Pitching, the name of the game in advertising

Pitching, the name of the game in advertising

JAKARTA (JP): Think of it as the bidding for a government
project: When an advertiser, usually a big one, wishes to launch
a promotional campaign for its new product, it selects a handful
of agencies to participate in a competition known as a
"pitching".

The invited agencies, that agree to take part, will then
prepare their respective presentations based on the brief
provided by the advertiser. During the pitch, the latter will
select which presentation they like most and contact the agency
that has prepared it.

While it is a commonly held view that the ideal relationship
between an advertiser and its ad agency should be in the form of
a partnership, it is not uncommon for a veteran agency to receive
a brief in the mail, followed by an invitation to send in their
presentation to a prospective client. Agencies do not really feel
good about this kind of approach, in which the advertiser views
the agencies merely as suppliers.

According to Ati Kisjanto from MACS909, in the most ideal
situation the advertiser will come to the agency and simply say:
"We have a problem. Can you help us solve it?" The problem may
simply be that the advertiser wishes to boost corporate awareness
or increase the sales of their existing products. The two parties
would then sit down together as partners and talk about what they
want to achieve. The problem would be jointly defined and then
the agency would come back with its proposal of what to do and
how to do it.

Clients who cheat

As in many competitions, there is always the probability of
foul play taking place. But, according to Aryanto Zainal,
creative director for MACS909, clients are usually fair. Rarely
do they have incidents where advertisers go as far as stealing
ideas from a more expensive agency during the pitch and asking a
cheaper one to execute it for them.

If this happens at all, it would then depend on the agency
whether they accept the job or not. If pride still reigns
supreme, the agency may refuse to do it. However, smaller
agencies, that are still badly in need of new clients, may decide
to put their egos in the passenger seat and accept such a job.

What usually gives an agency a bad day is when they realize
that the pitching was conducted just for the sake of formality.
"It really gets on our nerves to find out, some months later,
that our concept was much better but the advertiser did not
choose us," Aryanto said. In other words, the winner had already
been selected before the competition even started.

Asked if a deal can crumble after much effort has been made
and resources spent, Alfonso Rahardja, account director of Inter
Admark, said that it does happen once in a while. In such cases,
although the creative team has prepared and revised an ad a
couple of times, the client is still not happy with it. Unable to
work out a compromise, both parties may finally decide to call it
quits.

Responsibility

However, now that the deal is dead, who is responsible for the
expenses already incurred? "If the client has been with the
agency for a long time, and their billing is quite substantial,
usually the agency simply decides to just forget about these
expenses," Alfonso said. But, he added, if the advertiser is not
a major client of the agency, the latter may request the former
to help cover the expenses.

"In the international arena, on the other hand, it is common
for the agencies to ask the advertiser to pay them a certain
amount, to cover presentation costs, before agreeing to
participate in the pitch," Alfonso Rahardja further said. But,
here in Indonesia, local clients will usually frown when they
receive such a request, because they are more accustomed to the
"you have to spend money if you want to make money" philosophy.
(zia)