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The Virtual Strike
There’s something happening in Belgian ad world this week. The site of some major agencies are on a strike.
On a strike?
Yes, it’s a protest, organized by an organization called ACC, a self-regulating organ that tries to outline the way pitches should be organized here in Belgium. A noble goal, really. As you might know or not, a pitch is a process where an agency is in competition with other agencies, trying to win the account. As you can imagine, a pretty intense process that indeed can suck-up quite some resources, creativity, money even .. so yes, I do believe in some kind of regulation. Rules the ACC promote are for example: only 4 agencies, don’t steal creation, .. pretty straight-forward ideas to be honest, but as you can imagine, clients don’t always feel the same.
And this is what the strike is about. To bring a clear and simple message: don’t abuse.
That’s why you’ll find the websites of these agencies replaced with an open letter, that you can find after the break (screenshots, the text isn’t copy-paste friendly .. let’s not get started about share-ability)
Now what to think about this? To be really honest, I have mixed feelings. Like I said, I do support the ACC, and I think it’s important to step up, share your believes and try to cultivate them. However, for me, this is whining. Begging the clients to please please respect the ACC.
I think this can be achieved much more efficient: just say NO. You’re in control. If a client ask your agency to pitch, tell them you want to, but that you support the ACC. If the client doesn’t, very sorry, skip the pitch. If every agency (or even just the ACC members) would do this, there wouldn’t be a problem, at all. I know it’s hard to pass a really great opportunity, but how great is this opportunity anyway when you could end up in an endless, expensive, unfun, pitch proces? Just say no, play ball, hard ball.
Something very stupid, that in my mind would be a hundred times more effective, very low tech, could be something as stupid as a flyer. Plain A5, nicely designed, great copy, with the most important ACC rules on them. When a client invites you in a meeting, you slip it into her hands. You explain why (the same story that hijacks your websites now) and ask the client if she’s willing to play by these rules. If she doesn’t, walk out!
Agencies supporting this (so far)
- VVL BBDO
- Boondoggle
- Famous
- Punta Linea
- LDV
- AIR
- N-BBDO
- Saatchi
- Open Here
- Fe Online
- Kunstmaan
- Bubka
- Polygone Group
- Tagora
- Mccann-Lowe
- JWT
- LBI
- Ogilvy
- 7 beaufort
- Happiness Brussels
- TBWA
- Publicis
- DVN
- Grey
- G&CO
BTW: Where’s the (sector) press reporting this? I’m probably the slowest blogger in Belgium, and couldn’t find anything .. That’s maybe even more sad ..
Update: I updated the list of agencies participating. This naturally means my screenshots are no longer exhaustive, but you get the picture.
Update 2: It seems the same text is just stretched over more websites, so the screenshots are complete.
Update 3: See the ACC charter here (dutch) or here (French) – Both in pdf
Update 4: charter in English
I was thinking the exact same thing. Practice will be somewhat more difficult I’m afraid (especially “in times of crisis”).
I think this is a very interesting demonstration of group dynamics.
If you make the statement as an agency that you’re not participating in pitches that don’t meet X conditions, you’re establishing yourself as a self-confident agency and the market as a seller’s market.
However, if you do what they did, hide yourself behind some umbrella organization and pretend tho adhere to their standards, while when it all comes down to it, you don’t… you’re establishing yourself as someone waiting to be pushed around and the market as a buyers market.
So I guess this is one of the instances where l’union ne fait pas la force.
@Christian: agree, you put yourself in a weak position
@tijs: if you add up all things, it’s the best strategy at all times, even in times of crisis. Wasting resources / doing free work (what a pitch implies) isn’t a very solid survival strategy.
check out this.
http://tikiblog.wordpress.com/2009/12/23/niet-deelnemen-is-meestal-belangrijker-dan-winnen/
Freedom of speech and expression rule! Free market rules too! Groundswell it is and get ready for more. But I do respect the effort and the colab.
An agency that does not find the way to cope with the freedom of decision its prospects and clients impose is a dead agency…
I have the impression very few of you are running an agency, being responsible for the income of several families. If you keep on refusing pitches that are not according to the charter, you’ll be out of business soon. They’ll call you arrogant. Or they’ll forget about you. Advertisers know other advertisers. They talk. There’ll be another agency waiting to take your place because they have to if they want to save the income of their employees.
ACC is not whining at all. They do what they’re supposed to. See it as a union. If you’re at work and you’re boss is rowing against the rules, it can be dangerous to stand up against him on your own. That’s why there are unions. That’s why there is something like “sociaal overleg”. It’s pretty damn frustrating to have all members agreed on a charter and than seeing that they don’t act accordingly. Som?etimes they have no clue of what it takes to organise a pitch.
This is very unusual, you know. Try it yourself: build a house and ask 10 architects to design it for you. For free. (And then pick the one who’s married to your cousin.)
Hi Summer,
thanks for your feedback, we’re getting somewhere.
First point: not running an agency. Fair, I’m not. I did work in an agency though, and had a pretty responsible role there. Just to say, I know something about the functioning of agencies.
But leaping from there to “we don’t have a choice” is one bridge too far according to me. You do have a choice, even more, you do have control!
Bear with me for one moment, and follow this train of thoughts. Suppose you have a choice
a) spend 1 million (gross / commercial value) euro a year on pitches, lot of them unrealistic / following the scenario ACC is battling against, losing the majority of them, winning one big client,
b) choice wisely and spend the same effort on realistic pitches, walk the extra mile, serve your existing clients extraordinary (maybe they won’t put you in pitch next time), win 2 major account in the process doing it, don’t feel frustrated
I know this is theory, but just imagine what better things you can do with the energy wasted on unfair pitches you nowadays CHOOSE to enroll in?
I’d say a lot.
More, talking about job security / income .. I’d say the complete opposite of what you’re saying: saying yes to unfair pitches jeopardizes job security. Agencies are getting way to expensive because of that. To compensate for the loses, the real clients have to make up (I’m not saying they’re sucked dry because of that, but this is clear business logic, right?). This means everybody looses.
BTW: you call saying no arrogant? I call saying yes arrogant! If 10 parties are invited, do you really think, as a default, you can win the pitch? That’s arrogant! The truth is, you make a chance winning it, like the others, that’s why they asked you for a pitch and didn’t gave you the account.
There obviously are ways to say no. You can explain, tell it’s not feasible, and yes that you care about your people and you might harm them by enrolling. They’ll understand. Or you could go to the press, make a big fuzz about it, praise yourself. Yes, they might call you arrogant in that case, because you are.
Talking about a union: you’re absolutely right, but why don’t agencies respect the union? It’s up to them, not the client. They can ask what they want, it’s about how the agencies react to these questions. If they systematically say no, clients won’t bother asking anymore.
You (client) can ask the architects (agency) to design the house for free. Guess what, they’ll say get lost. They, as in agency, not client. I agree with your example, but not with flipping the logic around.
So no, I don’t see any reason why agencies can’t say no. Other than that they’re afraid of loosing income (valid reason) but, as I tried to explain above, I believe that’s a fallacy.
That said, I agree with an action to build awareness with clients, but I don’t think this is the right way. As Christian is saying above: stand strong and don’t put yourself in a weak position. You’ll lose!
I AM running an agency, responsible for 14 people. I deliberately AM NOT a member of the ACC just because of these ‘cheap’ actions. It is very easy to go on a virtual strike but it takes balls to refuse pitches that are not compliant to the charter. If you REALLY want to make a front, then get your act together and form a front and say NO. The ACC hosts the finest agencies so if they all say NO, at least for a month or three, the statement will be much more effective. And trust me, the agencies that are not (yet) member of the ACC, will applaud and respect this decision … and refuse as well. Those who don’t will feel the pressure rising. So will the advertiser.
Ik snap eigenlijk niet waarom het allemaal zo moeilijk moet. In andere industrie?n zijn bepaalde praktijken vanzelfsprekend. Heb soms het gevoel dat het alleen in de reclamewereld een zottekot is.
Zoals ik vaak doe maak ik de vergelijking met de bouwwereld. Vergeet het dat ne architect een volledig plan en concept zal maken voor niks. Nee, je selecteert een architect op basis van referenties en een gesprek. Als zijn tarief dan ok is en je hebt een goed gevoel ga je met hem in zee. En dan betaal je voor zijn werk. Lijkt me heel logisch.
Ik ben dus van mening dat ze pitchen helemaal moeten afschaffen. Het is dus geen kwestie van al dan niet pitchen voor een klant. We moeten er gewoon mee stoppen ! Je gaat je bureau voorstellen and that’s it. De mensen, je organisatie, je portfolio moeten voldoende zijn om een klnt te overtuigen. Al de rest moeten ze maar betalen. Dan kunnen we ons concentreren op bestaande klanten, meerwaarde bieden enz. Echt belachelijk dat we soms moeten pitchen voor een budget van 5k. Noem me ??n industrie op waar ze zoveel effort moeten steken in presales ??
Het charter is niet de oplossing. Redelijkheid wel !! en onze sector is niet meer redelijk
my 2 cents
Boo hoo.
A) What agency doesn’t hasn’t been putting it’s best people on the pitch for the last 50 years?
B) Most of these agencies (and their clients) are in trouble because they’re part of a bloated system that hasn’t found a way to connect with people in an era where we’re consuming media and being influenced differently.
[...] P.S. Er is een interessante discussie gaande over hetzelfde onderwerp gaande op Minor Issues [...]
Isn’t there an easier way to put a stop to this? If a potential client asks for a pitch, you send them a quote informing them how much it will cost them. Better yet, inform them before they even have the chance to ask for it.
That way, they will be forced to do their homework a little bit better. And if they do go through with it, the pool of pitchers will remain small and will probably be a lot more constructive.
If a potential client is not willing to pay for a pitch upfront, he has to realize that he will indirectly be paying a lot more later as his agency will somewhere have to recuperate the costs of all the pitches that were not won.
It is crisis and all of a sudden people should be paying attention to a problem that wasn’t there in the first place, that is if they would follow the rules, but these same agencies end up in the same pitches with the nine other agencies who signed. please… It sure makes you wonder about the definition of hypocrite…