Marketing Procurement

Pitch procurement: The winning game plan

Streamlining Pitching

“Data needs to be at the heart of every decision an advertiser makes, but without embracing tech solutions that create a single view of media data truth, the pitching process will continue to be arduous”

While the call to ‘ditch the pitch’ has rang loud in certain corners of the advertising world for a number of years, this industry staple has yet to disappear. Though often gruelling and time intensive, it is seen as a necessity by advertisers and their agencies to forge relationships that are productive for both partners.

The cries to look for a new way to approach these relationships have grown louder as the macro-economic situation has become more unpredictable in recent years. According to Forrester’s Ditch the Pitch report, US agencies alone spend $12.5 billion a year on pitching.

While the immense amount of time, resources, and investment can pay off if a pitch is successful, rejection can leave agencies and advertisers asking if the effort was worth it.

It’s not just as simple as stopping pitch procurement, however. There will always be a need for a competitive process to ensure that both sides of the equation find the right partner for them. So does the pitch need to be ditched? Or can it still prove useful and effective in the modern age?

To pitch or not to pitch?

Despite the continuing gloom economically, the pitching merry-go round has not looked like it’s stopping. In fact, many global brands have made headlines by seeking to switch agencies. One of the most notable is John Lewis, whose Christmas ads have become a staple of the UK marketing calendar. They parted ways with their partner of 14 years earlier this year, while Innocent Smoothies, Sainsbury’s and other large UK brands have also all decided to make an agency change.

While the need to shake things up in order to ensure maximum return from ad spend is a driving factor for many opening the pitching process, it is worth considering the large figures that the Forrester report stated. Their solutions to the pitching problem include reframing pitching into paid products and recasting the pitch consultant into a role of a ‘pitch partner’ who keeps lines of communication between both parties more clear after the pitching process is complete. Although, ultimately, Forrester states that advertisers and agencies need to focus on chemistry when choosing their partners.

However, in such a data-driven industry is counting on chemistry enough? Procurement is a complex process, much of it focused on processing large volumes of data. Is the answer instead to harness tools that make the handling of this data less time-consuming and more transparent?

Gaining clarity

Procurement – like every decision a global advertiser has to make – needs to be driven by data. However, the tidal-wave of numbers needed for pitching can leave teams overwhelmed and overworked. There is a clear need for innovative tools which take on the burden of data analysis to ensure an advertiser is selecting the best partner for them. The industry is ready for these solutions, according to

Havas’ The Client-Agency Barometer report – two-fifths of decision-makers believe that procurement will increasingly rely on data and technology solutions, while 31% believe that these solutions will drive change in the procurement process.

Pitch procurement platforms offer a tech solution that can manage this heavy lifting. By ingesting and evaluating the wide array of pitch bidding data, advertisers can use these tech tools to gain a clearer picture of the granular details of each pitch faster and more accurately. These solutions can also analyse historical media data in order to better predict future outcomes and create quality parameters for separate markets.

These platforms essentially operate as a one-stop-shop for pitch procurement. Advertisers can have a clear overview of all pitch activity, ensuring that both media agency and procurement teams have access to relevant information.

Looking past the post-mortem

To truly revolutionise procurement, advertisers and agencies need to look beyond the pitch in order to build relationships that last. As well as clear lines of communication and data transparency, advertisers must look for solutions that allow them to analyse and benchmark their post-campaign data on a monthly basis – not as an annual post-mortem. This ensures that campaigns can be kept on track and mistakes spotted early on, leading to healthier relationships between advertisers and agencies and, ultimately, less likelihood of having to restart the procurement process.

Post-campaign management and deal performance management solutions cannot be one size fits all, however. Not only are the needs of every advertiser different, but the needs of an advertiser’s local teams also vary. Global brands often manage over 30 agencies in different territories. Creating effective cross-market comparisons to evaluate these relationships is not easy due to the wide range of local differences and taxonomies. While global teams may look to implement top-down standardisation, this can lead to the unique insights of each market being lost.

Only by prioritising local teams can advertisers gain the granular post-campaign insights needed to evaluate agency relationships. Solutions that enable the creation of localised reports that retain each marketer’s unique taxonomies are vital for gaining effective insights.

Calls to scrap pitching completely may be premature, but it is clear that much needs to change if both advertisers and agencies are to stop feeling the strain from the process. Data needs to be at the heart of every decision an advertiser makes, but without embracing tech solutions that create a single view of media data truth, the pitching process will continue to be arduous.

By not planning for an effective pitch, the winning agency will not be set up for success. Only through both sides of the relationship being clear with how exactly success is being tracked, can a partnership truly flourish.

www.redmillsolutions.com