Pitch Reflection

I have completed this pitch presentation with Shriya Baweja and Luiza Helena regarding the Casio Keytar product (The UK, 1980’s).

The aim of this task was to create an advertising campaign and pitch the product to persuade the company (Casio) was entirely fit for their purpose. Our agency Inspire Your Desire aimed to convince the company by employing several appeals during our speech.

While presenting our pitch, we primarily focused on the use of ethos, both in our speech and our pitch. As a group, we decided to showcase the reputation of our agency, to assure the company our ability to make the campaign successful and worthwhile at the beginning of our pitch. We have achieved this by introducing our agency with our goals, who we are as a team, our perception of advertisement and listing specific awards that our agency won over the years. We included this intentionally to develop a credible and reliable character towards the company. Another ethos rhetoric that we incorporated were the Beatles. Given the timeframe of the 1980’s and a musical instrument, we ought that including a favorite British rock band in the advertisement was an essential and pivotal element to persuade our intended audience and to show awareness of the cultural context.

Another persuasive technique that was incorporated in the pitch was repetition. As a group, we came up with a slogan that would reflect the enthusiastic and exclusive identity of the product “Now be a star with your very own Keytar.” We included this slogan to convince the company that the advertisement would centralize the central identity and reputation of the good. Other appeals that we mentioned during our endorsement was the need for autonomy, the need for something new and logos (neurological impacts).

Overall, we tried to incorporate persuasive language throughout our speech, to reinforce the purpose of the pitch and unite the script as one. We focused on using specific phrases that would automatically lead the company to believe that the campaign is refreshing and credible, such as “Think again… We know… Yes, that’s right! … We strive…”. We expressed this diction in an enthusiastic manner to transfer the same enthusiasm and excitement of the campaign to our audience. Moreover, I believe that this technique was effective as it exhibits a particular perspective on the product, allowing the company to engage with the topic.

Knowledge of the awareness of audience and context influenced our approach to this task. For instance, our context was the UK, during the 1980s. Therefore, we chose for a text type that was popular during this framework: TV commercials and podcasts. Also, we supposed that having a British rock band that was globally known would introduce greater authenticity to the product. Also, we also focused on persuading the company that a musical instrument would not narrow down their options for a broad target audience.

I believe that our group worked very efficiently to complete this task to our best extent, and I’m proud of what we were able to achieve in the time given. During class, we were able to manage our time to finish the task on time successfully. Overall, we collaborated efficiently and were able to distribute the workload equally. Personally, as we worked fluently and were able to collaboratively effectively, I do not think I’d change anything regarding preparing for the task. However, I believe I focused too much on the development of the script, compared to presenting. When presenting, I felt nervous which made me rely on my cue cards too much. Therefore, I was not able to engage with the audience as much as I wanted too. Thus, if I were to complete this presentation again, I would equally manage my time in both the preparation and rehearsing of the task. Then, I’d be able to present without relying on my cue cards and present with greater engagement and communication skills.