Below you will find eight recommendations for clients who are looking for a creative agency and are not subject to public procurement law.
Arrange a coffee appointment
In many cases, the search for a new agency partner is a decision for years of cooperation. Accordingly, the entire process should be based on professionalism, seriousness, transparency and mutual appreciation.
Clients should take the opportunity to assess and get to know as many agencies as possible through a personal (free) screening appointment. In this usually one to two hour appointment, the agencies can present their working methods, their references and also the people behind them. It has been shown that it makes sense to reduce the number of participants in the pitch to those who were the most promising after the screening appointments. A maximum of four agencies is recommended here (if the budget holder is also invited). This ensures that there is enough time during the presentation phase for agencies and clients to exchange ideas and for both sides to get to know each other better. In our experience, inviting more agencies does not produce better results. It is also appreciated when the agencies participating in the pitch are announced transparently.
In addition to a written briefing, there should absolutely be the opportunity for a personal re-briefing with the people responsible for the agency decision so that the task can be scrutinized. This increases agencies’ understanding of the task and leads to better results. At the same time, the client becomes better acquainted with the agency’s way of working and thinking, as well as with the key personnel in charge. The process itself should be kept as lean as possible. The scope of the presentation (advertising material to be prepared) should be set in such a way that it is easy to imagine the implementation of the idea (folders ready for printing, for example, are of little use at this stage).
It is important to provide at least rough information about the available budget already in the briefing so that the agencies can develop a concept tailored to this budget. Also, discuss your wishes regarding the fee or fee model and the contents of an agency contract as early as possible (for example, at the screening appointment) or let the agency make a proposal (for example, as an agenda item at the re-briefing). Thus, in the event of an assignment, there are no different expectations with regard to the fee. If agency fees are unexpectedly high or low, address it. Maybe it’s a misunderstanding, or maybe it’s an opportunity to take agencies out of the pitch for this reason, and backfill with others. Too “cheap” agencies are almost more dangerous than too “expensive” agencies, because quality over a longer period of time is only possible through appropriate fees.
The agencies should be given enough time to prepare the presentation (four to eight weeks between briefing and presentation, depending on the size of the project). But the agencies should also have enough time (at least one hour) for the presentation itself. A good idea can be told quickly, but the client should also be able to understand the arguments behind this idea, because this understanding is ultimately also necessary for the qualitative evaluation (it therefore makes sense to allow some time for questions after the presentation). Agencies should decide how to best use this time and who should be the presenter. This also allows clients to get to know the different agency cultures and better assess which agency suits them best. Levelling agencies too much at the formal level in terms of better comparability sounds tempting, but is ultimately counterproductive.
Communicate to agencies how decision making is planned. If a jury is to evaluate, its members should, if possible, be involved in the entire process (screening, briefing, re-briefing, presentation). Smaller juries made up of members who also work with the agency at the end have proven their worth. Since only agencies that meet all basic criteria (references, team/key personnel, etc.) are invited to pitch, the quality of ideas should be weighted most heavily in the evaluation. The fee or price should be included in the evaluation with no more than 30% (good quality often saves more money than haggling over an agency fee). In the interest of transparency, agencies that did not make the cut should be given the opportunity to learn the reasons via a de-briefing.
A serious pitch costs an agency between 30,000 and 100,000 euros (if several employees work for several weeks, this often adds up to hundreds of hours, with larger pitches even over a thousand. Added to this are external costs for layout spots, illustrations, stock images, etc.). Therefore, it is a sign of appreciation that those agencies that have made a full presentation but do not get to bid receive a distance fee. The amount depends on the size of the budget to be allocated and the effort of the presentation. As a guideline, between 2% (for larger) and 3% (for smaller) of the expected annual agency fee has proven to be a lower limit. If the expected annual agency fee is less than EUR 100,000, the effort and costs of a large pitch are disproportionate to the order volume. Then consider reducing the scope of services accordingly or starting a test project with the best-ranked agency from the screening appointments. All rights to the presented ideas and works remain the property of the agencies even with payment of a distance fee.
Rainer Reichl
Founder & Managing Director
