Phony speculative pitches: Ideas for free? Part-I

The bogey of phony speculative pitches – where clients look for free ideas without any intent of moving the account – keeps cropping up in advertising. Are ‘phony pitches’ all that real?

On condition of strict anonymity, a vice-president with a Top 10 agency had the following incident to narrate. "Some seven years ago, when I was an account director, the agency I was then with was invited to pitch for an FMCG business. After a detailed pitch process involving four agencies - including the incumbent - we were told that we had failed to make it. The client had retained the incumbent - not that there was anything wrong with that. But two months later, the client broke a new campaign that was a significant departure from the earlier communication. Imagine our surprise when we saw the new strategy was exactly what we had recommended during our presentation. Even the creative execution bore a fair bit of resemblance to what we had presented."

‘Phony pitches' is a topic that even the brave-hearted tread upon with caution, for obvious reasons. Yet, in private, some agencies admit to having been shortchanged by clients in the name of speculative pitches.

What distinguishes a phony pitch from a bona fide one is the client's intent.

In the case of the latter, the client is either tired of the incumbent and wants to move the business any which way (basic courtesy may prompt the client to ask the incumbent to defend, but a shift is inevitable), or is looking for reassurances that the incumbent agency is actually its best bet. A phony pitch, on the other hand, is characterized only by the client's desire to get new ideas for free. Of course, there's no telling a phony pitch on the face of it. It could so easily pass off as ‘assessing the incumbent'.

Yet, the bogey surfaces, time and again…

"The bigger clients are unlikely to do such a thing," feels (J.S.) Mani, senior vice-president & general manager, Bates India. "It's the smaller clients - mostly first-time marketers - who may be prone to such deeds. After all, in a pitch, agencies will go with strategic inputs and points-of-view, and when clients do not have too clear an idea about where to go next, this value-add can be critical. I think there are clients who do this kind of thing, and it's certainly not ethical."

Rajiv Agarwal, managing director, Enterprise Nexus, doesn't think phony pitches are all so prevalent. "I'm sure it has happened a few times, but this is certainly an exception to the integrity and high ethical standards of most marketers. In most cases, getting ideas for free is not the premeditated intention of clients. And again, the client cannot simply wish away some good idea or input presented by an agency that was not selected. So, that idea or input may creep into the advertising, and it cannot be helped."

Kurien Mathews, regional director, west, TBWA Anthem, summarily dismisses the possibility of phony pitches. "I don't think there are clients like that," he says. "The possibility undermines the very basic trust that this business functions in." Yet, Mathews, without revealing details, admits to one personal experience where a film idea that was presented subsequently went on air - without his agency being involved. "To give the client the benefit of doubt, perhaps they had the idea anyway," he adds. "Also, I think that agencies that don't win use this as a justification - a case of sour grapes."

"The loser's perspective," is how Mahesh Chauhan, vice-president, O&M, also looks at it. "I've done a lot of pitches, and I can't recall one example of the client abusing the pitch system. These are mere excuses for failure." And he thinks this is just one example of an excuse. "Clients have been accused of favouritism on the basis of a shared friendship between the agency and client heads. But I know for a fact that we won a business despite the CEO at the client-end being a close friend of another agency head." Chauhan also faults agencies for crying foul at the end of the pitch. "If such things are happening, one can get to know very early. And when an agency smells a rat, it should pull out immediately, not wait for the results to be declared."

Madhukar Sabnavis, president, rmg david, agrees when he says, "If you think it's a sham, don't go for it. No one is forcing you to go pitch. But if you are into it, you have to go by the rules of the market." He adds that the suggestion of phony pitches is a hypothesis, saying, "This will never come into my consideration set while pitching for business."

Perhaps phony pitches are a rarity, and the concept - real or imagined - is rooted in the prohibitive costs incurred by agencies during a pitch. Could the solution lie in clients reimbursing agencies the cost of pitching?

(To be concluded tomorrow.)

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