Agencies can't fire cheap clients and walk out of speculative pitches. Or can they?
My friend Noelle Weaver of SS+K writes in AdAge about the ongoing and intensifying problem of getting paid for creative work. Agencies have done speculative creative and strategic pitch work for decades, but now crazy marketers, Noelle notes, are asking for real, implemented work at little or no cost to them.
Of course this is unfair but there may be a way we can turn this to our advantage. CP+B, for example, recently struck up a deal with Haggar (the people who invented slacks) where CP+B got a stake in the company in return for their work. If the brand does well, the agency does well.
I think that it actually does our industry good to be setting our ideas free; we just need new ways of making money from them. Our trade works because of its competition of ideas. Without competition spurring invention and culling out the bad ideas, we'd never see the next "Think Differents" or "Subservient Chickens". Competition inside creative departments and against other agencies is what keeps the communications industry valuable to the business world. Try getting creative ideas from management consultants (who are paid for their expertise and their methodical processes)!
But the biggest case for not asking for money upfront for pitches is that the the world at large is changing the way it pays for ideas. Content of all sorts is floating around for free on the internet. The stuff that does best is then deemed worthy of fandom, and it's fandom that pays. That file-sharing music download might make the artist money if a fan ends up buying the CD with the bonus video and free poster. But the point is that content must be free first and the best stuff - the stuff "worthy of their devotion" as Matt Groening of Simpsons fame has said - rises to the top.
That should sound familiar to those of us working on pitches, big and small. It takes a leap of faith to be creative. You have to believe in yourself and the quality of your work. And then you have to believe that the client you are looking for is out there, and will love your work enough to pay you.
Which is where marketers like the one that Noelle cites have got it wrong (particularly the one who thinks that her brand will bestow something magic to the agency's reel, and should get her work for free.) They need to understand that in an American (Pop) Idol world, even William Hung makes money.
David Elsewhere - that guy who can pop and lock all his joints - was a viral video star first, but Volkswagen had to pay him dearly to make Gene Kelly breakdance.
The creativity business is more lucrative than ever; just ask John Wren or Sir Martin Sorrell. Marketers who think otherwise will get what they deserve: crap work and no brand fans.
