“Pitch Me”
a fun and simple game for your Marcom team to sharpen their skills.
[All credit to the folks at PMG North Bay for introducing me to this game]
Would you pay your marcom team to play a game? How about if it boosted their creativity and made them a more collaborative team.
Pitch Me is a game that’s great for inspiring fresh thinking, creative marketing concepts, and new ways to stretch your marketing dollar.
The game is quite simple. There are 4 envelopes, each with a label: Channel, Budget, Target Market and Offering. Each of these envelopes contains 10-12 cards. Each team draws one card from each envelope to create a fictitious marcom “client,” a business leader (role-played by one or more judges) looking to take their solution to a specific target market, through a specified channel and with a defined budget. It’s the team’s job to craft a pitch to present to the “client” in order to win their business. Teams are given 15-30 minutes to work up their pitch (sketch boards, graphics, jingles, ad copy, dance routines, whatever), then they get 5 minutes to pitch their marketing plan, Shark Tank style. If you have 7 of fewer folks in your marcom team they should all work as one team. 8 or more and you should break them into teams of 4-7 members each.
Judges can use whatever criteria they like (funniest, best crafted, most likely to succeed, most comprehensive, etc.). The main goal is to let the creative juices run wind and free for a bit, have some fun and step up collaboration within your marcom department. I’ve definitely seen this game bring out hidden talents in teams. Even teams that have been working together for years. Also, I’m sure it comes as no surprise to many of you, but the most creative ideas I’ve seen in this game always come from teams that drew super low budgets.
I encourage you to create your own cards for the envelopes, but below are some ideas to get you started. [Again, thank you to PMG North Bay.] Have fun and please share your ideas for more cards.
Offerings:
- Electric Scooter
- Time Management Consultant
- Ramen Restaurant
- Handcrafted Gluten Free Paleo Bacon
- A 13 Year-Old Who Created a Lawn-mowing Company
- A Used Car Dealership
- Premium Wine Club
- Local Hot Sauce Company
- Cat Groomer
- Knitting Supplies
- Mini Storage
- Tiny Homes
Target Markets:
- Travel Junkies
- Teachers
- Wellness Women
- Millennials
- 20-Something Bros
- Golfers
- Hipsters
- Business Execs
- LGBT and Advocates
- Football Fans
- Over 65
- Local Moms
Channels:
- Print (Newspaper / Magazines)
- TV and Streaming
- Billboards (Physical Ad Placements)
- Conferences
- Radio
- Advertisements Before the Movie
- Public Relations
- Storefront Marketing
- Social Media
- Sponsorships
- Gorilla Marketing
- Special Events
Budgets:
- $0
- $100
- $500
- $2,500
- $10,000
- $25,000
- $100,000
- $250,000
- $1M
- $5M
- Trade
- Revenue Split
