Sam Pearce’s Post

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Executive Coach for Creative Leaders | Coaching, Workshops, Talks | Good CEOs | ex-Mother, Adam&eveDDB, Havas | Dad

What I don't get is why CLIENTS still want pitches. Even if the process got you better ideas. Was the best way of working out if you were a match. And flushed out what it was like to work with the agencies. (And all of that is hugely debateable). The process of pitching guarantees you ONE THING. That when you appoint that agency... Invest big money in them... With their smartest and best brains... That their attention will IMMEDIATELY be on the next pitch. Pitching completely shatters attention away from servicing clients to the best of ability... And onto a relentless conveyor belt of pitches. Every time you hold a pitch, you encourage a system that in turn encourages your agency NOT to focus on you. Particularly those senior brains you you liked so much. It's mutually assured destruction. Absolutely MAD. There are other ways. Nothing else is procured like this. The world has changed. There's too much stuff. Time to put pitching behind us?

Ivan Pols

Chief Creative Officer ///what3words + Co-Founder Truth & Spectacle

5mo

At what3words we ditched the creative pitch process for agencies. It was frustrating for us to be presented with "exciting" creative solutions to deep business challenges we'd already discarded as an internal team. And disappointing for the agencies since they didn't get to show what they were really capable of. We require insightful thinking and great craft, not quick thinking and lots of mock-ups of things we will never make. Our process now is to choose a shortlist of agencies based on their portfolio of work, we know what suits our brand, then do a chemistry and culture session to see if we have the similar values and approach. We've found that you can tell within an hour whether we could work together to create a solution. This is fast, gets really good results, and starts the relationship from a place of mutual respect. And it generally makes the budget discussions more open when neither team has over invested in a pitch. We've done this to find great creative agency partners in Japan, South Korea, UK, USA, India and UAE. It's important to note that what3words marketing team are a mix of ex-agency, ex-client, strategy, creative and marketing director people. We've pitched and been pitched at.

Emma Sexton

Building a home for in-house creative leaders

5mo

My theory has been lack of trust. Creativity is subjective unless backed up by the business case - which for many many years we have not been great at doing as an industry. Pitching takes away risk.

From the agency standpoint, I find they’re under so much pressure to overdeliver in a pitch that they don’t realize overdelivering and showing too much of their hand can hurt more than provocatively ‘underdelivering’

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