Free pitching undermines the design profession and the value of business relationships

Posted by Pip McConnel-oats on 7 June 2011 | 0 Comments

Tags: design, pitching, pitch

Recently we were asked by a very well known and high profile brand in Australia to do a free creative pitch to win a substantial piece of work. We had to decline. Much as we would love the qudos of working with this particular client and brand, there are many reasons why we won’t agree to a free creative pitch. Here’s why:

• It undermines the work we do as designers, suggesting to clients that one of the most important parts of the process, the creative idea generation, is not valuable.
• We have to bear the cost of the free pitch in unbillable time or we have to end up amortising those costs over other projects for paying clients. We are not prepared to do this.
• Many free pitch situations are designed to put one or more agencies up against each other and often do not compare apples to apples. They can also indicate a poorly briefed project, where the client doesn’t quite know what they want, so prefer to see some creative executions to help them decide.
• In a pitch situation designers are often forced to skip the consultation, research & analysis and strategic development stages. These are the skills that become increasingly important in an ongoing project. The client does not get to compare each agency’s capabilities in these areas and hence their decision is based on just one part of the process.
• When pitching, the value of the long term relationship is undermined and the focus becomes the creative execution, rather than the strategic thinking behind the core idea. It is the core idea, the brand values intrinsic in the design, which provide the platform for a sustainable, effective brand.
• As with anything in life, you get what you pay for. Paying for the creative ideas and providing the time required by the creative team to execute those ideas, ensures a quality outcome that is valued by everyone involved.
• And finally, as professional members of DIA and AGDA we are bound by their code of ethics, agreeing not to participate in free pitches. Our membership and support from these organisations – and our responsibility to other designers by ensuring that we say no to free pitching – is very important to us!

Let us know what your thoughts are on free pitching…