Pt78’s Post

Friday rant about pitches incoming. (Soz 🤬) Now, I bloody love a good pitch. But it has to be a ‘good’ pitch.  And recently I’ve seen too many examples of really crappy pitch processes. ☠️Limited briefs with very little detail or clarity on objectives, audience, or positioning. Sometimes not even anything on what we're supposed to be talking about, or why. Gareth Turner's eyes would bleed at the sight of some of these pitch ‘briefs’. ☠️“We expect to see initial creative ideas and thinking.” The word ‘initial’ does not make this easier or less time-consuming. That’s where a lot of the hard work, experience, time spent and value is. And if there isn't a proper brief then it indicates the challenge is a strategic one first and foremost, rather than about creative ideas or execution. ☠️Budget of £50k-£150k. Which *includes media and production*. "And can we see options for budgets of £50k, £75k or £100k?" I get it. Not every brand or project has a huge budget. And that's completely fine. But budgets at that level can't support and should not require a creative pitch. Creds and a good chemistry & scoping meeting should be enough. For that range of budget, even the agency that ‘wins’ the pitch will lose money. I don’t believe that the clients who ask for this kind of stuff are inherently evil.  But it is thoughtless and frankly, a bit lazy. They haven’t considered what this kind of process means for potential agency partners or their people. Anyway, we’ve politely declined a few of these. I hope other agencies have too as otherwise, it’ll just keep happening. Clearly there's more work to be done by the IPA (Institute of Practitioners in Advertising) and ISBA to keep banging the drum for better practice and initiatives like the Pitch Positive Pledge. On the flip side, I have also seen a few brilliant examples of more progressive processes. More of that, please. Rant over. For now. #pitch #pitching #marketing #advertising #agency

I’ve run successful pitches for clients for over 25 yearsso a few insights may be useful. Most clients who commit many of the sins you mention do so out of ignorance. They wouldn’t recognise best practice if it hit them squarely in the face. They have no idea of how to write a proper pitch brief, what the scope of work is likely to be and thus the appropriate budget. They fail to realise how long the process takes, they don’t involve a team of the key individuals from the start and keep them together throughout the process. They don’t define the agency requirements and weigh them correctly They don’t realise that it’s very expensive and often unnecessary to request finished creative work. Also it doesn’t occur to many that it’s a ‘no’ ‘no’ to shortlist more than 3 agencies. They often are dictated to by procurement who see agencies as just another type of supplier, default to the cheapest, have at best a sketchy knowledge of the creative process and a similar knowledge of the agencies who could possibly be suitable for the task. A reputable third party who offers impartial advice( ie doesn’t take agency fees) has it’s own reputation at stake and will not allow a client to run a flawed pitch process. Urge your clients to use one!

Exactly <3

To secure a pitch victory, three crucial elements must align strategy, creative output, and costing/pricing. Assuming equal importance (33% distribution), the law of chance often eclipses meticulously crafted strategy. This is because evaluators frequently view strategy and creative output as inseparable, forming the core of the pitch, with costing/pricing as a secondary consideration. However, this 50-50 distribution poses a great challenge: strategy is often evaluated based on the perceived strength of the creative output only. This misalignment underscores a disparity between how agencies and potential client partners approach pitching. When your strategy efforts, accounting for 33% of any pitch are primarily assessed through the lens of creative execution only! it becomes evident that your strategy may not receive the importance/credibility it deserves. Agencies oblivious to this distinction are slow-poisoning strategists' confidence and strategy's relevance, one pitch at a time. #advertising #brandstrategy #pitch

A recent topic in Peru's advertising industry was “making pitches without getting paid.” That happens as an audiovisual production company presenting to the agencies and an agency presenting to clients. They receive pitches from different suppliers and finally choose the one they like the most, leaving the other “applicants” apart without monetary recognition. A pitch involves a lot of effort to cover the other parts of a presentation. There are costs in money and time which always deserve to be recognized. We must always start with empathy and connect to build foundations for developing creative ideas. As this publication says, “A pitch isn’t a math quiz; it’s chemistry, which only happens when two parties interact”. “At its best, a pitch is a microcosm of everything that’s chaotic and creative about our business. So regardless of which side of the table you’re sitting, keep it simple and make it fun.” #fair #justice #peruvianadvertising

Well, it seems I struck a chord. I think pitching for free is bad business. (and it seems like a lot of you feel the same way) But let's talk about why the unpaid triple bid RFP process is bad for clients, too. It's actually pretty simple: people behave how they are incentivized. When you make your agency / studio partners pitch for free, you are not incentivizing them to come up with the best solution to your problem. You are not incentivizing them to generate an idea that will deliver ROI for your business. You're incentivizing them to come up with a concept that you'll buy. And that leads to lots of internal agency conversations like "Well, we have to throw in a safe concept" instead of truly generating hypotheses for what would be most effective for the client. So, you're incentivizing them to make tepid creative. Want creative that delivers results? Disentangle the award process from the concept generation process. • Hire a creative partner that would be a good fit • Brief them on the problem you're trying to solve • Allow them to help develop the solution • Guide them to alignment with your brand Free pitching doesn't just hurt creatives. It hurts brands, too.

A great article by Conor Nichols highlights the evolving nature of pitching in the advertising industry. It explores alternatives and improvements to the pitching process, in which there's a push towards more strategic and considerate approaches that balance the needs of both agencies and clients. Well worth the read #pitching #pitchitup #newbusiness #businessdevelepmont #creativesalon

Pitching for work can be costly, time consuming and mentally draining for so many agencies. It is often considered a necessary evil, but does it need to be this way? 🤔 Ryan Kelly will be sitting down with Darren Woolley, the founder and CEO of Trinity P3 Global Marketing Management Consultancy to explore "What Makes a Successful Pitch in 2024" We will be looking at: 💡 What are clients looking for in a partner agency? 💡Common mistakes that agencies make in the pitch process. 💡What is the magic sauce when it comes to a pitch. 💡How Indie agencies can compete with the larger agencies. 💡How agencies can put themselves on the radar of opportunities. To register, hit the link in the comments 👇

A new report by marketing management and pitch consultancy TrinityP3 has highlighted how many marketers, or their procurement teams, are asking too much of their agencies in pitches or casting too wide a net in terms of the pitch lists and process requirements when asking agencies to sign up for new