Issue 91, 16/04/08

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Over the years creative pitches have come in for a fair share of criticism for being time consuming, costly for agencies and clients, unfair and flawed. Yet creative pitches persist with marketers with a food manufacturer in Melbourne recently asking five agencies to respond to a creative brief.

In this edition of P3 e-news Darren Woolley looks at the positives and negatives of creative pitches and shares with you industry best practice from the US and Europe.

If you are pitching, how to pitch it right

It is constantly amazing the industry media frenzy that is associated with an advertiser reviewing their business. I am sure many marketers wish that their new product launch or their campaign results attracted the same level of media interest that a pitch does. But this is why running a review or agency selection is not something to be entered into quickly.

It is important that before you even contemplate contacting an agency that you agree some fundamental processes and issues including:

1. what is the purpose of the review,
2. what process you will adopt,
3. who will manage the process, and
4. who will be involved in the decision making.

For the purposes of this discussion, lets limit ourselves to the process, but we are happy to discuss all of the issues associated with pitching at any time.

Define your requirements - what are you looking for?

The process you adopt depends on the objective of the review and desired outcome. If, as is often the case with Government Communication Campaigns, the desire is to have a creative strategy and execution to a specific brief, then having a group of short listed agencies respond to the specific brief is a legitimate approach. But it would be worth considering paying pitch fees to compensate the agencies for their efforts and paying fees if you require the agencies to assign their IP to you whether they are successful of not.

But if, as is more common, you are looking to select and engage a provider who will be engaged over a period of time to work with you to develop innumerable communication solutions to a wide number of briefs, then the ability to respond to a single brief or a number of briefs is not necessarily the best process of selection.

A process of elimination - separate the wheat from the chaff

Of course, there is rarely one criteria on which a service provider is selected, and especially not in an area as complex and diverse as marketing communications. Therefore it seems ridiculous to expect a single selection process such as a traditional tender to effectively sort out the preferred provider from the rest.

It makes more sense to have a series of stages that focuses on evaluating and selecting the preferred providers on specific and discreet criteria. In this way you can cast the net as wide as possible initially and then quickly and efficiently reduce the preferred providers down for more detailed and rigourous evaluation.

At the widest point you would look at agencies that have the reputations and experience in the areas you are looking for and then you would next look at their capabilities in more detail through case studies before evaluating the potential relationship chemistry of each of the agencies with the marketing team. Consider this the John West strategy, in that it is the providers that you reject at each stage that make the ones left the best.

The role of workshops - take the agency for a test drive

While creative pitches are still popular in Europe and the US, increasingly marketers and consultants, aware of their limitations are moving to alternatives. These limitations include the risk of providing confidential information to the agencies, not seeing or knowing who is doing the creative work, concerns over the pitch team not being the people working on your business if the agency is successful and the time and cost of the process.

Instead of using creative to select agencies, they are taking the shortlisted agencies (two or three) for a test drive in a full day strategy planning day workshop.

In this way the marketers can see how the agency thinks, but more importantly identify the valuable thinkers within the team as there is nowhere to hide. See how the agency and the client team work together. Ensure the agency supply the people to the planning day workshop who would be working on their business if successful.

Equally the agency can see how the client thinks, works and communicates and the whole process reinforces the importance of relationship compatibility.

What is the industry best practice?

While there are certainly many mistakes to be avoided, there is no one process considered industry best practice either here or overseas. As stated, the right process depends on the purpose of the review or selection process and the desired outcome.

P3 has extensive experience managing search and selection projects across all marketing communications including creative and digital agencies, media planning and buying, and marketing services including public relations, direct marketing, event management and the like. To ensure you have the right process, contact P3 in Sydney 02 8399 0922 or Melbourne 03 9682 6800 or contact Darren Woolley direct to discuss your options further, darren @p3.com.au

P3 Supplier Selection Process

The P3 Supplier Selection Process helps advertisers negotiate the pitch process and find the right supplier to suit their needs, whether it be a creative, media, digital, pr, graphic design, experiential or sponsorship agency.

Over the past 12 months we have helped some of Australia’s largest advertisers through this process, including Colorado Group, Diageo, St George, Stockland, Hyundai, NSW Government, AAPT and Westfield.

Our understanding of the industry and our expertise in managing the selection process, enables P3 to deliver:
1. Reduced hassle and time consumption
2. Greater insight into the agency candidates
3. A more accountable and structured process
4. Equitable and practical financial arrangements
5. Positive management of media relations

For more information call Lydia Feely in Sydney in 02 8399 0922 or Darren Woolley in Melbourne on 03 9682 6800.

P3Green gets going

As reported in B&T this week: P3 has launched a new service designed to measure the amount of carbon emissions produced by marketing and advertising campaigns.

The new carbon emission division, P3Green, will mean marketers will be able to have their media and production proposals assessed and have an independent guide to the amount of CO2-e that is being added to the atmosphere. 

Christopher Sewell who is heading up this new division commented, “Today there is very little independent information regarding the effect our advertising has on the planet. You can do a historic audit but by then it is too late. There are various industry groups claiming ‘carbon neutrally and offsets’. The first thing we need to do is understand the amount of CO2-e we are planning to emit. With this knowledge we can make informed decisions as to where we target our messaging. It is all about being aware.”

The assessment covers all media and production ranging from SMS to TVCs
giving a guide to emissions from the most planned marketing expenditure. For more information, or to discuss your current carbon footprint, call Chris Sewell in Sydney on 02 8399 0922 or email chris@p3.com.au
 

Speaking of P3

P3 offers a range of speakers who are experts in a range of marketing disciplines. Recently, Darren Woolley and Russell Easther have spoken at:

Darren Woolley
• Advertising, Marketing & Media Summit, July 07
• 6th Annual Advertising and Marketing Summit, June 07
• Premier Global Webinar, May 07
• Faculty Breakfast Series, April 07
• P3TV Production Workshops, Nov 07
• APMA Breakfast Series, February 08
• CIPSA  Public Sector Procurement Forum, March 08
• Supply Clusters of Australia, March 08
• P3Digital Workshops, March 08

Russell Easther
• AdTech Sydney, March 08
• P3Digital Workshops, March 08
• AMI Digital Series, April 08
• AdTech Singapore, June 08

To enquire about one of P3's consultant's spekaing at your next workshop, summit or boardroom event, please contact Georgia Suttie on georgia@p3.com.au or on 03 9682 6800.