Does the pitching process make financial sense?

For Jess Lilley, co-founder and creative director of The Open Arms, the pitching process is outdated. It just doesn’t make financial sense anymore. 

The former Leo Burnett creative director believes the biggest losers in the pitching process are the people making the work.  

The latest OUCH! Factor Report, by growth consultancy New Business Methodology, highlighted the over-investment in pitching, with agencies carrying most of the burden.  

Results from the report outlined that it would take 32 months for the average creative agency respondent to recover from the costs of pitching.  

Pitch processes are becoming longer, more onerous and are leading to agencies becoming far more selective about what they pitch for, according to a global survey of media agency professionals by global independent media advisors MediaSense. 

86% of agencies agree that current ways of working are prohibitively time consuming and costly, with 43% saying it is becoming harder to determine what to pitch for.

Lilley said if it's going to take three years for someone to recoup pitch costs - and they’re pitching on a single project, it just doesn't make sense. 

The Open Arms is an independent, female-owned advertising agency based in Collingwood, Victoria.  

“What we like to do is have an initial chat with someone find out a little bit more about what they need; it's really getting a strong understanding in that first conversation,” said Lilley. 

The agency will then go and construct a presentation based off previous work its done that is relevant to the client.  

“As long as there's no confidentiality concerns, we can show them similar budgets and what we've created for them and go into quite a bit of detail with case studies," she said.

"They can then ask us anything that's more relevant to them and we can offer that bespoke approach to the challenge."

Lilley said the process also involves the team mapping how they would tackle the brief through the system, without having any sort of creative ideas or solutions. 

Clients can then interrogate that as much as they want, which involves a robust discussion of the task and its sector, she notes.

If the agency has insights of the brief they are more than happy to share them with the client, says Lilley, because this what a true collaboration looks like.  

The Open Arms, however, choose not to partake in creative pitches where they go away and solve the brief.  

"We've all been scarred by them from many years at big agencies, it's not logical for us anymore” she said. 

Perhaps pitching is relevant for a long-term strategy in terms of winning business, confidence and building a client portfolio, says Lilley. 

“For our team at the moment, we're trying to put every extra bit of profit that we have back into the community and have a different kind of purpose driven model.” 

Lilley has worked in both holding companies and with independents throughout her career.  

She recalls one of her first jobs as a CD, where she was pitching for 18 months and by the end of it suffered from burnout.  

“Creative agencies are really the biggest losers out of the pitch system and I think that's where it’s truly broken because the reality is you’re not going to win a majority of your pitches,” said Lilley. 

If a creative department is working around the clock for 18 months on work that is never going to get made, on top of the regular workload and is purely speculative, it will result in burnout, she says.  

“The industry still relies a lot on the goodwill of its people. And the ideal is around creating great work and a competitiveness around winning,” says Lilley. 

“It's good for morale when you win, but the problem is that you don't win all the time. When you do, the reality is that some of your team have spent two weeks working until sometimes two or three in the morning."

Lilley proposes a few different ways agencies can get to know partners. At The Open Arms, the focus is on being open to how people want to work in times of collaboration.  

The agency appreciates that there is still an industry norm to pitch, she says, and that an initial chemistry between client and agency lays the foundation of a successful partnership. 

“We will do a workshop where we will go through the brief in detail, and then go back with strategic thought starters to demonstrate any ways that the insights we already have might apply,” she said. 

“It’s about showing clients we have an approach to their project – and that usually gives them enough to go on.” 

The outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic became the catalyst for Lilley to draw a line in the sand and focus solely on purpose-driven work.  

Lilley and co-founder Amy Hollier, former BWM dentsu executive creative director, started The Open Arms in Melbourne, after both wanting to shift from the big agency system. 

“We felt like there was a space for us to combine purpose and profit,” said Lilley. 

The agency’s point of difference, she says, is its focus on going deeper in terms of research and insights and having those drive creative ideas that are meaningful.  

When it comes to pitching, Lilley said she appreciates it’s still relevant for big multinationals.  

“However, it’s too relied upon for projects and balanced completely out of favour for creative agencies in particular,” she said. 

“It’s a system that is so entrenched from such a long time ago.” 

Times have changed, notes Lilley, where big organisations now have multiple agencies rather than one who wins the business and holds onto it for years. 

“For the vast majority of work, you just won’t recoup the costs of pitching; not to mention the emotional and psychological health costs,” she said. 

At The Open Arms, Lilley places an emphasis on creating inclusivity in the workplace.  

This means embracing employees facing mental health challenges or who are neurodiverse, she said.  

“Pitches are just antithetical to anyone who can’t work around the clock all the time,” said Lilley.