RE: techwr-l digest: October 22, 2002

["Anameier, Christine A - Eagan, MN" <CANAMEIE -at- email -dot- usps -dot- gov>]

Kevin Cheek wrote:
> In my spare time (read "sitting in traffic for two 
> hours"), I dreamed up two complete ad campaigns for a 
> car company. . . . 
> How do I present those Ideas and perhaps see them 
> turned into reality (hopefully getting paid in the process)? 
> How do I find someone to present them to?

Step one: Find out what ad agency handles that car company's ads. (Or
the ads might be done in-house.) Dig around to find the name of the
agency's creative director.

Step two: Contact them but be prepared to be shot down. 

I could be wrong, but I doubt they'll be seriously interested in an
unsolicited pitch, especially from someone who doesn't already work in
advertising. Chances are, they already have campaigns on the drawing
board that they're pretty attached to. 

Advertising is not an easy world to break into. I worked at a small ad
agency for a year and a half. When I initially called to try to get a
job interview, I had a tough time getting past the receptionist; if I
hadn't had the right name to drop (from doing some networking), I
would've been told to mail them a resume and cover letter, which would
have most likely gotten filed away someplace round. It was clear from
her tone that they got a lot of cold calls, and her job was to fend them
off.  I imagine a large ad agency would have a squadron of such people
posted around the moat.

You could send a letter to the creative director-- but they probably get
a lot of pitch letters from unknowns, all promising the next big idea.
The problem is, even if YOUR idea is fabulous, you're going to have a
hard time differentiating yourself from the kooks they're used to
brushing off. You'll also be pitching your idea to a group of people
whose job is to come up with the ideas themselves. They jockeyed hard
for their position, and chances are, they don't want to present your
idea to their client and say "We had a bunch of campaigns in the works,
but then this guy called us with a better idea..." 

Sorry, I hate to be so discouraging. It can't hurt to contact them. What
have you got to lose? So give it a shot.

Christine

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Buy ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 6.0, the most powerful SINGLE SOURCE HELP
AUTHORING TOOL for MS Word. SAVE $100 on the full version and $50 on the
upgrade.  Offer ends 10/31/2002 (code: DTH102250).
http://www.componentone.com/d2hlist1002

All-new RoboHelp X3 is now shipping! Get single sourcing, print-quality
documentation, conditional text and much more, in the most monumental
release ever. Save $100! Order online at http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.