If I look back at the last ten years of pitches I have been involved in, 90% of them have been fruitless. Not because our ideas were not what the client was looking for, but because lazy clients use the pitch process to test the waters and see if their current supplier or preferred supplier is giving them the best they can get. How often have I seen pitch work being applied by unscrupulous lazy-assed irritating non-creative clients who have not given us the account, but have used our ideas anyway. Pitching also encourages animosity and exagerrated competition between agencies when there is more than enough work out there and when most agencies are specialised in their own way towards specific strengths in marketing. It's pathetic how car manufacturers play agencies off against each other. ENOUGH IS ENOUGH. They must either choose their agency on credential or relationship or reputation or come up with ideas themselves. Damn clients.

How right you are about being careful when car manufactuers ask agencies to pitch and then using the ideas. Had the same experience last year with a wellknown truck division of a famous brand. When we discovered that they had incorporated an almost exact copy of our Big Idea into their new advertising with another agency, they simply said "Big co-incidence - the other agency had the exact same idea". But they never told us this when we went into the finalist list of three agencies, when the complication of duplication would have been obvious. Sent the CEO a lawyer's letter, but the trouble is you can't copyright an ad idea even when there is no evidence of it being done before and even when it is executed in final layout form. I've often wondered whether our industry shouldn't get an addendum to the Copyright Act to somehow give us better protection when an idea is put down in final design and layout and so it is there in a concrete format for all to see.

Pitches are seemingly endemic to the advertising industry. However, there are somewhat similar processess in other fields. Perhaps we can draw on the best of breed from all avenues and design a way forward that makes sense for all concerned. Take the tender process for example. We need to streamline the volumes of paperwork required, but implement the same basic approach. The essesntials of the services offered, a track record, success stories and an executive summary of the agency's undertanding and proposed way forward (without creative detail), should replace the pitch process. Let companies decide on the basis above as to who will get the work, rather than use the pitching process to "steal" the best idea.

Well i dont think it should be banned but every agency asked to pitch need to receive payment for their pitch. Then clients will think more about just asking and if they dont like it just dismissing it and have a few good ideas for free and/or made their agency "look good" by "retaining" the account.

Honestly, if you offer pitches, then you can't blame clients for asking for them. Why shouldn't they? What have they got to lose?

You agencies are the ones to blame. If you're so desperate for work that you have to give it away in the hope that you'll get paid later, then you deserve your problems. The fact that you complain about it means that you don't think you have a differentiated enough offering to stand above the others, and that you have to resort to pitches to get business. Let your credentials speak for themselves and if they don't then that is your real problem.

Chris Moerdyk's recommendation that credentials should be called for by clients instead of creative pitches makes sense. Credentials, with proper case studies that demonstrate the business value provided by the agency's strategic thinking & creative output over time, and with client references, provide a better indication of the capability and approach of an agency as a productive business partner, than a once-off pitch. However, it's up to our industry to make this the norm rather than the exception.

Well I guess the choice is ours, we need to either take a stand and stop this exploitation that our fore fathers in the industry have bestowed upon us or we change how the industry works. Be strong enough to say to a client that your IP will remain yours. That they will only gain access to it after they have taken you on as a sole supplier in that field. Retainers are a great way for clients to gain access to this IP but people are just too afraid to say it. Once agencies start valuing themselves and respecting the creative process that goes into a pitch they will then be able to tell a client to either be fair or just forget it. Creative Pitches waste time and its up to us to stop moaning and grow BALLS!

I'm against banning of any sort. It should be a free market without restrictions imposed. This poll seems somewhat fascist to my sensitivities. When - in history - has a ban of any sort had any successful outcomes? Especially living in South Africa of all places!

Last comment on the issue... I DON'T pitch. It's pure company practice. If someone likes my portfolio, they pay. If they don't know what it is I do, I pass them onto my portfolio. LOL. Real simple.

It isn't fair for agencies to have to share a wealth of intellectual property/creative ideas, free of charge, with no guarantee of them securing the business or any assurances that their ideas will not be used in some shape or form later on. I believe an initial credentials pitch should narrow down the field to two or three key contenders and that there should then be a standard industry pitch fee, paid to each agency for their final presentation.

Who cares if you pitch or not...I'm a creative and I'll brainstorm my brains out my head and onto the sketch pad. It's what I do. Stop complaining because your ideas are half-hearted and never make grade, geez!

Jeez, all of you have a lot of time to sit and write all this nonsense.

I am a client. If you don't want to do a creative pitch, no worries, we'll go to the next, until we get what we like.

We all shout and announce that we are so forward-thinking in our outlook, but if you read some of these comments - I wonder.

Good luck to all those, not wanting to pitch!

.. instead of making an educated decision based on a) a studio's existing work, b) it's people and c) a detailed cost estimate, to determine whether that company will be right for your objectives or agreeing to pay an hourly rate for the time spent problem solving your company's marketing needs, you think you will win by just finding some sucker who will do the work whether or not they are suitable for you, thus showing your complete ignorance of what goes into a productive, trusting, creative relationship that will succeed in growing your company, product or brand. Under this guise you think that companies who may not have any idea how to write a creative brief or set a decent marketing objective for themselves, should get design studios to do the thinking for them for free - not any more amigo QED

Thankfully Main konyn is not a client of mine. Sounds like a nightmare account. There are clients worth pitching for and there are others out there squeezing every last drop from the industry by playing one agency off of the other. Rushed jobs on silly budgets hardly ever bear results worth mentioning. Don't for a second you get the best out of your agency if they're on a pathetic retainer. They'll hand that work straight to the junior. The client may think they're saving money but in reality they're making less because their advertising is less effective.

You cannot overestimate the power of pitches. Much as you may not win the account, you get started on brand categories that you probably would have never worked on throughout your ad life. This makes agency life more interesting and sprucing than that of for 'the conniving clients' that turn you down only to steal the idea. But truth be said - not all clients shout for pitches with hidden intentions. There are those who just want the best idea and whose time has come!

The sad part about creative pitches, is that those working at the bottom of the salary rung, are actually the ones paying for the pitch. There is no such thing as something being done for free - somebody always pays, usually the ones with the least power in the situation. Not paying for labour, is slave labour. Quite simple. Businesses should be able to sell their skill and expertise based on past portofolio work and successful campaign track records. Pitches are a weak excuse to make a whole lot of people do their best work for free.