When I was the national creative director of Publicis China, we were invited by OBI (a company that provides home renovation and DIY product services) to pitch for their business. There was a total of 6 advertising agencies and Publicis was scheduled to be the last agency to pitch. 

Based on common sense, if all six presentations are scheduled on the same day, the client’s concentration level would be at their lowest with the last agency. So I asked our account service team to reschedule our pitching session. However, to no avail, the attempt failed, so I need to rethink again.

Two days later, six wooden boxes by the size of 3 feet by 1 foot were sent to the client’s office with the client names pasted on the box cover. Guess what the boxes contain? Each boxes contain a 30-pound sledgehammer that has a label on the handle which says “Find out how to create an impact in the market on 12 June!”

The six sledgehammers had no doubt left the client “a huge impact” as they created a hype in them that was reflected in the email that was mailed to Publicis.

Our request to reschedule the pitching session to be in the morning was approved the following day. Not surprisingly, at the end we also won this pitch!