WE FIVE ELVISES

I'm reading a fantastic book called "The Art of The Pitch" by Peter Coughter. Peter is a professor at the prestigious VCU Brandcenter in Richmond, Virginia. He is also a veteran pitch master who trains advertising managers at great ad agencies around the world like Crispin, Goodby, Dentsu, BBDO and many others.

As I got about half-way through Peter's book, I had a flashback. I remembered a time when I had the distinct pleasure of seeing Peter in action. Before BooneOakley, myself and David Oakley were manning a Charlotte outpost of The Martin Agency, the southeast's largest and most-awarded ad agency.

We had somehow managed to weasel our way into a pitch for the Charlotte Hornets account. For 11 years, the Hornets had witnessed sellout crowds. But, after their owner George Shinn went to court for sexually assaulting a former Hornets cheerleader, fan support began to dwindle. Our job wasn't to pass judgement. Our job was to win the account and win the fans back.

Peter was flown down to Charlotte to help us put together a winning pitch. He was the perfect guy for the job. First, he was a presentation guru. But, on top of that, he stood about 6' 7" and was a former basketball player at Princeton. So he not only talked the talk, he walked the walk and could speak from experience.

While Peter was coming up with a winning strategy and presentation, David and I were coming up with several creative campaign ideas. But there's only one that I actually remember. Probably because it was completely insane.

You see, the idea was to personify the names of the opposing teams. For instance, imagine Chicken McNuggets on the court playing basketball. A basketball shoe comes into frame and crushes one of the nuggets. Type comes on the screen: "Hornets vs. The Nuggets."

Another commercial, entitled "Hornets vs. Pacers," featured AMC Pacers sputtering around and dripping oil on the court. A third spot in the campaign opened with several Santa Clauses shooting hoops. It was for, you guessed it, "Hornets vs. The Knicks."

To bring the campaign to life for the pitch, we reached out to a local production company to see if they would shoot one of the spots for us. To our amazement, Susan Cody, the executive producer of Bridge Productions, agreed to shoot it on spec and started making a flurry of phone calls.

The next thing I know, we're in a high school gymnasium with a production crew and lighting equipment. Then, right on cue, our opposing team runs out onto the court.

It's not one ...not two ...but five guys dressed as Elvis! They have the sequined flare pants, the white leather boots, the lambchop sideburns. One of them was known as the "Thai Elvis." They start dribbling basketballs, passing, shooting and (with a help of a ladder) even dunking. They go through a series of warm-up drills, just like an NBA team would before a game. And, of course, after each shot they do a classic Elvis pose. The opposing team's name?

"The Kings."

I don't know what the other agencies presented in their pitches. But I guarantee they didn't present anything like this. And, after the presentation, while the client was deliberating, we sent one of the Elvis Impersonators over to their office with a bouquet of roses. He sang "It's Now Or Never."

Needless to say, we won the account.

But we couldn't have done it without the help of Peter, Susan, Elvis, Elvis, Elvis, Elvis and Elvis.