By Rick Stanton
It’s something the Seattle Mariners always desperately need and something most ad agencies always detest.
As anyone reading this who has ever been involved in a review for new business will attest, it’s really not a review. By definition, a review is a formal assessment or examination of something, with the possibility or intention of instituting change, if necessary.
Agency reviews—better known as “pitches” in the business—are more like floggings.
The link below illustrates how the new-business pitching process has become ugly.I’ve got news for the people at Ad Week: It’s always been ugly. Clients always have had and always have known that they have the upper hand when people like me were/are chasing billings.
Consequently, clients typically will push the limits of demands for “their process” in finding a good agency fit.
When people like me found themselves confronted with unreasonable demands (like free creative, for example) before there even was a relationship, people like me would tell the potential client to shove it.
No thank you. We have real work to do.
If you’re going to be an a$$#%&^ before we sign a contract, I can only imagine what you’re going to be like after the fact. I know a couple of things to be true in the client-agency relationship.
Good clients want you to make a fair and equitable profit on their business. That means they’re smart enough to know that if the agency is compensated properly, they will get the attention and the work they deserve.
And a good client will not be a bully. And, by definition, a bully is someone who seeks to harm, intimidate or coerce another who is perceived as vulnerable.
I can say with great pride that my agency never was fired by a client. Oh sure, we lost accounts, but not because we were inept, lied about media commissions or did crappy work.
But we did lose accounts because a marketing director got hit by a bus and we weren’t the next person up’s “boys,” or because they went out of business, like say Pay N’ Pak and ERNST Home & Nursery did.
And while we never were fired, I sure fired the hell out of a couple of clients. If they didn’t respect and value us for what we could do for them and behave like we behaved, no thank you. Ever had a lousy boyfriend or girlfriend, or husband or wife?
If I may be so bold as to offer one piece of advice to any of you still doing what I did: Have the guts (or certain other parts of the male anatomy) to tell a bad client to go elsewhere.
And a big clue as to how things might turn out are learned during the pitch.