By Nick Bennett more from him on twitter @NickoBennett
Disclaimer: No real Clients or Agencies where harmed in the making of this speech.
Creative direction: The following speech is to be performed by a single individual with a split personality delivering both agency and client dialogue. These will be referred to as Agency and Client)
"Excuse me sir. Your pitch machine is broken"
"How dery vare you. Do you know who I am!"
"Well of course... You are Baron Von Celebrated Elected Officer ... Most revered in all the land."
"Well then how dare you suggest that anything I have is broken"
"But it's clear to see M'lord. Look at your undercarriage all the wheels have come off. You have 4 teams pulling but all in different directions. You are going nowhere."
"Listen I don't deal with that, I have people who deal with that. But you are clearly an impudent man and I am clearly a busy man... You have 10 minutes of my time."
"Most gracious of you m'lord... Let me explain. This is why the wheels have fallen off..."
Blind mans bluff
"Your pitch machine is played like a game of blind mans bluff. That's the big problem with the antiquated pitch model, it's conducted in 2 halves. Agency vs Client. This is the biggest fail. You/we intend to work together for a long time and yet the most important part of that - 'partner choosing' is done separately behind closed doors. With an almighty reveal at the end!
And the budget bluff. Oh please let's not play that game...."
"Games! with my budget. Nonsense."
"Oh, OK then, let me guess what you have in your pocket... And then make you a suit, but let me decide if you wanted it to be made out of silk or sack cloth.
What's that Baron von CEO? 'You loved the idea but we just came in out of budget... Sorry :(
How about a Budget planning meeting. Where we make smart decisions together. Transparency with frugal and smart, collaborative decision making. Not a game of - I'm not telling you, have a guess!"
The big idea myth
"You want the pitch to give you the big idea."
"Ah yes, my industry first... my dine out for life ticket."
"Of course you want a big idea. But guess what?
That big idea that wins will then get put through the Magnolia Mill.
- Middle management don't want the extra workload. So 'that' part of the idea goes.
- Someone in brand decides it has to be cornflower blue! So that part of it goes.
- Someone in dev says they can't start it until 2016 at the earliest.
- And you M'lord CEO want the logo bigger and the old strap line brought back.
What we all end up with is a big idea shaved of all it's best bits and repainted in Magnolia.
The best ideas come from proper collaboration and planning, which identifies the resource and needs and incorporates that into the process as opposed to hacking it to pieces after rounds of blind mans bluff are finished"
The shocking waste
"The sheer wastage of the process. That's right it's a downright drain! I can't believe that in a time of such abhorrence of waste we allow a practice like this to continue!
Firstly, lets look at the financials. The cost of a full pitch can take months for an agency to recover. Assuming you win. What about the other 2 agencies that made the final rounds and the 5 that didn't, who all spent a month of time to get through the procurement and chemistry rounds. And all the time spent on client side too. So let's tot that up... (I've assumed a calculation based on man hours per agency/client and totaled into cumulative single costs using a nominal £840p/d cost)
5 Agencies pass short list to perform 2 initial rounds. Time spent: 2 weeks each 5 x (840 x 5 x 2) = £42,000
3 Agencies reach the further 2 rounds of intensive pitching. Time spent: 1 month each 3 x (840 x 5 x 8) = £100,800
Client side total of 10 meetings + 5 catch up meetings and brief writing etc etc. Time spent: 1 month 1 x (840 x 5 x 4) = £16,800
TOTALS:
Approx time frame = 3 Months
Approx aggregation of professional output! = £159,600
WTF! Anyone else worried by the extrapolation and waste? That's more than enough to get YOU launched and onwards into quarter 2 and 3 of agency costs.
But leave aside the mere financials...
The real waste is in the intellectual input. Creative and planning power. The 'hard to measure' potential of good ideas and planning. That my friends is the industry slag heap...
The waste ground of good ideas, business planning and creative strategy... It's like a netherworld of anti pitch potential. If you could mine that mass of potential... creative, emotional and strategic. You could power the world of brands for years to come without a single further pitch.
The #truthbomb here is that through collaboration, a good process and honest relationships, any of the agencies in the pitch could deliver the projects.
So is there a better way?
"OK, so there is no silver bullet, but here's an idea... LET'S STOP TRYING TO MAKE THE PITCH = THE ACTUAL DOING OF THE JOB REQUIRED"
What if we make the pitch a process about finding the right partners with the necessary mix of disciplines and people. LET'S PITCH TOGETHER. CLIENT AND AGENCY! It's in both of our interests! So let's do it together. It could work like this...
1 day per agency of practical sessions, between key agency and client staff. These could be held concurrently.
- Business immersion session
- Strategy session
- Creative ideas session
- Planning/budget session
Each agency wraps up in the following week and sends the outcomes of the day. You review and make a decision"
TOTALS:
Approx time frame = 3 Weeks
Approx aggregation of professional output! = [5 x agencies Time spent: 2 weeks each 5 x (840 x 5 x 2)] = £42,000
"Well... I.. err.. think you may have a point.. so what if we have great day with 2 of the agencies"
"Then maybe we introduce a tie breaker. Give each agency a useful paid task that needs doing... Practical! Perhaps in the area you felt they lacked conviction.
This way we would get a feel for working together? Rather than presenting to each other? 1 full working day together. Then both parties can move on and waste no more time.
What say you m'lord?"
"Well to be honest, while you have painted an amusing picture and made some interesting observations... I think we will stick to the current pitch machine. We are all very comfortable with it and it's been working for years"
"Really..."
Image credits: Tyres: JaredEarle Car blocks no wheels: Steve Annear
