How to Pitch a Video Concept that Wins Over Clients

Pitch a Video Concept That Wins over Clients

1. Read your creative brief twice

Before you grab some Red Bull, Doritos, and break out into creative frenzy, take a look at your creative brief again.

From scheduling to target demos, your creative brief should guide you as you start your brainstorming sessions. You should always place your client needs above your own stylistic ideas and your creative brief should always guide your actions.

After all, the creative brief is what gets you a pitch meeting in the first place. While your video concept will be far more fleshed out and go into the ‘fun stuff,’ you have to make sure you live up to the promises of your creative brief.

TRY THIS FREE CREATIVE BRIEF TEMPLATE

Your creative brief is what gets you clients. Containing all the essential information about your video agency’s approach, it’s invaluable. We’ve optimized our creative brief template for video concepts and video agencies.

PITCH A VIDEO CONCEPT THAT WINS OVER CLIENTS

2. Pair strategy with creative

It’s easy to get lost in a really slick video concept. When considering your camera angles, opening shots, and soundtrack, you can lose track of why you created it in the first place.

Knowing how to pitch a concept is being able to pair a concrete benefit to each stylistic decision you make.

As you brainstorm video concepts for your pitch deck, work from strategy backwards. Back up each creative decision, whether it’s the look of a character, some dialogue, the final tagline, with a marketing strategy.

But that doesn’t mean you should only create from data. As cool and fun ideas pop up, you should find ways to make them powerful assets to your client in your pitch deck...what is a pitch deck?

WHAT IS A PITCH DECK?

Your pitch deck is the presentation you give to your potential client to sell your video concept. It's the visuals you'll pair with your well-constructed comments.

While it's tempting to just turn your creative brief for video into a slideshow, a successful agency pitch presentation should have its own life. When brainstorming how to pitch an idea, write a script first and then make the visuals to back it up.

PITCH A VIDEO CONCEPT THAT WINS OVER CLIENTS

3. Sum up your pitch deck in two sentences

While your video concept will mostly likely only last 30 seconds long (and it probably should be), you should always be able to reduce your video concept into a two sentence story.

With every video concept you develop, you should be able to list:

• The hero(es): the focus of your content. They fit within the demographic of the client.
• The villain(s): the obstacle of your heroes. It’s likely the problem your client’s product solves (if you’re making a product commercial)
• The how: how your video portrays the conflict. Does your hero win? Does the villain win? How do they do it?

Your concept video two sentence pitch should address all of these concerns. If your video has a tagline, it should be able to serves a title for these items.

VIDEO CONCEPT EXAMPLE

Let’s say I wanted to prepare a video concept for a tanning bed company. For the sake of hypothetical, let’s say I wanted to include a series of shots of sad pale people with a final call to action: get tan today. I could easily sum this up as: Being pale sucks. The only answer is to get tan.

In those sentences, I address the hero (pale people), the villain (depression), and the how of how they relate: you can be happy with a tan.

While you can use a video concept template to harness your ideas, mastering your pitch is knowing to how to write a video concept logline.

PITCH A VIDEO CONCEPT THAT WINS OVER CLIENTS

4. Craft a mood board

A picture may be worth a thousand words, but when discussing how to pitch an idea, the less words the better.

When you prep your video concept, the more pictures you have the better. When you go to meet with clients, carefully prepare a moodboard.

A mood board is nothing more than a collection of inspiration pictures. They can speak to the color palette, the project’s feeling, or what a character will look like.

By using a moodboard app, you can save yourself the hassle and create stunning inspiration boards that will wow your clients.

PITCH A VIDEO CONCEPT THAT WINS OVER CLIENTS

5. Break your video concept into references

Knowing how to pitch a concept is a matter of getting clients to see your vision to way you see it.

But because your video concept will be brand spanking new, you need reference videos to describe the tone, look, and feel of your work.

If I said that I wanted to make a funny sci fi movie, you don’t really have a clear view of what I’m thinking. If I said I wanted to make a cross between Star Trek and The Office, a clearer picture begins to paint itself.

When making a production pitch, have references available for all aspects of your video concept.  If someone asks how your video concept looks, be able to show two clips that capture that.

PITCH A VIDEO CONCEPT THAT WINS OVER CLIENTS

6. Show a storyboard

Sometimes people will read the first few pages of your preliminary script in a pitch meeting. While the strength of your words has weight, pairing with some storyboards takes it to the next level.

Not unlike animatic, a storyboard paired with a reading of your script paints the clearest picture for your clients. With lots of storyboard software out there, there’s really no excuse not to have one.

While you can storyboard any part of your video concept, start with the first couple frames to leave your clients wanting more.

HOW TO MAKE A STORYBOARD SLIDESHOW

While your storyboard slideshow fits nicely in an advertising pitch deck, creating one is often a scramble to gather your frames and then scan them into a computer. In StudioBinder, you can easily import your boards. It’ll automatically generate a slideshow, as well as, a link you can send to your clients for the pitch meeting.

PITCH A VIDEO CONCEPT THAT WINS OVER CLIENTS

7. Revise, revise, revise your pitch deck

While you assemble the inspiration you’ll need to wow your clients, practice your video concept pitch for your team and anyone who will listen.

There’s nothing worse than someone who reads directly off of the slides. Because a pitch is all about getting someone else to see the concept the way you do, revision is the bedrock of a successful sell.

Run your video concept pitch for your teammates once a week, taking careful notes. But don’t lose track of them.

By using a workflow platform, you can not only upload your pitch deck, you can also make comments and assign tasks. And the beauty of it all, is that you’ll never lose anything.

PITCH A VIDEO CONCEPT THAT WINS OVER CLIENTS

8. Practice holding your ground

After you’ve prepared your video concept, you may think you’re ready to burst into the conference room and show the boss people what you’re made of.

But the client may not love your production pitch. It happens.

In this case you have to be prepared to defend all of your project. Backtracking makes your video concept look not well thought out. By strongly and firmly understanding each artistic choice in your pitch deck (see point 2), you look stronger and more polished.

Of course, you’ll have to let your client make some alterations, but these should only be minor tweaks.

PITCH A VIDEO CONCEPT THAT WINS OVER CLIENTS

9. Know the numbers

How many characters does your video concept need? How many days will it take to shoot?

While this should always be outlined on your creative brief, in the meeting, you should know your figures and especially budget off of the top of your head.

It never hurts to create a script breakdown report, so you know exactly all the particulars.

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Conclusion

Learning how to pitch video concepts takes hours of preparation. You can't just go into the meeting with a half-filled out video treatment template and spitball.

To define spitballing in this situation, it means you look flustered. By vetting and laying out your creative corporate video ideas ahead of time, you'll set yourself up for victory.

How do you prep your own video concept proposals? Drop us a note in the comments.