Your Armani suited adman would struggle to pitch in an Irish pub.
The lack of technology projecting his favourite powerpoint chart “the brand spider” on which he can muse for a good 40 minutes would leave him in a sweat of Kouros.
In fact, pitching in a pub is an anathema. How often do you sit across from your mates and really sell that pint or those peanuts or-god forbid – the pickled egg:
“It’s a fine organic egg, hardboiled by a Yorskshireman named Stan from a family of famous egg boilers and then left to absorb the pungent juices of a Perugian pickle”
Not often.
So why did we choose a pub called Delaney’s in Tallaght, a suburb of Dublin, to pitch to a couple of fellas from Paddy Power.
Perhaps it was because these guys are different. They’re extremely maverick and to prove the point recently ran a poster campaign in Ireland that featured the famous painting of the last supper but instead of fine dining, Christ and co were playing poker. In Ireland. B’Jaysus.
The pitch brief they gave us was pure gold, brilliantly written. It made it clear that they wanted work which would have blokes in pubs talking about them. All good signposts to a pitch venue, hence, Will and Nick pictured outside the very pink Delaney’s
And studying the form card before the fellas from Paddy Power arrived.
I’ve no idea whether we’ll ever end up working together but the process of pitching in a pub was enjoyable. It was less us v them, polished presentation and brand spiders, it was more banter, laughter and well told stories.