2023 Creative LIAisons Onsite Panels & Speakers

Doerte Spengler-Ahrens

Managing Partner Creation
Jung von Matt Hamburg
Hamburg

Topic: How to Secure a Pitch Win.
An unconventional, subjective guide to pitch success.
 
About Doerte:
Dörte studied Visual Communications and started her career as an Art Director before switching to Copywriting. 
 
After working in several agencies, she joined Jung von Matt, becoming a Creative Director after only three years. 
 
In 2000, she founded her own company MARIA. 
 
Dörte returned in 2002 to Jung von Matt to set the agency JvM/Spree in Berlin with two partners, becoming a shareholder.  After that, she launched the first international branch, JvM/9 and several other companies (JvM/Pulse, JvM/Fleet, JvM/Elbe), working for all big clients including BMW, Mercedes-Benz, Sixt, Zalando, Netto, Edeka, BVG, OTTO, Douglas, WWF, etc.
 
In 2016, she and Managing Partner Stephan Giest founded Jung von Matt SAGA - which stands for Spengler-Ahrens-Giest-Agency. With over 700 awards, including several Grand Prixs, Dörte is one of the most awarded German creatives, President of Germany’s Art Directors Club and an Advisory Board Member of the D&AD and New York Festival. She was awarded Germany’s Agency Head of the Year 2018, served 2019 besides other juries as Chairwoman and Jury President of the ADC*E Festival.
 
Dörte is extremely passionate about her work. She loves to travel and to meet people; more than that, though, her husband Tobias Ahrens, their son Bela, and Tyson - the family dog.
 

From ‘How to Secure a Pitch Win’ Talk:
•    Before the pitch day arrives, all agencies are equal. The day of the pitch changes everything: only the actual performance during the pitch matters.

•    Listen before you sell. Embrace your client's brand with the same enthusiasm they have; let their passion infect you. If you don't genuinely understand your client's objectives, you've already lost.

•    There’s no place for grouches. There's no place for cynicism, egoism, or arrogance in the pitch process. It's not about you or your collection of awards; it's all about your potential clients.

•    Nothing fascinates people more than other people. Casting matters: assemble the right team. Don't simply fill the room with the most senior men.

•    Inspire until the very last chart, not just through the creative idea.