11 June 2026

The window between pitching and hearing back is usually dead time. Gerard calls the campaign that fills it sales lubrication.

The idea is a short, hyper-targeted brand awareness push aimed not at the decision maker, but at everyone around them — the people who will be in the lunch room when your name comes up. At the shortlist stage the contest is rarely about capability, it is about perceived risk. Familiarity removes the risk.

A small, well-aimed campaign over one to four weeks is cheap to run and shifts the answer from "who are they?" to "I think I have heard of those guys."

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