It's better to have pitched and lost than never to have pitched at all.*

Losing a new business pitch is kind of like breaking up with someone you only went out with a few times. Things weren’t that serious, and it was fun while it lasted. The late nights, the long hours, the agency-funded dinners. It was a good time. But in the end, it just wasn’t meant to be. You tell yourself it’s better for the both of you.

Then you start seeing that new business all over town with the work from its new agency. It’s on busses and banner ads, train wraps and taxi-toppers. You step onto an el and the entire interior is blanketed with ads for the new business you didn’t win.

Seriously, it’s everywhere. One minute you’re watching the Olympics, happily cheering on the U.S. curling team. Then it’s time for a word from our sponsors, and there’s a commercial for the client you convinced yourself you were better off without. How the heck did they afford a spot during the Olympic games?

And you can’t help but think to yourself, what’s so special about this new work? My work looked as good as this work. My work was just as smart. Heck, my work was way funnier than this work. WHY WASN’T MY WORK GOOD ENOUGH?

Next thing you know, you’re elbow deep in a box of Cheez-Its that may or may not belong to your roommate, lamenting over pitches loved and lost. You’ve got to get back out there, you tell yourself. You'll show them. You'll win an even bigger and better piece of business. Yeah. The next one. That'll be the one.


*When pitching new business, ad agencies generally prepare speculative campaigns to present to the client. This work is shown to highlight the agency's creative thinking and problem-solving abilities. Basically, when it's pitch time, we all just pretend like we already have the client and work our butts off to create campaigns and media plans and everything else we would do if the client were already ours. It's a lot of work. My mom never really understood what I meant when I said we were in a new business pitch, so I figured I'd explain it here just in case.