There’s a canny discussion taking place over on Mark Pinsent’s blog (no, not that one) about whether PR agencies should stop pitching to inhouse teams. Mark says, “Pitches should be banned. Agencies should get much better at presenting credentials and references and have the confidence to decline to pitch valuable creative ideas that in the main (and even if you win, for crying out loud!) you’re almost certain not to get paid for.”
Check out the comments. Solid reasons for both sides of the argument. There’s even a Twitter poll (but you don’t need to be on Twitter to vote) asking the simple yes or no question: Should PR pitches be banned? Go vote.
Me? Still unsure. However, do you think professional firms like PriceWaterhouseCoopers spend days/weeks/months preparing new biz pitch documents? I don’t either (unless @adparker can tell me different). You might say that’s because accountancy isn’t part of the creative industries (although there is creative accounting). Well, yeah, but often PR doesn’t have a creative element to it either.
Maybe the whole pitch process is why PR is not and never will be taken as serious as other professions like accounting or law?
Just a thought.
Stephen is a communications consultant based out of the UK. You can connect with him on Twitter or check out his LinkedIn profile. | Email Stephen
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Mark
Thanks for the mention mate.
I think you’re right. Sometime there’s a certain desperation in PR pitching that isn’t attractive…more “we desperately want your business” than, “we’re confident we’re good and you should really want to work for us.”
Toronto Louise
Good question and one that’s tougher to answer these days. A couple of years ago when the economy was going like gangbusters, you would often hear PR practitioners say “I never participate in open pitches”. Now, with the economy in tatters, I think we’re all doing what we have to do.
I wrote a post recently about the lack of respect some potential clients have for our time and our intellectual property. http://acallforclass.blogspot.com/2009/09/tire-kickers-little-respect-please.html
We will probably continue to participate in these to some extent but are doing our best to qualify the opportunities beforehand
Toronto Louise
Tough question. Two years ago when the economy was going gangbusters, it was not uncommon to hear PR practitioners say “I never participate in open pitches”. Now, people seem to be a bit less choosy out of circumstance I guess. I recently wrote a blog post about this topic and how many potential clients don’t respect our time when they ask for these pitches.
We will probably continue to participate to some extent but do our best to qualify the opportunities by asking questions beforehand.
Louise
Adam Parker
Actually PwC et al have to pitch for work all the time and in areas like Corporate Finance and Consultancy work will often find themselves in similar situations to PR Agencies in having to give away some of their ideas for strategy etc in order to differentiate themselves. However they generally will be able to get away with an idea of what might be done but leave an awful lot of the devil in the detail. Where PR ideas are concerned it is often the simplest by definition that are the best making this more of an issue.
Another key difference is the profitability of the work when they do win it http://bit.ly/1751dT Accountancy firms work on net profit margins of 30%+, even allowing for the time invested in pitching, whereas PR are generally in the teens at best and probably often lower. Meaning Accountancy firms can “afford” to do this more than PR firms.
Craig Pearce
I like the way you compare public relations to accountancy and law, Stephen, as opposed to marketing, the normal criminal we are sentenced with. You imply that public relations is a more ’serious’ business discipline than marketing. I’ll just leave that out there…
Personally, I find the pitching process pretty soul-destroying. Anyone who can stymie the flow of potential clients wanting pitches rather than creds presentations deserves a medal. At the end of the day, it is the cause of a lot of wasted creativity, productivity and emotional investment.
Finally, as you say, it is profoundly ironic (ifnot downright tragic) that even if the pitch wins the business it is highly likely its content won’t be used or it will be emasculated before application. As I said, soul destroying…
Matt Anderson
Now that online PR is a sort after consultancy I am starting to charge for pithes ideas for a prospective cleints.
It cuts out the time wasters and heightens your credibility (if you are brave enough!)
Ben Cotton
It’s a very compelling case to stop pitching. As an industry we need to ensure that intellectual copyright is recognised and respected, whilst more should be done to vilify perpetrators.
All too often agencies pitch against one another only later to discover that nobody has won the brief, yet their ideas have been implemented.
However, I prefer the Confused.com route e.g. clients paying for agency ideas.
In the current climate stripping down parts of PR to very specific services such as just creative thinking time without implementation could be a bold, new business model that suits both parties.