There was some celebrating with Hinano – the beer of Tahiti – when we learned that for the third time in 16 years, we emerged victorious in retaining our Tahiti Tourisme North America account. This time just the advertising and media were up for grabs. (The PR, which we’ve managed since 1992, was ours to keep.) The lengthy review started more than a year ago with 36 agencies and was pared down in three stages. The final showdown was us, Wong Doody and Kaiser Marketing.
Now here’s a new business learning-minute – during our set up prior to the presentation, we realized our PowerPoint would not work. Even the back-up one didn’t work. After the momentary panic, our pitch team of six took a deep breath, reviewed our notes and went on with the pitch. At the end, one of the consultants said that was the best presentation he had ever seen. So, perhaps looking the client in the eye and talking without the distraction of PowerPoint made the difference. Funny thing, back at the agency, the equipment worked fine – we never did figure out why it failed. Perhaps intervention from the Tahitian Gods?
We’ve picked up a few more accounts in recent weeks, including Public Storage Pickup & Delivery, the largest operator of containerized storage in the U.S. with over 60,000 containers in active inventory. Xooro™ pronounced (“SURE-oh”) is the United States’ first upscale premium Spanish fritter restaurant, specializing in custom gourmet churros and specialty chocolate and coffee drinks and Richmond Nature, an Australian line of hemp seed oil-based personal care products that will be launching in the U.S. Our IMC campaign will include branding/naming strategy, public relations, packaging design, website creation, online and search engine marketing.
