by Alistair Mokoena (@AlistairMokoena) Ten years ago, when car hijackings were still rife in Johannesburg, I attended an anti-hijacking class. One of the insights I picked up from the class was that most hijackings occur at traffic lights when most motorists are not paying attention to the world around them. Since then I’m more observant at intersections and this has opened my eyes, not only to the plight of beggars, but also to the methods employed in begging.
[pullquote]We are all after the “client’s” wallet. We all face huge levels of competition. Clients don’t enjoy pitches any more than motorists enjoy stopping at a traffic light. We are all trying to leave a stranger with a lasting impression and we are all under huge time pressure.[/pullquote]
There was a time not so long ago when all you saw at traffic lights were stories of poverty and strife and all you heard were heart-felt pleas for money and food. You still get a lot of that but in the main, begging has evolved, possibly in direct response to the impact of the global recession. The recession has increased the number of people begging and it has also left many would-be donors with little or no money to donate, resulting in a scramble for a smaller benevolent pie.
In their desperation to make ends meet, people begging have turned to … the power of branding. You can no longer paint them with the same brush. Their tools now range from a neutral plea for help to a bartering system where the donor receives a blessing, a clean windscreen, a garbage free car, gardening services, a joke, a trick, even a dance routine, in return for a small donation.
The competitive landscape ranges from other people begging at the same intersection to other cars, newspaper vendors, pedestrians crossing the road, make up, the car radio, cellphones and the traffic light itself. They have less than a minute to pitch their proposition to a motorist.
It makes me think of advertising pitches. We are all after the “client’s” wallet. We all face huge levels of competition. Clients don’t enjoy pitches 
any more than motorists enjoy stopping at a traffic light. We are all trying to leave a stranger with a lasting impression and we are all under huge time pressure.
We’ve all experienced defeatist agency teams. They approach pitches with the proverbial begging bowl. They could just as well stand there with a sign saying “money please.” They trade on pity either because they are a start-up or because they’ve just lost a major account and therefore need to bounce back financially. I doubt their success rate is very high.
Agencies that win pitches are more resourceful. They have a sound appreciation for their target audience and what drives them. They are aware that there’s competition out there and that they need to use their ingenuity to cut through the clutter and make a “sale” in a very short space of time. They understand that endorphins attract, and pity repels.
They are charming instead of pompous, cocky, flamboyant or over-familiar. They are sincere and don’t over-promise. They are entertaining and pleasant to deal with. All of these things are a necessary canvas for you to lay your creative work on. Without them, the work is like a poisoned chalice that might cost you the pitch or cost you the account down the line.
Clients want to feel good about engaging with you. Remember every piece of communication, even those that are researched to death, is a gamble. It’s quite scary, as a client, to make a 3 million rand commercial without any guarantee that it will work. They want to know that they can walk this tight rope with you and that their faith in you will be rewarded.
And if you feel pitches are unfair, spare a thought for the the men and women begging you encounter on your way home.
Alistair Mokoena (@AlistairMokoena) is a Unilever-trained Chartered Marketer with lots of blue-chip marketing experience. He’s currently MD of Draftfcb Joburg. Mokoena contributes the monthly “The Switch” column to MarkLives.com.
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