Is it Time to Ditch the Pitch?

What are your impressions on the pitch process? Be honest.

After hearing Brandon Rochon’s first-hand accounts and watching episodes of The Pitch, I was slack-jawed shocked that so much time, money and energy are expended on projects that may never bring in a dollar. In the energy business, we call that a dry hole.

Plus, it can go on for months. First, the frenzied Request for Information (RFI) round, which is then multiplied exponentially for the Request for Proposal round. Requisite all-nighters and frantic travel–potentially all for naught. Those expenses would be brutal and potentially business-busting if you don’t land the contract.

Isn’t there a better way? AdAge’s E.J. Schultze thinks there is. In The New Pitch Process: Shorter, Faster, Better he writes about how “marketers are less enthralled by sizzle and hungrier for substance” and how “pragmatic conversations are replacing flashy presentations.” He quotes Joanne Davis of Joanne Davis consulting saying, “You are not hiring the agency, you are hiring the team within the agency. Let’s sit down and have a conversation and see if we think alike, as opposed to 14 people putting on a Broadway production.”

To that point, Mark Wnek makes a similar observation in his article, Before You Put Your Ad Business Up for a Pitch, Read This. He says CMO’s entertain the song and dance for the best chance at “getting a brilliant idea/ad agency partner.” But then he goes on to point out that the winner is usually just the “cleverest at manipulating the client,” not the team with the most brilliant idea, nor the team that will be the best long-term partner. His solution is to skip the time-consuming pitch process entirely and hire a mastermind creative director to create fantastic work in house.

What are your thoughts on the pitch process? Necessary to get the right stuff, or remnant of a bygone Mad Men era?

References

Schultze, E.J. (2018, April 2). The new pitch process: Shorter, faster, better. Ad Age. Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/agency-news/pitch-process-shorter-faster/312945/

Wnek, M. (2017, June 2). Before you put your ad business up for a pitch, read this. Ad Age. Retrieved from http://adage.com/article/agency-viewpoint/pitch-advertising-business-read/309219/

Is there a better way?

Does a pitch need to be a Broadway show?