Industry prostitution emerges in tough times

It's strange really, because all the ad agencies and PR consultancies I talk to get extremely hot under the collar when they are questioned about new business pitches.

They are furious over the amount of money they have to invest in pitching and even more furious about having to flog off intellectual capital for nothing - give away ideas and strategies - with the hope that they'll get the business.

Just looking for ideas

The worst case I have ever heard of came from an agency who told me about a call they got from one of the big medical aid companies. They were asked to come up with creative ideas for an ad campaign and when the agency asked if this meant that the account was being put out to pitch, they were told; "Oh no, we just invite pitches once a year just to see what new ideas there are… we aren't changing our agency at all."

Of course, it is the industry's own fault, because the more they agree to participate in outrageous pitch demands, the more outrageous clients will become and ethics be damned.

It is quite distressing to see that so many well respected companies are feeling not a jot of remorse about requesting creative work, ideas, strategies and so forth from prospective agencies and consultancies - and that's often even before the shortlist has been selected!

Who us?

Of course they will all put their hands on their hearts and swear blind that they will never use any of the ideas put forward by agencies not making the shortlist or losing out at the last stage.

But, what many don't seem to realise is that it's a promise one can't really make. I don't know how many times, for example, I have spoken to agencies accused of copycatting ads only to be told that nobody willfully copied anything but that it "could just be possible that the guilty party happened to be watching some overseas awards show reel or other ages ago and the idea might have inadvertently stuck in his mind."

The same thing with companies calling for creative pitches and demanding detailed strategies.

Subconscious

A few years down the line there is every possibility that someone on the clientside pitch panel will come up with a great idea or strategy and will indeed swear blind that it was original. But meanwhile, guess where it actually came from?

There are so many credentials-only success stories that it surprises me that clients will still insist on creative and strategy pitches. It's like wanting to build a house and getting five contractors each to build a few rooms just so you can see who does the best work and then by the time you've decided who should be awarded the job, the house is pretty well already built.

The ACA, advertising industry's own representative body, is dead against creative pitches but in spite of this, a combination of desperation and greed seems to ensure that this status quo will remain.

And the tougher the times, the more it gets completely out of hand and quite apart from the frightening amount of money that is just being completely wasted, It is sad to see agencies and PR consultancies pimping their intellectual capital around as though it has no value.