This is how you pitch a new piece of technology. | Hacker News Reader

This is how you pitch a new piece of technology.

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132 pointswherespaul54 comments

Here is another motivational thread on HN: Ask HN: Movies that motivate you? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1349566

I just watched the first episode of Mad Men and I'm hooked.

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Google's "Parisian Love" ad is an extremely potent, real world example of using similar emotions to sell a product:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnsSUqgkDwU

Wow, I loved that, I even tried creating a Google story that I hope will one day be my story. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zE4Zh7XXUO4

I did a follow up story ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rndTuXG51kI

Rofl

You forgot "How to sell your product" or "How to generate revenue from 1B pageviews"

Yeah, I guess. ;) You can always create a better one if you want to.

I made one for my company a few months ago: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7SpYMCVnvMk

Nice, what's the sound track?

I have no clue, one of the Google ones. If you want to create one, go here: http://www.youtube.com/searchstories

I've seen this many times, and I still think that it's the most powerful piece of advertising that I've ever seen.

It combines everything that we take for granted about Google -- the spelling correction, ability to search through multiple datasets intelligently (flight schedules, for example), location-dependent search.

But none of it is presented this way; it's all just seen through the lens of a man navigating life and love. The technology is unseen, and not even mentioned, but the power is very, very real.

This is more about how to make a good TV show. He's not really pitching a new piece of technology at all. He's pitching an ad campaign, which in turn is about introducing consumers to a new piece of technology. The scene is so good that you fall for the campaign too.

It's a great way to learn something about pitching if you look like Don Draper, have a product that good (the carousel campaign) and you're an actor in a well-written, hit TV show.

> He's not really pitching a new piece of technology at all. He's pitching an ad campaign, which in turn is about introducing consumers to a new piece of technology.

You seem to be getting hung up on the fact that Draper isn't actually a startup founder pitching his own product to investors. That's almost completely irrelevant. He is definitely pitching the product. In this case, he simply happens to be pitching the product back to the company who made it.

Pitching and advertising, while they have their differences, are fundamentally about the same thing: getting people to believe a product can make their lives better. If, in addition to tossing out numbers, you can make your potential investors believe you know how to connect with your market and truly understand their needs, so much the better. It doesn't have to be in tear-jerker form like Draper's presentation: it's about knowing how to frame the product.

And sure, it's a TV show, but it happens to be a fairly exceptional TV show built on a great deal of wisdom about what makes people tick. Don't throw the baby out with the bathwater.

No, he is not pitching the product. He's pitching the campaign. The TV show is great. Pitching and advertising are not the same thing and pitching is certainly not about getting people to believe a product can make their lives better, at least not in the most common cases HN readers are likely to encounter. The title 'this is how to pitch a new technology' is fairly silly. I think all of these are either obvious facts or trivial arguments and that's all I've stated and now you're telling me I'm hung up on something that I never even mentioned (startup founders pitching to investors). Now, if you want to draw pitching wisdom from this clip, terrific. But if you want to respond to me, respond to claims I've made instead of ones you said I've made, but didn't.

> No, he is not pitching the product. He's pitching the campaign.

You're insisting there's mutual exclusion where it doesn't exist.

> But if you want to respond to me, respond to claims I've made instead of ones you said I've made, but didn't.

I pretty clearly used the words "you seem", as in, "this is what I think you're thinking." I'm not a mind reader, so I'm forced to make a guess. Based on your other comments, it seemed like a pretty reasonable one to me.

By the way, pitching in its everyday usage just means to sell someone on something, whether it's customers or investors. (Notice how salesmen are often described as making a "sales pitch".) Advertising is a special form of pitching to customers. Pitching in the entrepreneurial sense of talking to a roomful of investors is also a special form of pitching.

This is a YCombinator site, so when someone mentions pitching, there's a good chance they mean talking to a roomful of investors. But a lot of us also talk about pitching to customers.

Either way, I think the clip offers some insight in how to do both, even if it's exaggerated for dramatic effect.

The first time this clip went round, it was to build a parallel with the FaceTime ads. Because they have the same mechanics, and the same core idea that technology itself is not relevant, at least not to the public at large. What is important is what technology allows/gives/creates.

Sure, it's a good scene in a TV show about a good ad. And if you're advertising some new technology to consumers, whether it's on your website's front page or on TV, looking at other good ads and what makes them work is informative.

The title suggests this is usefully related to pitching, as in, standing in front of a roomful of people trying to convince them to take your business, write you a big cheque, etc. In that sense, it's about informative as watching Gordon Gekko's famous scene for tips on how to address shareholders or Dwight Shrute for insight into motivating employees.

Don't discount the wisdom that can be found in television. Most of what I know about roadside beet sales came from Dwight Schrute.

"First rule in roadside beet sales, put the most attractive bets on top. The ones that make you pull the car over and go 'wow, I need this beet right now'. Those are the money beets."

> The title suggests this is usefully related to pitching

Yes. In that it might make you understand that you need to find your product's emotional appeal (if it has one) and play on that.

I'm always fascinated how people can see things so differently. Seems like @pvg missed my attentions for posting this link. Others understood the post and that is why it got 82 votes. I'm not saying @pvg is wrong...he has some good points...but some of his points leave me scratching my head..but i don't want to get into a debate over it.

Seems like @pvg missed my attentions for posting this link.

You don't have to @me, we aren't on twitter. Also I really don't understand the above sentence.

Others understood the post and that is why it got 82 votes.

82 people can just like the clip. I certainly do and I'm in violent agreement with the notion that connecting a product to a powerful emotion can be a great way to advertise it. There's also an element of fantasy in this - if you've ever pitched or thought about pitching anything to a potential client, investor or business partner, you wish you could close them like Don Draper, too. At the same time, I think it's a little naive to say 'this is how you pitch, bottle it and take it to the conference room with you'.

but i don't want to get into a debate over it.

Fair enough. But that's why this this is here, with the comment section, and all.

I have always understood what he is pitching. It is you who do not understand what I am "pitching". Its unfortunate you could not see my original intent. I am not using the "Mad men" clip as a fool proof template to be used in conference rooms across the nation. I was simply trying to share some of Draper's fictional talents with others who have like interests. The clip shows a pitch with passion, emotion, personal connection, and knowledge of product. I feel these elements are worth noting if you have any entrepreneurial interests. I advise you think a little longer before responding to any more posts. Its alright, it happens to the best of them.

I have always understood what he is pitching.

Then I must have misunderstood what you meant when you said he was pitching a new technology.

I advise you think a little longer before responding to any more posts. Its alright, it happens to the best of them.

Thanks, if we're exchanging advice, mine would be 'please don't be a condescending prat'.

I understood your misunderstanding immediately after reading your post. That is why I felt obligated to educate you. Condescending is a word that most would use to describe your responses to some posts. I'm not here for your feedback. I'm here to share information with others who have like interests. Please show some class. The name calling is unnecessary.

@pvg Sigh. OK I will take time to respond to you. I will try to get to this thread tonight. Sorry for not taking the time to write well. Damn it where is the tweet button?

One thing to keep in mind is that it's "just a TV show" and that it has the benefit of hindsight. They can look back at history and find the great (or the disastrous) ad campaigns and riff on those. They make it look like Draper (the pitchman in that clip) just knocks out those hits with just a few hours of brooding between sessions of drinking and screwing and being bad towards his wife. In real life, its a lot more random and not so easy.

I think you're missing the point. The point is that the technology isn't about the things, it's about the people and how it affects your life.

Nobody cares that the carousel is a wheel. Just like nobody cares that your phone has a 1gz processor, or that your display has 1080dpi. It's that a 1gz processor makes animations smoother or programs run faster so you can get things done. The 1080dpi is so that you can see your photos or video in life-like quality.

I think you mean 1080p, seeing as the iPhone 4's "retina display" is only 326 dpi.

Although I'd imagine a 1080dpi screen would look quite life-like.

yes, that is what I meant, though at the same time, the confusion in technology I think further proves the point.

The point is that the technology isn't about the things, it's about the people and how it affects your life.

Right. For example, the technology and social practice of a cable TV show can lead folks to incorrect conclusions about how to pitch technology.

Nobody cares that the carousel is a wheel. Just like nobody cares that your phone has a 1gz processor, or that your display has 1080dpi.

Uh... those are all false statements.

The 1080dpi is so that you can see your photos or video in life-like quality.

Sure. Or for some other purpose, depending on what you do. That's not what the linked clip is about, though.

You remind me of the scene from "The Graduate" where everyone is trying to tell Dustin Hoffman what to do with his life and someone says "Plastics. That's where the future lies." (Or something along those lines.) If I recall correctly, that bit was used (much, much later) in a commercial for plastics. I didn't know until later, from an older acquaintance commenting on it, that the scene was humorous and the suggestion of "Plastics" was viewed as a rather ridiculous thing to include at the time the film came out.

The advert was for Hanson, the junk-bond takeover conglomerate founded by a guy from the same town (in England) as me.

This reminded me a lot of the iPhone 4 ad, just fifty years old. It's not about the 1ghz processor or the 512mb of ram, it's about the value of the experiences you have using it.

or the other way around, the iPhone (FaceTime) ads are built around the same structure and the idea of playing hearts like a fiddle. Except where the carousel brings backs the past, FaceTime gives you the present.

Here is another motivational thread on HN: Ask HN: Movies that motivate you? http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1349566

I just watched the first episode of Mad Men and I'm hooked.

Mad Men has great lessons in the art of the high-concept pitch: giving the listener a compelling vision rather than being constrained to a conversation about sales numbers or product features. Funding a startup (or buying an ad campaign) should make the person writing the check want to tell everyone they know that the smart investment they just made is going to make the world a better place, not that they're going to beat the competition by x.y%.

aside: bought the Mad Men three-season box set to catch up before the upcoming season 4, but didn't realize I got a Chinese bootleg; producer's listed as Linsgate (sic), not Lionsgate. :)

Here I was hoping for "Loinsgate".

Gattaca.

If you guys are fans of Don Draper, here is the real life Don Draper, a guy named Steve Frankfurt: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjDSqQmcc90

Scott great find! The intro is long so here is a link that cuts to the good stuff: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjDSqQmcc90#t=1m05s

you mean having dramatic background music played while pitching? ;)

Actually, Mad Men uses extremely little background music. In this sequence it's there, but very subtle.

I was going to try to find a YouTube clip of it, but I couldn't, so let me just recommend The IT Crowd episode 2.5, in which Moss invents the best bra ever known, except for a few fatal flaws which cause their pitch at the end of the episode to fail miserably.

Do you mean this one? http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoPbMMzrLss#t=2m21s

Yes. I laughed very hard when it caught on fire.

That's an incredible scene, and you can clearly see that the FaceTime ads for the iPhone 4 are in the same 'genre'.

FaceTime allows people who are separated, perhaps on different continents, or across generations to re-connect, and share important moments, like the birth of a child, or the slings and arrows of adolescence.

Just like Draper says in the scene, the technology just has to work and get out of the way. The human experience is the important part.

Recently I found apple's facetime ads to be super effective. I'm never buying the iPhone 4 (or perhaps any successor) but man I want that app.

I wouldn't be surprised if this clip was circulated internally at Apple and within the creative agency responsible for FaceTime during that campaign's concept stage. This approach is classic Apple, i.e. highlight and focus on the benefits instead of the features.

Watch "Art and Copy". A poignant reflection and reminder of why advertising is important.

This reminded me of the Philips ad 'Carousel' (related only by its name, and that it also happens to be an excellent ad):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQ3D4CqHbJM

So remembering who that's important, not what or how.

I believe the first rule for pitching a piece of "technology" is to repeatedly refer to it as "new" "technology", despite it being neither new nor technology. It's the new buzz.

In other news, blacksmith creates horseshoe with hammer and anvil "technology".

Probably obvious from the clip, but for those who don't watch the show, he's fairly recently "lost" his family due to being a jerk (with respect to being a father/husband).

    ^^^^^^^^^^^^^
    spoiler alert

Dang it... I figured that is where the story was going to go. Wish I would have not read this comment. ha.

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