One of the most heated topics in the agency world is pitching. While a necessary part of an agency’s work, many feel the process is unfair. We decided to speak to both agencies and brands to understand the current landscape and hopefully spark a constructive dialogue.
The problem
The Request for Proposal (RFP) comes in. Lots of resources are quickly mobilised to work on the pitch. Often the deadline is tight, meaning late nights and lots of stress. The pitch is delivered and in the best case scenario the agency wins the work.
But we often hear stories of it all going quiet afterwards and nothing happens. No feedback, no announcement of who won the tender and in the worst examples, the ideas pitched are ‘borrowed’ without any form of recognition or payment.
“I personally find the pitching process quite demeaning. Most pitch briefs lack clarity of purpose and transparency regarding the key criteria for selecting one agency over another,” said Mita Srinivasan, founder of communications agency Market Buzz.
“In many cases, the client already knows which agency they want to work with, and the pitch serves merely to gather additional ideas.”
She’s not the only one who feels strongly. Campaign Middle East was contacted by multiple people at agencies who wanted to highlight not only their gripes at the pitching process, but crucially suggest a way forward for the industry.
‘Flawed and exploitative’
“The current pitching process, especially in our region, is flawed and often exploitative. It requires significant time and effort, frequently without any guaranteed return,” said Abdul Aziz, the founder and CEO of content marketing agency Cyber Cultr Media.
“The resource-intensive and stressful nature of pitching can drain our team’s creative energy and resources, leaving us overextended and under-compensated.”
As you can imagine, creating a full strategy or 360-campaign requires days of research, strategising and conceptualising. Some RFPs come with a one-week deadline.
“It’s demoralising when all that effort gets measured against hastily assembled, low-ball bids. When will companies understand that creative marketing is an investment, not a commodity purchase?” said Serge Trad, co-founder of Closed Captions Communication.
“In most cases the client fixates on a hastily pulled together mood video to explain the complexities of the platform and wants that produced the same week and launched across all channels, which is an enormous expenditure of energy especially from the agency,” added Jonathan Hirasawa Ashton, Head of Marketing and Communications at KROHNE, who spent many years on the agency side.
However, Rishi Talwalker, Senior Director – Strategy & Growth at Red Havas, gives a different perspective.
“It’s true that the pitch experience on the whole can be a rollercoaster across the board – but it is also brings out the best work from agencies. The energy and time invested by an agency in the process can result in a creative/communications blueprint for the brand in the years to come.”
The way forward?
The pitching process remains top of the list of agency complaints, but is there a way forward?
“Ask for transparency, clear timelines and feedback to those who are unsuccessful,” advised Justin Kerr-Stevens, CEO at consultancy BLJ Worldwide.
And during the process, Mita Srinivasan recommended: “A point of contact should be available for clarifications. If a strategy document is required, the client should pay for it, thereby owning it. This payment can be adjusted if the agency wins the pitch.”
Another gripe is when ideas presented during a pitch are “borrowed” and surface elsewhere.
So how does an agency create a winning pitch but protect its best ideas? “I would avoid including all the ideas in the pitch, providing just enough to entice the client to engage in further discussions.
“Ultimately, the final results depend on execution, not just the ideas,” added Srinivasan.
Another option is ask for payment upfront for pitching, rather than the other way round – being charged a fee to acquire the proposal or a tender bond.
On a positive note, more examples are cropping up of agencies charging a pitch fee or being paid by the client to use their best ideas.
“We have been paid to pitch a few times and these actually resulted in an instant hire. We’ve never asked to be paid (yet), but after a few sour experiences we might consider it,” added Trad.
Walking away
A recent article in Campaign UK observed a growing trend among UK-based agencies to decline pitches they didn’t feel comfortable with.
Is it a realistic option in the Middle East to walk away from unclear pitches, or when you feel that you are just making up the numbers?
“We’re learning to say no when we don’t feel comfortable with the brief or if the campaign message doesn’t align with our values,” added Trad.
Wassim Amin, Co-Founder and Head of Strategy at TheOtherGuyz, said: “I’d say we turn down 30-40 per cent of the pitch invites we receive every year for various reasons.
“I know other agencies turn down pitches too sometimes and that’s why I believe if we stick together we can make a difference. It plays in everyone’s benefit if we get paid for pitches, for the time and effort we put in every brief.”
Asiya Ali, Managing Director, MKV Digital, has another approach. “We believe in in-person meetings to gain a deeper understanding and generate the best ideas.
“If a client demands 80 hours of your team’s time for a proposal but can’t spare 80 minutes for a meeting, it might be a sign they’re just fishing for free ideas.”
‘Get better’
We felt it important to reach out to brands to hear their side of the story.
Richard Billington, SVP Global Brand and Marketing at Emirates Airline, said: “I have an issue with paying for pitches when the agency presentations have been so disappointing.”
He says this isn’t just from agencies based in Dubai, but also some of the supposedly best agencies from London and New York. This disappointment led Emirates to move more creative work in-house.
“Agencies here are missing out on so much work from the Emirates Group and it’s a struggle for us. My advice: Get better, then you can ask for whatever you want.”
Passant El-Ghannam, Marketing Director MEA at KraftHeinz, says she treats pitches as the first step into a long-term relationship, paying them a lot of respect.
“Knowing that pitches take a lot from the agency energy I try to make the process as simple and convenient as possible.”
She focuses on being transparent with agencies (usually capping to a maximum of three), clearly outlining the rounds, the timeline and trying to make herself available to answer any questions while the agency is still working on the pitch.
“My goal is to produce quality work and gather the best brains to solve the brief not to stress or assess agencies.”
Carrying on his positive tone, Rishi Talwalker said he has recently experienced a change in the way brands manage the pitching process.
“Over time, pitches for brands that are doing it right, have evolved into interactive processes where the brand representatives are responsive, pitches are structured for agencies to respond to specific tasks and there is an ability to define budgets and (feasible) deadlines at the outset.”
*Campaign Middle East is keen to hear your stories, both from the agency side and client side, to highlight the challenges and help make the pitching process smoother for all.
