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Just watched a junior account exec pitch a crazy media plan idea and it flopped hard
Last Wednesday at our agency in Chicago, this new kid out of college pitched a media plan that relied almost entirely on TikTok influencers for a client that sells industrial HVAC systems. I mean, he spent like 3 weeks on it and seemed really proud, but the client just stared at him for a solid 10 seconds before asking if he'd ever been in a factory. The senior account director had to jump in and salvage the meeting with a traditional trade pub plan on the fly. It got me thinking, how do you train junior staff to actually understand the client's industry before they start pitching creative stuff? Has anyone else seen a fresh hire totally miss the mark on audience fit like that?
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the_eva6d ago
...and that's the thing, right? You can't just throw someone into the deep end with client research and expect them to get it. I've seen it happen so many times where a junior person gets all hyped on a trendy tactic without even looking at the client's actual customers. Maybe have them shadow a client's sales team for a day or sit in on a factory tour before they're allowed to open a PowerPoint? It's like asking a mechanic to fix a car they've never seen before.
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scott.miles5d ago
@the_anthony's onto something but is it really that deep? It's just research, not brain surgery.
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