444 The Marketing Book
out a keyword search at the free Adforum.com
website. At this stage, no agencies need know
that a search is in progress. If any clue is given,
unsolicited sales pitches will inevitably ensue,
muddying the waters and making an eventual
objective decision much more difficult.
Step 3is to draw up a pool list of agencies
that seem capable of meeting the criteria
defined at Step 1. How many it contains should
reflect a pragmatic judgement about the deci-
sion makers’ span of attention at the next stage.
In a recent personal experience, it comprised
two incumbents and five others.
AtStep 4, the client goes public for the first
time by inviting credentials presentations from
the agencies on the list. Approaches from others
can be expected, as the grapevine goes into
action and the trade press probably reports the
impending move. The terminology of the invi-
tation is crucial. The professional convention is
that a ‘credentials presentation’ does not consist
of speculative campaign plans and a full-blown
pitch for the business. Instead, presenting
agencies should provide a philosophy state-
ment, staff profiles, a client list and case
histories plus, depending on the promotional
discipline involved, showreels of television and
cinema commercials, radio reels, dossiers of
print work, and other samples of their work.
It is a moot question whether these pre-
sentations should take place at the contenders’
premises or on home ground. In the first case,
valuable impressions can be gained from non-
verbal signals but control over the process is
sacrificed; in the second, there is less risk of
being overwhelmed by a practised presentation
team but no chance to form an opinion about
the agency as an organization. Wherever the
presentations do happen, they should be seen
by a panel, not an individual. Step 5can then be
the result of informed debate, structured by the
criteria defined in Step 1.
Step 6is to invite survivors on the resulting
shortlist to make a formal presentation, which
they are likely to describe more graphically as
their ‘pitch for the business’. It is the client’s
responsibility to set the ground rules. Each
contender should be given the same brief,
including a clear statement of the eventual
campaign budget. Ideally, some way should be
found to ensure that they all spend the same
amount on preparing their presentations, so
that like is compared with like. It is important
to beware of the specialist pitching team, who
will not be the people eventually working on
the business if the pitch is successful. The client
must take the opportunity to establish who will
be, and to raise any key issues that the
presentation does not itself address.
A leaflet on best practice in the manage-
ment of the pitching process, issued jointly by
the IPA and ISBA, is adamant about the
number of contenders that should be invited to
pitch: ‘Decide on a list of three agencies – four
if the incumbent is involved... Don’t be
seduced into lengthening the list.’
AtStep 7, the choice criteria are consulted
for the last time and the decision made. If
requirements were never defined in the first
place, and formal criteria are therefore unavail-
able, the ISBA can provide a 13-item checklist
and a ranking matrix of 10 attributes to be
scored on six-point scales. Although the
emphasis is on objective comparison of compet-
ing pitches, intuition does have a part to play in
making a decision about a long-term working
relationship. As the ISBA puts it, ‘a clinical and
relatively simplistic approach should not be
followed too slavishly’. Prudent clients will
give themselves time to think after all presenta-
tions have been seen, perhaps asking to meet
the team that will be allocated to their account,
and possibly researching the comparative mer-
its of the competing promotional strategies.
However, the ISBA/IPA guide says that the
decision should be announced to all the pitch-
ing agencies, simultaneously and with reasons,
after ‘normally not more than one week’.
Until quite recently, Step 8was likely to
consist of no more than a handshake, imitating
the gentlemen’s agreements common in the true
professions. The transformation of successful
advertising agencies from small partnerships
into large listed companies has fortunately