By Kristin Calhoun, Director of Station Products & Innovation
We’re all so needy.
We all want more resources, more time, more money, more buy-in. And we’ve all had that moment, when you
actually have the attention of someone who can give us something we need. These moments don’t come very often, but when
they do, are you ready with your pitch?
At this year’s iMA conference, Mike Reszler of Minnesota
Public Radio, David Dickinson of Wisconsin Public Television and I facilitated
a session titled, “What's Your Digital Strategy Elevator Pitch?”
Our goal was to give the participants real world examples
and tangible experience into what it takes to develop and deliver a good pitch.
We kicked off with a look at some award winning pitches like
this one –
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Note the time; she did that pitch in under a minute.
We then deconstructed her pitch, what were the core elements
that made it successful?
1: She identified a
problem. A problem that people on the
street would have. An audience facing
problem, not an internal one.
2: She explained her
product and how her product solves the problem.
3: She described the
target audience for her product.
4. And she closed
with – This is what you’ll get for your investment (and a catchy tag line).
Now, the fun part.
The participants broke into groups and in 20 minutes came up with their
own pitches. My FAV part of this was
when one group said, ‘we’re not sharing our idea until everyone in this room
signs a NDA!’ It was so cool to see the
ideas and energy in the room as everyone came up with their pitches. You can here the audio of the pitches here
(sorry, no video).
Do you have examples of great elevator pitches? Have you been a part of a successful pitch?
Did you ever see a really bad pitch? Do
you like the show Shark Tank? (I
do!)
We’d love to hear your stories..
