Name Lou Dela Pena
Title Business development director, TBWA\Tequila Singapore
Pitches At least one a month
First pitch The entire Allied Domecq Philippines business; group account director, 141 Philippines
Biggest pitch No comment
Benjamin Franklin said, 'The definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results.' The first objective of any pitch would be to test how an agency thinks, rather than securing a finished creative product. A second would be to decipher the cultural compatibility between agency and client. A third key goal would be to clarify the direction clients really want for their business.
Clients should approach a pitch as a serious opportunity to audit themselves. Through rigorous self-examination, clients should be clear on what they want to change, based on their business issues. The pitch brief should then capture this and become a way of re-assessing the status quo.
We should next rewrite the rules of the pitch process. How often do agencies find themselves in a beauty parade of at least five agencies with at least three rounds of creative development? And why do clients concern themselves with the look of the final ad during the pitch? Creative development is a collaborative effort, and not ordered a la carte. How about being transparent with budgets so that agencies can realistically propose a workable, realistic communications plan that responds to clients' business needs?
An agency needs at least three weeks for strategic development and initial concept — anything less than this reflects a level of disrespect to the thinking and creative process. How about being briefed by a major decision maker? Next, change the role of procurement in the pitch process. Evaluating an agency's processes, organisational prowess and overall value for money to the client is critical — after the thinking and creative process is completed. Unless network distribution and financial stability are the only criteria of agency selection, the role of procurement must not contaminate the pitch process. We need to raise the pitch bar and the more clients contribute to the process, the more they get out of it.
Is the pitch working? No It is time to change the rules of the game.