Two ever decreasing echoes that reverberate around adland are that ‘the pitch process is broken’ and we need to make ‘entertainment not advertising’. What if we bundled both into a pair of high waisted trousers and solved these familiar two nos with three big fat yeses?

Bear with me.

Once upon a time, manufactured pop bands used to appear on our screens, in the charts and on our bedroom walls as perfectly formed and perfectly choreographed units of pop perfection.

All of the pre-launch for the pop was done behind closed doors. The call for entries, chemistry meetings with candidates, the longlist, the shortlist, and the final selection all took place behind a metaphorical curtain.

With the winning team in place, the concept was then rehearsed and rehashed, the narrative re-written, the visual identity developed, until finally the product and its story was polished enough for launch day, usually in the form of a short promo film, live events, some posters and PR. Sound familiar?