Recently (and by that I mean a few months ago), the agency had one of those ‘too good to be true’ scenarios walk through our door. Yes, it was a potential client, a good one too. So in they walk to our wide open arms. Coffee was ordered, the brief presented (which happened to be a personal demonstration of the product by the owner) and handshakes were made. The potential client left, but before they did we were told it was a competitive pitch. Fine, and so it was up to us to come up with a concept and present to them when ready.
For weeks we mashed our minds together and hashed out what we thought to be two very campaignable ideas – scripts, storyboards and all. One was our ‘out there’ idea, the second was our ‘safe option’. The call was made and the meeting put in place. I drove down to their offices feeling pretty confident that what I was about to present was going to open their minds to the wonderful potential their brand has. Concepts were presented, questions were raised and answered for over an hour and a half, and once again handshakes were made with the words “we’ll let you know” whispered to me on the way out. A week goes by. Two weeks go by. Three weeks go by and nothing, not a phone call back, not a “sorry I haven’t called” email, nothing! Now, correct me if I’m wrong but isn’t that strange? Rude even, to not have the common decency to pick up the phone and say yes, no, or otherwise? After countless hours of thought and hard work our pitch effort was reduced to the potential client going all ‘missing in action’ on us! I’m not mad that we didn’t win the business, not in the slightest. I’m more appalled at the lack of professional courtesy ’cause after all, they came to us in the first place, it’s not like we hunted them down. So now, they’re armed not only with our ideas, but two other agency’s ideas without so much as a single invoice issued!
Now, I know this situation is not just happening to us, it’s happening all over town, ideas and expertise are casually dismissed as worthless. The ol’ “I could’ve thought of that!” is often heard from a potential client, my common response to that is “Yeah, but you didn’t!” It’s this ‘creative comes with the pitch’ attitude that really gets on my goat. At least, allow us to cover our resources and materials, particularly if the pitch includes a television recommendation.
You know what? As an industry, we’ve only got ourselves to blame, we undercut each other, we shaft each other, we offer this and that with a cherry on top and now guess what? No one makes any money! Creative ideas have now become so devalued that the industry as a whole is committing suicide. When’s it going to end? When are we going to start charging for pitches? I know there was some talk of this happening years ago but that certainly didn’t last long, and with the amount of competition we’re all up against, I don’t see it happening any time soon.
All I can say is be careful if you wear your ideas on your sleeve, because you might end up shirtless and there’s a cold harsh reality out there.
Ryan McGrath – Senior Creative at SeeSaw Advertising.
Like this:
Tags: aadc, Adelaide, adtown, Advertising, Advertising Agency, competitive pitch, Facebook, marketing, pitch, pitching, Regulations, Retail Advertising, Rundle St, SeeSaw Advertising, South Australia, the value of a good idea, Twitter, Wikipedia
December 1, 2010 at 11:09 pm |
Let’s face it, paid pitches will never happen. Ever. Someone will always be keen or desperate or stupid enough to do it for free. Whether it’s because they’re starting out and need to make a name for themselves. Or crap. And once someone does it for free, the system fails. It MIGHT work if all the GREAT agencies agreed. But would one break ranks to shaft another on a big piece of business? You and i both know abso-bloody-lutely.
Maybe the solution is much simpler. Not paid pitches, but no-creative pitches. Prove to a client what you’re capable of based on what you’ve done before. If they still need to see something to believe you could come up with something similar for them, then don’t pitch. Be prepared to miss out on work from the non-believers, but at least you won’t be giving it away.
Hey, just a thought. And yes, i feel your pain. It seems it’s anything goes out there these days. And sadly, what would have once been known as common courtesy, just aint that common anymore…