Teamwork Made My Day “Pitch Perfect”: My First Pitching Experience at the 2025 PRSA-LA Western District Conference
As a graduating senior at my first PRSA conference, I experienced many activities. I took advice from industry professionals on maintaining relationships. I gained insight on building friendships from the co-founder of Allison Worldwide, Scott Pansky, in his “Playing Together in the Sandbox” story. I networked with industry professionals and students on the 21st floor of the Sheraton Universal Hotel. Even though they were all amazing experiences, my day wouldn’t have been “pitch perfect” without my “Honey Roasted” team.
Each student was assigned to a random table, each named after a Wonderful Pistachio flavor — I got “Honey Roasted.” After seven students from different Southern California universities sat around the table, we bonded over becoming aspiring PR professionals. Then, Emma Galloway, co-president of CSUN PRSSA, welcomed Melissa England, senior director of consumer public relations at The Wonderful Company.
After introducing the company, England announced that students would get to craft the perfect pitch for the Wonderful Pistachios’ new flavor launching in the spring.
We were only given one hour to make our campaign and three minutes to pitch it to her and three other judges from The Wonderful Company. To land a place in the top three, each group had to create a campaign with the goal of driving awareness, conversation, and sales for their new flavor among Gen Z and millennials.
Once the timer started ticking, several thoughts raced in my mind: Will we get along? Will we successfully craft the perfect pitch? Will we pitch well in front of so many people? My worries came to a halt when a member chimed in with her structured plan of delegating tasks to two teams of four. One team would focus on the company’s social media SWOTs (strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats), and the other team would focus on researching the company’s previous campaigns. Then, we each shared ideas like partnering with different influencers and brands and promoting at different pop-up event locations. Finally, we got a few tips from the judges for our campaign, such as focusing on our objective and keeping the brand’s mission in mind.
Despite our great teamwork, we naturally faced several challenges planning the campaign. One challenge was figuring out our theme. We went back and forth with ideas until we decided on mine, which was a slogan that captured their new flavor’s character and nutritional value. Another challenge was setting a realistic goal. We ideally thought of increasing audience engagement by 30% on The Wonderful Company’s social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. However, we reduced our goal to 15% as the results would be tangible within three months of the product launch. Our main challenge was focusing on our strategies and tactics. When we would focus our energy on irrelevant strategies that strayed us away from our objective, one of our team members would bring us back into reality. We focused on what we could do — structuring our presentation and assigning speaking parts — in the last 15 minutes.
Ding! The alarm goes off. “Time’s up!” England shouts through the microphone. We submitted our presentation and sighed with relief until one of the judges shuffled their hand in a box to randomly pick a team. Then they announced, “Honey Roasted team. You’re first!” I took a deep breath and headed toward the stage with my team.
My heart was thumping fast as I walked up to the stage past the judges, and my darting eyes quickly scanned the room for a wall until they softened when I looked at my team, brimming with nervousness and confidence. They felt the same way I did, and I was assured that we could pitch in front of 66 PRSSA students and four judges. As soon as we started talking, we confidently pitched our campaign.
After everyone finished pitching their campaigns, the judges left the room to determine the winners. They came back in and announced the top three. Third place went to the “Roasted & Salted” team. Then, second place went to … the “Honey Roasted” team! First place went to the “Sea Salt & Vinegar” team. We were all shocked. We couldn’t believe it. We celebrated and cheered to our perfect pitch.
It’s a cliché, yet it is true: Teamwork makes the dream work. In the world of PR, teams are essential in creating a successful campaign. The challenges our team faced and the strengths we utilized highlight the significance of teamwork. Teamwork is a work in progress. You learn each other’s strengths and weaknesses. We clash with our different ideas and opinions. But that is the beauty of teamwork, and new friendships may also blossom. Teamwork is not the end of pitching but the start of crafting the perfect pitch.
Melissa Aragones (she/her/hers) is a senior at California State University, Northridge, who will graduate in May as a communication studies major. She currently works as a social media manager and peer coach for the Mike Curb College’s Peer Coaching Program and is a member of CSUN PRSSA. In her free time, she enjoys watching K-dramas with her mom and doing Pilates. You can connect with her on LinkedIn.
