Don’t ditch the pitch, disrupt the pitch… or yourself
'Before ditching the pitch, why not ‘flip the pitch’? This is where the revenue terms are agreed upon first, with agencies only proceeding if the numbers add up. Or if you want to ditch the pitch, you had better be prepared to ditch a lot of other things too - but it's working for Phoebe Netto, founder of Pure Public Relations.
In 2022 the argument about ditching the pitch resurfaced. The problem is that despite the inevitable applause it gets, the advertising industry doesn’t seem to genuinely want to part with the pitch.
Australian agencies spent an equivalent of $1 million on non-billed pitch hours in 2021, winning just over $3 million in new revenue in return on average, according to new data from the Ouch Factor survey.
The hidden costs of pitching in Australia are only getting worse. Agencies are losing money, clients are spending more time on the hunt than on the work, and staff are left despondent, stuck ‘on the bench’ working endlessly on pitches that may or may not go anywhere.
It makes sense that there would be a movement to ditch this immense cost centre.
But despite this, it has to be acknowledged that some agencies like the pitch process and some are quite good at it. It would be fake news to suggest the industry as a whole wants to ditch the pitch, no matter how vocal those that do are.
Over the years (and it has been years, if not decades) the industry has heard a number of high-profile executives campaign against the pitch for various reasons. Few have been as vocal as Huge CEO Mat Baxter who took the stage at Mumbrella360 years ago and offered the audience the chance to throw tomatoes at him if they disagreed with his points on why it was time to ‘ditch the pitch’.
Strangely enough, no one did. Not even for comic value.
In his presentation, Baxter mentioned a bill of $1m just for the travel involved in a particular pitch. It reveals a significant problem. Sure, his example is global rather than Australian, but if an agency is so invested in the pitch process as to approve a seven figure travel bill for a pitch they may not win, it becomes obvious that the pitch is a baked-in part of their business structure.
They not only expect it, they will approve copious amounts of spend on hopefully winning them. Alarm bells should be ringing here, but not because of the pitch itself, but the way pitches are run and agencies treat them.
The above example, and there are many more, can only be described as ‘pitch mismanagement’. Ditching the pitch won’t fix this, but disrupting it might.
One proposed solution has been ‘flipping the pitch’, where the revenue terms are agreed upon first, with agencies only proceeding if the numbers add up. While this might mitigate some risk, it also creates a dangerous race to the bottom before the work has even begun.
It’s an idea though, and any and all ways to disrupt the pitch should be considered.
Here’s another one – auditing the hours that the agencies spend on the pitch. All agencies have a time limit and must meet diversity requirements around experience. In other words, each pitch round lasts a week total and top heavy pitch teams are automatically excluded for providing unrealistic expectations.
While disruption is a nice idea, it can take time. Many agencies suggest the issue is in the now, not the future. So let’s be real.
It must be acknowledged that it’s possible to run an agency without taking part in pitches, or only taking part in a very select number of them. After all, while it’s the client that gets to decide whether they take their business to pitch, it’s the agency that gets to decide whether they take part or not.
Using ‘no’, an often-forgotten word in this industry has been spoken about for years, yet the execution of this concept still hasn’t been mastered by many in the industry.
It’s become a cultural win for agencies to say that they use it often but in reality, it’s just not the case. And when it comes to pitching, it is somewhat understandable. If you have built your business around getting involved in many pitches and winning a few, then it’s hard to extract yourself from that situation. Saying ‘no’ could feel like self-sabotage.
Turning down pitches is not just a cultural process that you need to get used to, it’s a structural one that you have to actually be not just willing to make, but determined to make.
Those are two items that are hard to press play on.
Coming up with a structure and strategy that will then allow the agency to execute saying ‘no’ is at the very least equally difficult. There has to be buy-in from everyone (mainly the management team if there is one) that turning down the opportunity to pitch won’t kill the business.
Keeping inbound enquiries coming in isn’t impossible but requires a completely different strategy to getting on to pitch lists. It may also require a different idea of who your clients could be.
I choose not to pitch – and a structure and strategy based around that model can work. Stay in your lane to help guarantee results – only go after clients that you can do this for. But I acknowledge that it won’t work for all agencies, and it’s not necessarily a better option, but it is one that is right for me.
There are three options: it’s time to disrupt the pitch, or disrupt how your agency operates. Or do neither but stop engaging in the ditch the pitch arguments (save yourself the time – you are already spending a fair chunk of your time on unbillable pitches!).
Phoebe Netto, founder of Pure Public Relations
