David Littlefield President & CEO
Over the 28 years we have been in the advertising agency business, I have found it particularly interesting, and disturbing, how many RFPs we get from prospects asking for speculative plans and creative work as part of their process to search for a new agency. If they really understood what a disservice this is to them, the practice would abruptly stop.
The client who demands speculative work in the review process puts themselves in a position where they are buying creative campaigns, instead of buying an agency. It becomes a beauty contest, and beauty is in the eye of the beholder. A good friend of mine in my CEO network, Andy Fletcher, president of the Fletcher Martin agency in Atlanta, likes to say, It doesnt matter how well you say the wrong thing.
I echo that sentiment and would add, It doesnt matter what you or I think. It only matters what our customers think and how what we offer them is relevant to them. Spec work, created in a harried agency pitch review environment, cant be the best work because it gets short-changed. It is not a situation where the best thinking and work may be presented. It is a big guessing game, and in the beauty pageant example, is analogous to hoping the judges like the color and style of your swimsuit.
A client looking for a new agency can learn everything they need to know to make the right buying decision if they simply ask this open-ended question, after they have conducted their due diligence and narrowed the list to a few finalists: Convince us you are the best agency to help our brand (fill in the desired outcome).
Clients shouldnt short-change themselves and buy a guess or an ad campaign they particularly like. They should buy a relationship with an agency that has a definitive process that produces the evidence of the most relevant message strategy for their customers, can execute that message strategy in a compelling, engaging way, and is a good fit with their organization. Clients should not ask for spec work and should refuse to view spec work if offered by an agency.
And heres an ironic kicker for you:
In the some 25 years before we stopped jumping through hoops and participated in spec creative pitches, not once, when we won the business, was the spec work we presented ever executed. The clients would want to sit down and start over with the strategic and creative thinking because they werent included in the process with the agency.
Why did that happen? Many clients, in their sense of fair play, wont even meet with the agencies participating in the review until the pitch. Whats wrong with that picture? Thats a rant for another day!
