NEW JERSEY, November 11, 2002: So you're pitching a big account. Here are some tried and true suggestions about what makes winning pitches, based on an article written by Chuck Phillips, advertising guru from the Bay area.

1. Aim at the heart. Does emotional branding ring a bell? Why shouldn't it apply to your new business pitch? Clients are people too.

2. Offer a unique point of view. About the brand you're pitching, about your approach to branding, about your company and their company. Be different.

3. Focus on your prospective client, not on you and your agency. Tell them something about your company, but focus on their needs, and how your point of view -- your work -- will help them exceed those needs. This meeting is about them, not you.

4. Make the first 10 minutes really count. Listeners form an opinion about you in the first 10 minutes. Be exciting. Be smart. Be cool.

5. Own the room. Get there early and set it up to make your work shine. If the presentation is on your home turf -- make it exciting for them to be there.

6. Create chemistry with eye contact, not digital pyrotechnics. Flash animation and ripamatics aside, what gets you points is the right blend of using audio/visual toys and making human connections. Make sure the balance is in favor of the latter.

7. Be polite and humble with case studies, if you use them at all. In fact, humility here is a real plus -- to assert that a brand's success was all due to its ad campaign is silly, says Phillips.

8. Be selective about what you present -- and who's presenting it. Show only the dazzling stuff. And make sure that the presenters have a vital role in the presentation, if not -- they probably shouldn't be there.

9. Close strong. Ask for the business - that is why you're there, after all.

10. Bottom line: do what it takes to win -- get the prospect to A) like you; B) think you are smart about their brand; C) feel that you are enthusiastic about how to help their brand succeed; and D) believe you create successful, strategic, winning ad campaigns.

Our thanks to Chuck Phillips for our interpretations of his notions.

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