This Agency Wasn’t Disheartened When It Lost a Pitch, Instead It Waited Four Years to Win It

Four years ago, South Carolina agency FerebeeLane pitched to oversee creative for the Crystal Coast Tourism Development Authority (TDA), which promotes the southern Outer Banks area in North Carolina. After making it to the final rounds, the agency lost out to a regional rival.

Four years later, though, thanks to playing the long game and learning from the loss, FerebeeLane got another chance. This time, it managed to win the account in just five hours.

The agency did so by keeping the relationship with the client alive between pitches, taking stock of its shortcomings on the first pitch, and being persistent without being annoying.

What happened during the first pitch

The Crystal Coast TDA is a quasi-government agency, so when it wants to add an agency to its roster or make a large investment, it has to bid out the project and get board approval.

It enlisted Chris Cavanaugh of Magellan Strategy Group to handle the pitch. Cavanaugh isn’t a typical search consultant, but he does the job for those he knows and trusts, and he knew Jim Browder, Crystal Coast TDA’s executive director.

“When you’re dealing with a variable such as an ad agency, we have to look at it a whole lot differently and find a price value, but we’re really looking for the quality and the results they can drive for us,” Browder told ADWEEK.

When the pitch kicked off in 2020, Cavanaugh gathered over 20 agencies, whittling them down to a final three, then two, of which FerebeeLane was one. Ultimately, the business was handed to Zimmerman, which had worked with the TDA before and was already handling its PR.

Typically, when an agency loses a pitch, the business moves on to the next and doesn’t look back. FerebeeLane wasn’t typical though.

Josh Lane, co-founder and chief operating officer at FerebeeLane, said that his team left the pitch process feeling good about their presentation.

But after nearly 30 years in the business, he couldn’t shake the feeling that someone else could have done better. Like any agency leader, he’s experienced wins and losses, and when the agency lost this pitch he was determined not to throw away the time and investment put into it.

Positive professional persistence

Lane believes in what he calls “compounding relationships.” It’s like compounding interest. Since he co-owns the agency, he isn’t going anywhere, so he has years to invest.

“If [you] just nurture a relationship without expecting anything in return, history has shown that you never know what the future holds,” said Lane.

After a gracious thank you to Browder and the board, Lane kept in contact with Crystal Coast TDA. In 2022, he noticed one of its ads and emailed Browder to praise it.

“Despite not winning the account, FerebeeLane was very gracious and did maintain ongoing communications. Not too much, but they were touching base, and they expressed a sincere interest in our progress,” said Browder, noting this included encouragement towards the success of the relationship with Zimmerman.

“I would refer to this as kind of an education for me in positive professional persistence,” he added.

Both Lane and Browder didn’t see the RFP as the end of the process but rather the start of a relationship.

Round 2 and success

Four years on, the TDA decided to move in a different direction, so Browder enlisted Cavanaugh again. This time he invited 15 agencies to the RFP, including FerebeeLane. However, despite its history with the client, the shop didn’t necessarily have an advantage over other agencies, per Cavanaugh.

For one, the RFP was quite different from the last, which had been developed during the pandemic. FerebeeLane had to address existing pain points and establish what the next agency had to accomplish.

One thing FerebeeLane didn’t communicate well in 2020 was strong digital capabilities.

“We felt if FerebeeLane could at least cross the threshold of being able to demonstrate its ability to fulfill the technical obligations of the relationship that it had, the team (could have success),” Cavanaugh told ADWEEK.

Cavanaugh said many agencies lose interest after losing a pitch or want to forgo the tourism sector entirely. Also, when some creative shops are invited to pitch a second time staffing has changed and they bomb.

With FerebeeLane, Cavanaugh said it was like having an old friend show up at your door after years away and slotting right back into your life. But there was still the matter of fit and timing.

Rather than taking a broad approach, like some RFPs do, Browder and Cavanaugh were transparent in their RFP process, laying the brand’s out challenges up front.

“If [agencies] don’t address it in the proposal process, then I don’t want to work with them, so I just lay it out. I tell them exactly what the challenge is and then I even get more detailed when it gets down to the finalists,” said Browder.

Lane had asked for feedback on what FerebeeLane did wrong the first time and Browder gave honest feedback, so the agency did its homework and came prepared.

“We were intent on making sure that even if we didn’t win this time, it was not going to be because we didn’t communicate our digital capabilities well enough,” said Lane.

The preparation paid off. FerebeeLane was the first to pitch at 9:30 AM on May. 14 2024, and at 2:08 PM, while the pitch team was driving home, they got the call that they had won.

It’s the fastest the agency had ever gone from presenting to getting the nod.

The win is still fresh, so work on the creative has just started, but it’s rooted in insights that have been researched over four years, with a campaign set for the holiday season.

For Lane, even if the Crystal Coast opportunity hadn’t come up again, keeping in good touch with Browder means he may have referred others to the agency.  

“It’s [about] planting seeds and trying to be good to other people without expecting things in return,” said Lane.