A caricature of the life of advertising agencies, big or small, involved in the painful game of pitches.

Yesterday I went to a restaurant. When they put the menu in front of me, I said I wasn’t going to order anything specific. I explained that I was a client with a moderate appetite, that I had a family of four, and that we liked both meat and fish, but that we had a vegetarian daughter.

I also told the waiter that I had doubts about what to choose for my next family meal, and that I wanted him to serve me three dishes I wouldn’t pay for. And that he was going to repeat the same thing in the two restaurants next door in the following days. Whichever one I thought was best would be my choice for our meal next weekend. I was insulted, even after I said that he would be the one who would be able to choose what my family and I would eat…

To my amazement, the story repeated itself in the following restaurants.

In my last attempt, I still tried to explain to the angry restaurant owner that this was how my company worked. That we received a request, often vague and not very concrete, that we spent many hundreds of hours of work from a vast team on it, that we bought images, that we paid for voiceovers or “done” favors, all to deliver a proposal to a client who would tell us weeks or even months later what your choice would be. In other words, my “restaurant” stopped serving its regular customers to bet everything on a new customer who we didn’t know well, but who we imagined would be tremendous.

Mr. Alfredo – the owner of the last restaurant – told me that all this was absurd and that I would be very naive, to say the least!

But this caricature, because that’s what it’s about, is the life of an advertising agency. Big or small, as the exceptions of those who do not participate in this painful game of pitching are rare and honorable.

I have been a client for many years and I know well the doubts and uncertainties that lie on this side. I recognize myself in each request and each challenge, and for this very reason, I do not criticize or demonize them. On the contrary, I understand them very well.

But then how can we make this relationship fairer? How can we find a common and uniform position? Why do two or three companies have to lose money for another to find its ideal partner?

A few weeks ago, one of the agencies in my group was called to present a proposal to a large international brand. Naturally, the enthusiasm was immediate and the necessary team was gathered for this great moment. There aren’t many opportunities like this, so the occasion brings responsibility, as we would be in confrontation with two other agencies from Central Europe. We accepted the challenge.

A few days later we received a communication from the company asking us to present the presentation in person at the company’s headquarters, and to do so they would send us the amount for the pitch. Come again?? Was anyone willing to pay for us to travel to see our ideas?? We pinched ourselves to make sure it was real.

This should be the process because this is where your justice lies. Regardless of winning or losing, ideas are the only thing an advertising agency gets paid for. If you give them your ideas, where is your income? And whoever receives them does, what does with it? Furthermore, in most cases, it is not just about offering ideas, but rather spending a few thousand euros on people and materials to deliver a proposal.

The fact that the client company pays for these ideas makes them yours. And how many times do we come across interesting and even complementary ideas from different agencies that we can’t use because one of them wasn’t chosen? Remuneration resolves this issue. But it also solves something else. Better yet, it imposes something else: rationality in the number of partners chosen. The other day, one of our companies was invited to a pitch with seven other companies. Naturally, we thanked the invitation and gracefully declined.

Finding a fair balance in advertising pitches is more than just a matter of good practice. It’s a way to build strong and prosperous relationships, where all parties feel valued and respected. The fairness and transparency of the pitch process, its fair balance, and the way it is conducted leads to more harmonious collaboration, and greater respect between participants, and has as a corollary more satisfied clients and more successful agencies. By recognizing the need to balance the wants and expectations of both sides, we will be on the right path to a more collaborative and positive future. Just follow the good examples!

Written by João Santos and originally published in MaisM.