We thought it might be interesting to share some of our pitch work.  I’m sure many agencies would agree that this work can sometimes represent their best creative work.  Some already include it in their main portfolios For us we thought this might appear misleading and though our blog could be a perfect forum for it. This piece of work was part of collaboration between us and Time Inc’s Content Solutions group.  TICS brought us in to consult on the project and to act as creative lead.  The following screen shot is one of many we finally presented and goes a long way to represent out thinking that MIDAS needed to build loyalty and trust for the brand.  Our proposition was to offer a knowledge base of cars and their specific needs in terms of servicing.  The aim: to empower to user in a field that is known to be filled with smoke and mirrors and plenty of teeth sucking mechanics warning of doom and gloom and quickly rising servicing costs.  The site was also to be location and user specific offering users the chance to save their profiles and receive relevant information and offers across the network of the company’s 17,000 service centers. Like many projects, this seemed to disappear along with the company’s CMO and Midas are now being serviced by a local agency.  We wish them luck - they were all extremely nice people.  Meanwhile, our relationship with Time Inc. grows and we’re now working with them on a live project for Unilever called “Making Life Better”. 

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We recently had the opportunity to get in contact with the top marketing people at Seiko and rather than simply present a creds and capabilities deck, we at Last Exit thought to apply some initial thinking via a campaign idea. Not something we normally advise doing because of our limited knowledge of Seiko’s plans/strategies etc. However, in this case because of our love of technology, good design and watches, we dared to be so bold.

Our understanding of Seiko’s positioning in the market is that the vast majority of its competition is Swiss. This comes from both established brands such as TAG Heuer and Tissot, to relative new entrants such as Victorinox / Swiss Army and Wenger. The Swiss heritage evokes reliability, precision and craftsmanship. However what is lacking from the Swiss seems to be innovation. Precious metals and craftsmanship are in the context of old technology not new. Seiko’s heritage is one of continual innovation - its watch technology eclipses any other within its price position and beyond. We felt this angle is worth exploring.

Our cultural reference is from the Orson Welles Film, The Third Man. His character, Harry Lime, gives a deft historical description of the lack of Swiss innovation at a time when humanity was going through unprecedented technological advancement.The attached visual shows a proposed context for this quote with a watch that demonstrates Seiko’s key point of difference - it’s product innovation. Our strapline “It’s About Time” deliberately introduces ambiguity, to suggest that Seiko is about innovation, and that it is time this was more widely known relative to comparable brnds.

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