When LifeWear Apparel brand- Uniqlo called an ‘open’ pitch on LinkedIn in November 2023, the ad world went into a frenzy as the gates for open pitches had opened once again. Following closely on the heels of Uniqlo’s creative pitch was automobile major- Porsche.
Mind you, Uniqlo wasn’t the first brand to call an open creative pitch. Years ago (in 2017), the founder and CEO of Nearbuy (formerly GroupOn India) who has built for himself the stature of a widely known content creator- Ankur Warikoo had gone live on Facebook to invite creative agencies to pitch to him and show him their mettle!
But in the new normal of the pitching world of advertising accounts, retainers and wins, when the founder of Zenma Coffee– Sheena Khurana took to LinkedIn on August 16 to get herself aligned to a creative agency that could handle her speciality frozen coffee pod brand’s positioning and marketing, it was expected that many agency owners would comment on her post and even send her direct messages.
However, what was unexpected and what one may call attention-worthy was that Bo, Founder, The Voice Company, posted an ad copy, primarily his pitch for the brand, on his LinkedIn tagging Khurana on August 17.
This post was part of an ongoing series that Bo is doing called ‘Live Pitches’ where he pitches to brands live on LinkedIn. In fact, in the past he’s also pitched to new-age brands like Mokobara and Bummer in the same way.
Upon seeing Bo’s post, Khurana’s instant response to the admaker was- “Wow. That seems like quite an idea. Interesting for sure. Happy to chat about this over some Zenma coffee. How does Monday sound?”
When we caught up with Zenma Coffee’s Khurana about this decision, she said, “Bo got the product bang on, and the idea he had to go splitsies on the print ad was incredibly different. I knew this would be a partnership worth exploring.”
Bo, who has now received a confirmation email from Khurana confirming their engagement, said, “This was a gamble, like most things in my life. It would either work or blow up in my face. I knew that Sheena’s inbox would be flooded with emails from other agencies, and I knew I had to do something different to get noticed. I had already tried Zenma before so I knew exactly what my pitch was going to be.”
The pitch that won the business was this-
Based in Gurgaon, Bo’s The Voice Company is an advertising and content agency that has handled the creative duties of Dot & Key, Milkbasket, MG Motor, KFC, First Coffee, Mercy For Animals, DaMensch and others in the past.
And as pitched to Khurana, Bo’s The Voice Company has agreed to split the media cost of the ad with Zenma because he was positive that the print ad (a rarity for startups because of the expensive nature) would have a great return on investment.
