‘Too many marketers are applying a one-size-fits-all approach’: TrinityP3 reveals inaugural ‘The State of the Pitch’ report
Australian marketers, or their procurement teams, are asking too much of agencies in pitches, according to new research by marketing management and pitch consultancy TrinityP3.
The inaugural report, ‘The State of Pitch’, saw TrinityP3 survey agencies for their views of 77 pitches over six months, run across 28 industry categories. The pitches had agency fees ranging from $50,000 to $10 million, and overall represented half of the pitches run across Australia and New Zealand for the period.
“The key thing that stood out to us in doing this inaugural ‘State of the Pitch’ survey is that many marketers are boiling the ocean in their search for the right agency,” said Darren Woolley, CEO of TrinityP3.
“It doesn’t need to be that way but also it shouldn’t be. We had agencies reporting pitch lists of between three and up to 45 agencies. Now some clients will have open tender requirements, but a process involving that quantity of agencies needs a speedy and robust process for refining the list in the interests of everyone’s time and effort.”
Of the 77 pitches, the majority took two to three months (56%), did not pay the agencies pitch fees (89%), and did not have the agency assign IP as part of the process (73%). 77% required the agencies to prepare speculative creative work, a media trading exercise, or both, with 84% not using an online tendering system.
The pitches scored an average of 3.13 out of 5.
TrinityP3 broke the low score down to two main causes: bad processes and a lack of ‘table stakes’.
“We noticed a significant difference in how agencies scored the process depending on whether marketing, procurement or an external consultant was running the pitch,” said Lydia Feely, general manager of the consultancy.
“Sadly, in too many cases, agencies were reporting a lack of ‘table stakes’, the minimum requirements that makes sure the client pitching business has a clear and reasonable process, that they know they can stick to and which will keep everyone involved informed and respected.”
Lydia Feely and Darren Woolley
Poor pitching processes have long been a conversation in the industry, as investigated by Mumbrella earlier this year.
One agency leader told Mumbrella that “marketers and procurement will always hold the power to take advantage of agencies if they want to, and we let them”, while another said “it’s costly, it’s disruptive, and it rarely results in the best work for the client, in which case, there’s a lot of wastage”.
While some industry bodies have guidelines, such as the Advertising Council Australia’s (ACA) Agency Partnership Principles, and the Media Federation of Australia (MFA) and Australian Association of National Advertisers’ (AANA) Successful Agency Pitching Guide, TrinityP3 urged the need for stronger industry-wide guidelines with greater optionality that assist marketers and brands when considering how to select an agency.
“The issue is too many marketers are applying a one-size-fits-all approach. How you select an agency for a $50,000 project brief should look a lot different to a $10m retainer account,” Feely explained.
“The problem is some marketers are signing up, or being forced into, the same procurement process regardless of the size of the account or the scope of work. That’s not good for agencies or marketers – it simply wastes everyone’s time, money and effort.”
She continued: “As an industry, this is something we can all collaborate on to solve. If you look at something like the UK’s Pitch Positive Pledge, this is an example of what can be done to help achieve a better outcome.”
On a positive note, local pitches dominated the Australian market at 63.64%, while 32.46% were regional, and 3.90% global.
Local, regional vs global pitches [Click to enlarge]
However, the needs of clients are rapidly evolving with a growing number demanding capabilities beyond strategy, creative/content and paid media.
“The survey highlights what TrinityP3 has been seeing in the market – which is the rise of multi-discipline pitching,” Woolley said.
“The creative pitch or media pitch still exists but increasingly they are trying to find ways to consolidate rosters and overheads to have a less fragmented agency team.
“While you expect to see creative, paid media or production high on the client needs, it’s worth noting the rise in demand for technology, data/CRM and even social and influencer capabilities to win at pitching agencies today. They need to have more than one string to their bow.”
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Lauren McNamara is a journalist at Mumbrella, covering the creative and PR beat. She joined in November 2022 as editorial assistant, after completing a Bachelor of Communications (Journalism) at UTS.
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Thanks for the coverage, Lauren. If you want to read the report you can download it here https://www.trinityp3.com/state-of-the-pitch/
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