So, after four months of talking--and more importantly, listening--we at Just For Laughs had the chance to pitch Virgin for the lead sponsorship position of our Toronto festival last Wednesday.
Knowing the ballsiness, cheekiness and spirit (sorry, no such word as "spiritness") of Richard Branson's group, we decided to go full out and do something very different.
- No standard Word doc.
- No standard PowerPoint.
- No standard, boring pitch.
Instead, we decided to go for broke.
Three very disparate parts of the Just For Laughs organization banded together to put together a full-fledged "here's what it would look like" campaign, complete with posters, full-page newspaper ads and street lamppost banners, and lined the company's airplane-like boardroom with our visuals (example below).
We put together a colorful, comic-book-esque document that detailed the event and a unique national tour that it would spawn.
With this eye-candy support (and truth be told, we did succumb to PowerPoint, but a continual flow of images only, with nary a word to be found), we told stories and painted pictures in the minds of the four Virgin execs seated in front of us.
And THEN we went for broke.
Following the formal pitch, with the help of Virgin Mobile and Virgin Gaming and one of the most efficient PR pros I've ever worked with, we filled Toronto's Tattoo Rock Parlor club for the piece de resistance:
A live roast of Sir Richard himself!
...for which we called in a favor and had it headlined by the Roastmaster General himself, Jeffrey Ross, star of just about every infamous Comedy Central Celebrity Roast (that's Jeff to the right below, and Sir Richard to the left).
Sir Richard proved to be a most willing victim, laughing at the evil fun poked at him by Jeff's poison skewer (my favorite line: "Richard, in doing some research, I discovered that you were dyslexic...which probably explains why you first wanted to name your company 'Irving'.")
Branson's rebuttal was probably the highlight of the night. He got up from his chair, gave Jeff a hearty hug, and as his right hand snaked around Jeff's back...poured a full beer over his head, much to everyone's shock and delight.
The verdict? The party was called "a blast." One Virgin exec said that he'd never experienced such a presentation, both that afternoon and evening.
We still don't know whether or not we have a deal (and trust me, when we do, you'll know in BOLD RED CAPS), but here's what I learned this week:
When you're in showbiz, put on a show.
If it ain't gonna work in the boardroom, it ain't gonna work outside of it, either.
Going for broke is the only way to break the bank.