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)