My first pitch

the biggest challenge of my first three weeks here at bda was learning how to craft a proposal, or pitch. and not just any pitch -- a galloping 96-slide powerpoint presentation on a full branding campaign for a completely new channel.

it was mind-blowing. at first i struggled to grasp the fact that james, the creative director, or lilian, the boss lady, weren't going to approve or disapprove my ideas. they just didn't say anything!!! kaloka!!!! then, when i figured out that silence meant that i should forge ahead in the same direction, i fought to overhaul my "creative diarrhea" style -- i vomit dozens upon dozens of options, you choose one -- in favor of the "you ought to know best, so just give us one good one" style that seems to work around here. and THEN i had to wrap my head around the fact that none of them intended to muck around with my ideas. ownership and responsibility were big lessons for me.

but the mind-boost! feeling ko maiiyak ako sa ganda when i read all the pitch presentations from our sydney office. i never thought i would ever be so inspired by a powerpoint, and wondered how i could ever conceptualize and write so clearly. (ganyan din ako when i first saw a promax showreel and charlie and ayee's enca plugs on my first day in gma.) and i really had to constantly plow through all my "am i doing this wrong? could this be better? is this good enough?" or i would have frozen up completely.

by friday last week, the powerpoint became so unwieldy with all its little parts and pieces that james had to keep kicking my ass just to make sure i had everything in place. (kakabilib siya grabe. hindi napipikon.) swimming in my gargantuan soup of bugs, straps, junction breaks, mockups, endpages and idents, i was forcibly reminds of my first days at gma when i had no idea what the difference between a rider and a bumper was, and wondered how the hell i was going to learn all the jargon. (answer: by osmosis, almost naturally.)

this resulted in my latest overtime ever in singapore... 8:30 p.m. isang malaking HA. HA. HA. overtime na raw ba yon?! flashback to countless overnights and sleeping under my desk at gma. apparently, yes. in fact, it was considered so bad that i was entitled to a glass (or two) of red wine while working. marlon also picked me up from the office and met the team, which was nice.

so imagine how i felt today when james texted me at 5pm.

"just got out from presentation. they loved it."

truly awesome.

i actually don't know if we're going to win it, since pitch period ends wednesday, but let me just hug this happy feeling to myself for a while.

and maybe have some more of that red wine. :-)

AW08 mid-market

The marketing executive of L.K. Bennett has left a comment in my post on the rise of the mid-market. She has provided a link to some of the pieces coming in for Autumn. Go take a look.

There are some very good tops.

Business Casual

I haven't inhabited the corporate world for a few years now. So, for all I know, thing may have changed. But somehow I doubt it.

How irritating were those invites to conferences or regional meetings that stipulated the dress code as 'business casual'. I mean , they should just have got off the pot and said: ' Chinos and polo shirts compulsory'.

This kind of mid -Atlantic look had become universally adopted in the business world as the uniform of the executive in mufti. Ralph Lauren for the North Americans and Lacoste for the Europeans, and likewise, deck shoes versus loafers.

I don't necessarily have anything against these items or styles of clothing; I do, after all,  wear polo shirts ( but not with a logo above the left breast). I may have been imagining it,  but at these gatherings I would often  pick up a tedious vibe of:  ' Look at me, no suit, what a dashing fascinating person I must be- I'm wearing a pink polo shirt'.

I guess one of the definitions of a tribe is a tendency to conformity. And business conferences are nothing if not tribal gatherings.

And maybe the organising principle behind this was right. After all, if you don't draw the line somewhere people might just turn up in cargo pants and flip -flops.

Which someone once did. What a surprise - he was Australian.

And I suppose it's a distinct possibility that everyone does that now.