Free-pitch and you’re on the road to nowhere

Apart from the economical lunacy of working for nothing on projects, the gamble is not worth it. – I have never known a free-pitch lead to a design consultancy obtaining, at the outset, an account, with an agreed spend over an agreed period, which ad agen

Apart from the economical lunacy of working for nothing on projects, the gamble is not worth it.

I have never known a free-pitch lead to a design consultancy obtaining, at the outset, an account, with an agreed spend over an agreed period, which ad agencies shoot for. Most of the free-pitches are one-off shots.

My other main criticism of free-pitching is that you do not obtain facts, or anywhere near sufficient background, to analyse a company’s objectives, corporate or product, to be able to produce a coherent and conceived answer to support a client’s marketing and sales objectives. You need time to understand, to investigate and research. Most people can only submit “presumed” solutions without any depth of thought.

I have known cases of people winning projects in competition with a company’s main design supplier, but I have never seen the final results that are the same as those presented at the free-pitch.

John Harrison

Senior Partner

Harrison/Zulver

London SW6

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