More bitching about pitching

Here's some thoughts from veteran Ad man, Drayton Bird, on pitching, why it's a waste of money and what to do instead. Good advice I reckon.

http://drayton-bird-droppings.blogspot.com/2010/07/you-dont-have-to-hunt-andrew-but-you.html#disqus_thread

Pitch Pitch Pitch

When even the guys who make a dollar out of organising pitches say they are fatally flawed, it might be time for a change.

A recent AdNews article got me thinking again about pitches. Most agency types hate them. But an increasing number of marketers are realising that pitching, as a process is slow, ineffective and ultimately very expensive.

You may seem to be getting free submissions from creative agencies when they pitch, but you are not.

Let’s say every large agency is spending, 10% of their time and resources on pitching. They can only pay for this by charging existing clients. It’s not as though they have other income streams.

So every client they have is paying an extra 10% just to cover the cost of pitching. That’s right. You are paying your agency to chase other work. And if they win and it conflicts with your category, you may be dumped as well!

It’s nuts!

Unfortunately most of the alternatives suggested by the ‘Pitch Doctors’ seem like variations on the theme of, ‘tell me again how we would work together’. Workshops and ‘getting to know you’ sessions are becoming more popular.

Either way, the personal charm of senior agency management makes or breaks the deal. Then management steps a side and a bunch of strangers actually does the work.

Is there a better way? Yes.

An incredibly effective way to test real working relationships is to simply work together. The client chooses an agency they’ve heard good things about and briefs a single real life project. Then they get to see how the real, behind the scenes, agency works.

Do the creatives get narky when asked for changes? Is the finished art full of typos? Does the agency hire quality suppliers? Are the contact people 12 years old? Does the agency rely on a conveyer belt of freelancers?

These are questions that will actually affect the clients business. And they are questions that are impossible to answer at a pitch or its modern variation, the workshop.

When the project is over the client can give more work to the agency. Or if the reality has turned out to be less than inspiring they can try a new one.

The client will save a lot of time, a lot of money and they’ll build up a very strong knowledge of who really performs.

AdNotes is brought to you by Tony Richardson Advertising and our branded product, TacticalTV - absolutely free! (You are welcome to pass AdNotes on to your friends and colleagues.) We are specialists in creating and producing Tactical TV, Print, Design and Radio advertising. We believe that clever cost solutions are a big part of clever creative advertising. Maybe that’s why some of the biggest marketers in the world have used our small agency! To find out more visit TacticalTV.com.au or TonyRichardson.com.au or leave comments and view back issues at our blog adnotes-tony.blogspot.com Or call us on (02) 9929 0588

Ditch the pitch

In the past few weeks two marketers have handed their accounts to agencies without a pitch. Sunbeam awarded Brave New World it’s $6 million account and CommBank gave BMF $50 million worth of business both without a pitch. Let’s hope this trend continues and the outdated practice of pitching is abandoned once and for all.

Pitches are bad for existing clients for 2 reasons.

1. Cost to you.
If your agency is pitching for new business (and they probably are) they are using time, money and staff to do the work - lot’s of it. Is the company they are pitching for paying the true cost of this pitch? Almost certainly not. Who is then? You are. Agencies that regularly pitch have to allocate a budget and as they have no other way of making money than by charging you, you pay the extra to cover pitches.

An agency’s chances of winning new business (to cover the cost of pitching new business) is small. The odds are as simple as the number of agencies pitching. 3 agencies – 1 in 3 chances. 10 agencies – 1 in 10. That’s if all things are equal. They never are.

2. Service to you.
If it’s so expensive and hard to win new business you’d think an agency would treat existing clients like gold. No? Sadly attention is often diverted away from existing business towards the shiny new client that is just out of reach.

Pitches are bad for new clients for 2 reasons.

1. It’s pure theatre.
Pitches are ritualised performances that give you no real idea of how the relationship will pan out. The chairman, managing director and creative director who were your best friends during the pitch process will suddenly become much harder to find. They certainly won’t be working day to day on the business. The work presented may well have been done by freelance creatives and presented by a full time ‘new business director’.

So how does a marketer select a new agency? Easy. 1-Ask around. 2-Do a little research. 3-Make a contact. 4-Brief a single project to a single agency. 5-Judge the success of the project. Either award all of your business, give another project or try someone else.

There is no better way of deciding how you (and your team) can work with someone (and their team), than by working with them. A real life project will reveal many of an agency’s strengths and weaknesses, that a pitch never would.

You’ll get a much better fit. And if everyone in the industry ditches the pitch, marketers will save a fortune.