Design Week reported today that free pitching is on the increase - not a good thing to hear as far as I'm concerned. I can't say I'm entirely surprised though, with tighter budgets and more agencies popping up every day, our market is becoming tougher than ever before. New young agencies, and freelancers, I'm sure also contribute to this reported increase of free pitching.
The Design Industry Voices survey questioned a (rather modest) number of designers (496) and 71% of them said clients expected more free creative work at the pitch stage.
The age old free pitching debate I fear, will never go away. And like so many trials and tribulations we go through as owners of design agencies, big and small, if we worried about every possibility we'd never get any work done! And it is for this reason I enter this new year with hope, optimism and my head held high when I refuse non paid creative pitches.
We sell ideas, the shoe shop sells shoes, and the baker sells bread. But if you asked to try a pair of shoes for a few days to see if they made you look good, or indeed asked for a free loaf of bread to see if it filled you up as promised - I'm fairly sure you'd be laughed out of the shop.
It is madness that our industry allows itself to be de-valued by giving away our 'materials' - our IDEAS for free on the basis that we might win the work. Why, when so many industries work fine by presenting what they do, how they do it, showing relevant case studies, estimating how much it will cost the customer and moving forward from there?
I wonder if this is all our own fault? Creatives love creating solutions to problems, and wether it's a discussion over a pint in the pub, or a new brief from a client - we can't help but run away with ourselves coming up with ideas, problems, solutions and all that pretty stuff we call design. And over the years has this become more evident to clients? That this natural desire to create can be exploited, because frankly, we love it. Ironic though, that free pitching will only continue to drive up the cost of design - are clients even aware of that? For every free pitch an agency might win, they might have lost 3 others - where do clients think the cost of the lost pitches will be recouped? Probably on their bill I'm afraid.
Clients know we love designing, and (for some brands) know that we'd all fall over ourselves to work with them. So they know we're keen and raring to go, and because of our natural desire to create, over the years I think the free pitching situation has become accepted by some design agencies because it's the only way to win those big, desirable clients - and frankly, we love a challenge - and winning!
But I think design has never been stronger in business terms, and this should enable us to fight back and be respected like the shoe shops and bakeries (where AM I going with this metaphor?!). Most agencies can now prove how their input has helped to grow their client's business. And I think this clear illustration of ROI from design is still a relatively new thing for clients, certainly the ones we deal with. But by presenting great case studies, being aware of design as a business tool, showing returns, your processes and being clear in briefs and deliverables there should be no reason you can't win work without new creative ideas. And no reason for clients not to feel comfortable appointing an agency based on a credentials pitch.
We do not support free pitching, and we turn it down regularly. And I think it's far more interesting to see how we're developing as an agency by having to communicate our processes and case studies better, in order to win clients.
I'd like to take this opportunity to highlight the great work the Design Programme are doing to help battle the free creative pitching debate, please do check out their website. And the original article from DW can be found here.
I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this one too so please don't hesitate to drop me a line on here or by email: studio@makedesignenjoy.co.uk
Thanks for reading,
Karl.
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