Companies are wasting thousands of pounds by insisting on choosing their recruitment advertising agency through a protracted and ìunrealisticî pitching process, an agency director claims.
Peter Gibbons, Director of RAA Sprague Gibbons, says thousands of hours are lost each year to the pitching process, and at the end of the day companies are often still not happy with their choice.
And he has decided to put an end to the process for his agency, by deciding to no longer take part in ìcoldî tenders.
ìWeíre not alone in being disillusioned with long pitch lists, poor briefs and no feedback,î he says, ìbut weíre the first to make a stand. From now on, RAA wonít be taking part in pitches where no previous client relationship exists, and where the client refuses to meet RAAís basic pitch criteria, such as providing a face-to-face brief.î
Gibbons sees the formal pitch as a completely false situation. ìCompanies can often over-sell the potential of an account, which means they end up with an agency partner that doesnít fit what they really need as a client - and the agency loses interest when it realises the potential isnít really there. Also, agencies will generally use their best or even freelance creatives and polished sales people for such pitches, so clients arenít seeing the true picture.
ìThe end result is that clients will spend months going through the whole pitch process, choose an agency and then find they are not happy with the day to day work the agency produces. They are disappointed, and decide to start the whole process all over again.î
Gibbons says that although the cost to companies of dealing with tenders is an invisible one, the reality is that senior HR and purchasing staff spend many hours dealing with agencies, reading proposals and attending presentations, at a cost of tens of thousands of pounds.
He suggests that a far better system is to try out a few agencies with live work. ìIf you want to see what sort of service an agency offers, try throwing them some live ads at 5.20 on a Friday afternoon. That is the type of real life situation which will show what an agency is really capable of.
ìBy giving live work and real trials, you get to see the real picture ñ work with real hands-on agency people. You go through the real advertising process, experiencing the actual rather than the promised service. This way you keep agencies on their toes much more ñ they have to really try to keep you interested.î
Gibbons believes that itís all about building relationships. ìYou simply canít tell if an agency is the right match for you without working on live assignments together. Itís not just about who makes the prettiest pictures from a sketchy pitch brief ñ itís about how you get on with the people you will speak to on a daily basis, and if they can produce campaigns which really meet your needs. This way wastes less time on made-up assignments, and the agency is paid for the work they put in.î
He adds: ìWe think that by taking a ìno pitchesî approach, you establish much stronger working relationships with clients, in which no party feels hard done by, or feels compelled to spend the next 12 months finding ways to claw back the costs of the pitch.î
RAA Sprague Gibbons is an 8 million specialist recruitment advertising and communications agency based in Bristol. Current clients include Mitsubishi Corporation, Group 4, Smiths Group, Virgin Mobile and Williams F1.
s wasted on lengthy & unrealistic pitches, agency chief claims
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