speaking for some time, I got accustomed to being at the front, with all of the attention on me. Something I definitely wish I did better was remain casual and relaxed at the start. Others who presented maintained this, and it felt so much more natural and confident as if a teacher was at the front, not a student. I rushed too much at the start, which I would change if I could do my presentation again since I felt that people didn’t have enough time to appreciate the slides and take the information in. In terms of eye contact and speaking to the audience though, I don’t think I did badly considering I had flashcards! I made sure to speak to the class when I was explaining something although most of them were looking at the slides, which is normal. Something I wish I did more, monitored their reactions. It’s incredibly difficult to do so without experience, and when everyone is wearing masks, but the body language and expressions of the people are also important; gauging their response allows you to understand when to move on when you are boring them or confusing them etc. and that way, the presentation evolves to remain as interesting as possible as it progresses. I think with more experience presenting, I will one day be able to do this intuitively and it will help make my work more professional.
In terms of the flashcards, I think that they served their purpose to an extent, but I didn’t utilize them in the way I wanted. My plan was to glance down every now and then to remind myself what I wanted to say with each slide, but I kept losing my place after speaking to the class and mixing up the order. At some point, I think I just left the cards, since most of what I had to say I remembered off by heart. I say ‘most’ because looking back now, I actually missed bits of information out, so clearly I hadn’t memorised it all 100% like I thought, despite going over the presentation around 10 times. Still, it was nice to have moments where I could look down, re-organise my thoughts and collect myself before continuing. If I could do the pitch again, another thing I would change is the way I explained my synopsis. I don’t think the audience fully understood what my project is about due to the way I jumped from unrelated bullet points. I should have rounded off my thoughts more and presented them in a simpler manner. Still, I think that I have made a lot of progress and this was a really valuable experience for me.
One aspect of the entire lesson that I really liked was sending emails with constructive feedback to each person who presented. This meant that after I finished mine and came back to my desk, 11 emails were waiting for me containing everyone’s opinions on what went well and what could have been improved. This is an excellent way to see how the pitch went in the opinion of the audience and figure out which areas were most lacking and I personally found the criticism helpful. Including negatives, in my opinion, can increase the integrity of the feedback overall since it shows honesty and that means the positives are also true, generally. After reading through each of the emails thoroughly, I created a table in Excel so that I could see all of the key points clearly and how many people were of the same opinion. On the left are points that I have condensed and summarised (since some of the emails were detailed) and on the right of each is the number of times I saw the same point, or something similar in another email.
I am pleased to see that there is more on the positive side than the negative as it shows me that overall, everyone felt that I did pretty well, which matches my own opinion. You will notice that some of the points clash, such as the right amount of or too little eye contact, or positive body language but a lack of confidence. This is because everyone has a different opinion and will see things slightly differently. No matter, I wanted to include as many perspectives as I can to get an accurate overall idea. The positives tell me that the audience really liked my slides! There was an overwhelmingly favourable response to the design and feel of the presentation and overall people felt that the formation was innovative and presentable. I am so happy to hear this because I put hard work into that aspect and spent a lot of time making sure each slide was to my liking, and fit with the themes of the project. Since surrealism is such a broad, crazy and creative style, it was hard to pinpoint the right appearance that I should have throughout, but I think I did an excellent job of keeping it visually interesting. Most people also loved the inclusion of different formats (such as the music videos) and the fact that I had charisma and openness when presenting.
On the other hand, I certainly need to work on my pacing and professionalism. People picked up on my nervousness, so it did show in my behaviours to an extent. I think this is partly because I was first, but again, I am still working on my stage fright. Certain people felt that there were also areas where the pauses were unnatural, or I went on a bit of a tangent with the information. I laughed at this because it sums up my instinctive approach to work – the all or nothing mindset which I am trying to get under control. I feel that I am in a better place with that, but I suppose with certain areas, I do still ramble and put in unnecessary information just for the sake of it – for the sake of covering everything, or making it ‘perfect’. In the future, I want to be more streamlined, as was suggested. I want to work on my transitions and I will refer back to the requirements to make sure that all of the info included serves a purpose. One person in particular even told me that I seemed out of breath at times. I didn’t think people would see that but it’s true, I struggled with packing all of the words in. I think that I was concerned with going over the time limit, not that there was too much information to say. I said about the same, or even less than some other people, who had far chunkier paragraphs on their slides so the level of explaining wasn’t too deep I think. It was rather my nerves, the fact that I ran in the morning due to my late bus and the lack of experience. These aren’t excuses, because I recognise that it was still my own fault if the presenting wasn’t up to scratch, but there are also external factors involved.
To conclude, I think that my pitch was a success and the audience understood, at least visually, what I am aiming for, which is what my project primarily is. I think that the themes and message were clearly explained, and although I need to work on being more confident and relaxed, I spoke with passion (and without stuttering!!). If I look back on the goals I set earlier in this post, I think I have met each one and have completed my pitch as I wanted.