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The pitch process is broken. The standard process is long and convoluted. It goes something like this: briefing/ RFI/ RFPs/Q&As/ Creative development / creative presentations. Throw in a couple of chemistry meetings and tissue sessions and you’re looking at a wasting a lot of time and money for both the agencies and the advertiser.
The pitch is currently much too outdated for an agile and fast paced world. And the proof is in the pudding. Most client-agency partnerships now fail in less than 3 years, with career ramifications for the CMO who had made the agency decision.
It’s time to ditch the pitch. Time to replace it with something shorter, cheaper, and better. We have switched to a no-pitch process for our clients that that lasts for weeks instead of months and is economical.
So, what is the no-pitch alternative and how is it different?
Skip the RFI and chat instead:
RFIs (request for information) sent to agencies are pretty standard and tedious asking for a minutia of details, figures, clients, offices, staff and capabilities. Agencies provide voluminous response that would take weeks to review. Some responses are 100-page long. Multiply it by 10 or 15 agencies on the long-list. It would take weeks to go through all of them thoroughly. So, clients either skim them or ignore them altogether.
A lot of pitch consultants are attracted to RFIs, simply because they approach the pitch as a procedural not as a path for yield. RFIs are pretty much a waste of time. Most of this information, can be obtained from the agency’s website.
Instead, do have a virtual conversation with those agencies you are interested in (or even face to face if they are local), if you want to find out a bit more about their particular structure, style or approach.
You can quite often get a good sense of what the agency is about just from the initial conversation. Find out why they are right for your business; if you like the team that may be working on the business; have them showcases case studies of similar problems. From this alone, you should whittle your long list straight down to a short list of 2 or 3 agencies who you can invite to respond to the brief.
Test drive the agency instead of creative shootout:
The pitch is a fake “true sense” of what it will be like to work with an agency. It is an artificial and random process that does not remotely resemble the true real-life interaction between client and agency. There’s a reason why almost all of the “winning” work never sees the light of day.
The agencies are working in isolation during the pitch and therefore, the process doesn’t reflect just how agencies and clients do their best work. Brilliant work is born from collaboration. But the harsh reality is that,the whole concept of the pitch is contrived, and client and agencies are kept apart, and, as a result, the pitch becomes a superficial beauty contest.
The best way to get to know an agency, and to understand if they are a good fit with your business, is to actually work on a project together before hiring them. This let’s you kick the tires and take the car for a test drive first.
Brief an agency, or a couple of agencies, on small project. Work with them closely and collaboratively, for a few weeks. You’ll be able to get to know the team that will be working with you, get a feel for how they understand your business, approach your challenges, and get a good idea of how you might work together.
With a test drive you really get under the skin of how the agency thinks and approaches problems. More importantly though, you also get to understand the chemistry between you and the agency, thereby giving you much more of an idea of what the actual relationships will be if you hire them.
When considering a potential agency, what you should actually be interested in is their creative thinking, and just how they would approach and resolve your particular problem and objective. And this should be seen through their strategic response. Consider therefore asking your shortlisted agencies to avoid sharing creative work, and focus on the strategy response only. You can see their creative ability through their creds and case studies of previous work.
Clients, agencies, and pitch consultants can often be accused of resorting to the same old ways when in a pitch. Agencies chase clients indiscriminately; clients ask to see everything but the kitchen sink from agencies; and consultants work through the same tired, old play book and that doesn’t add value.
The pitch is outdated and it’s time to dispense with it.
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