Pitching Time: Growl, as Agencies Jostle for Accounts

The end of every year is often used by organizations to review their activities to ascertain whether they are on track to meet their targets. In the Integrated Marketing Communication (IMC) sector which normally drives most organization, the stock taking is always intense as marketing is seen as the soul of businesses. It was thus not out of place that pitches were held in the tail end of 2011 and early 2012 by some firms to choose agencies to position or re-position their brands. While some of the pitches were direct and agencies were promptly selected, others were controversial.

Since majority of these multinationals, spend a huge sum of their budget on marketing  activities, most marketing communications agencies engage in tough pitching duels to win such lucrative accounts which not only gives them huge financial rewards but also elevate the profile of such agencies.

Recently, one of the major telecommunications company in the country, MTN, organized a pitch for its media account. This Telecom brand is one of the country’s top three spenders as well as the envy of almost all agencies.  Its retainer’s fee, which is said to be about four hundred million naira per annum, makes the business the darling of every agency.

The final pitch was held early last month with each of three finalists making every effort to clinch the business. The three finalists were the incumbent, Capital media led by Tony Udenze, Emeka Okeke’s Carat Media Perspectives and Starcom Media team led by Ayo Kupoluyi. A delay generated some imbroglio before the account was finally won my media Perspective.

It is not only the MTN media account pitch that generated some tension, the Company’s PR account pitch is also suffering the same fate. For more than three months, participants in the MTN PR pitch that took place about three months ago have been waiting eagerly for the final results. However a recent publication in one of the top national dailies in the country attributed the delay to the some internal crisis within MTN itself between the marketing department and the communications department.

However, a staff of Marketing Mix, one of the agencies reported to have taken part in the pitch claimed there was no call for any pitch. In his words, “As it stands we are handling that account and  we will be doing for the next three years” However Wisdom Key, another PR agency based in South Africa confirmed that there was a pitch last year for the PR account of MTN but  they are yet to get the result.

The pitch for Etisalat’s event account also generated intense rivalry among competing  agencies including Leo-Direct, IMS, Proximity, Tequila,  Chris Parkes Marketing Solution (CPMS) and other notable agencies  . There are also reports that all agencies involved in the pitch have even developed grey hairs following reports that another intimidating event agency IDCL, based in Ikeja GRA is also waiting on the wings to ambush the mouthwatering account.

The lists of recent pitching duels also include Coca-cola and GSK.  For the PR  account of GSK, agencies that  jostled to acquire new accounts include Pauline Fredricks, JSP Corporate Communication, True Contact and a couple of other agencies whose names were not confirmed at the time of this report.

On Coca-Cola, our findings reveal that agencies initially invited for the pitch for Coke media account include Universal McCann (UM) led by Lanre Fasheun, the incumbent that has been able to hold onto the business for about 15 years, , Mindshare led by Austin Enwenmasor and Tony Udenze’s Capital Media. Others include Carat Media Perspectives and Starcom Media led by Emeka Okeke and Ayo Kupoluyi respectively.

While Universal Maccan’s parent company, STB-MacCann was the creative agency on the Coca-Cola business in Nigeria for years, Mindshare’s Prima-Garnet Ogilvy is the incumbent creative agency on the business. However, Capital Media is new on the Coca-Cola business just as Carat MP and Starcom Media.  Suffice to say all these reputable media shops belong to established advertising networks groups in the country.  Each of them is also aligned with and has access to global agency networks with their respective media proprietary tools ready to tackle competition from all angles.

It is regrettable that sometimes pitching games are not played to its rules and ethics. A fair and competitive pitch is part of the process of ensuring that marketing budgets create maximum value for the brand concerned. Agencies can be required to provide more effective creative and/or media communications solutions, more harmonious or constructive working relationships, or to produce greater cost-effectiveness. Pitches enable agencies to grow and challenge the status-quo where dearth of ideas becomes the bane of some firms. If the process is faulty, it can lead to unproductive solutions that have to be undone at great expense and disruption to the brand.

There can be many reasons for a competitive pitch; The term of the existing contract with an agency will expire shortly and a review is mandatory, strategic disagreements or poor creative performance by agencies, underperforming media strategy and/or buying, poor sales results and/or lackluster business performance, dissatisfaction with client servicing, the agency or the client want, or need, to end the relationship for whatever other reason. There will be occasions where the decision to pitch will represent a vote of no confidence on an incumbent agency.

A pitch process is essentially a creative process even if the assignment appears more ‘technical’, as with media – and therefore one that is hard to foresee in every detail. Nevertheless, the client owes it to the competing agencies to maintain a fair process. That means that no agencies should be added to the list during the process. If no agency meets the client’s needs, it is only ethical they should tell them and start a new process. In some instances, pitch fees are paid, but this is very rare in Nigeria. Nonetheless, Coca-Cola Nigeria became the first organization to pay pitch fee when it threw its accounts open in 2008.

Regrettably, many times, pitching in Nigeria can assume a weird and bizarre dimension thus leading to scandals and controversies. Some organizations just take delight in gathering dozens of agencies to pitch for accounts with negligible budgets.

Eminent advertising egghead, Chris Doghudje believes organizations must do a background study on the character of agencies they need before they can zero down to two or three agencies they can then invite to pitch for the business. “In Nigeria, a client will invite 8 or 10 agencies for a pitch” Doghudje Lamented. “Pitching is serious business, not a jamboree. It affects the normal flow of work so no responsible client should get too many agencies involved in a single pitch because it will disrupt a lot of things” he advised.

Aside from disruptive tendencies of bogus pitches, other factors identified by analysts as contributing to scandals and lack of level playing field in most Nigerian pitches include behind- the- scene lobbying using friendship bonds, family ties, religious affinities and socio-political relationships. It is even alleged that few practitioners go to the extent of disparaging competitors before clients just to influence decisions in their favour while some are reported to have sought extra spiritual fortification to edge out rivals during pitches.

It is obvious that in contemporary business environment, business norms, ethics, and principles are fast taking new meanings. As the world shrinks continually into a compact global village, competition is becoming keener and business entities are devising smarter strategies to grow their relevance. This explains why some agencies are prepared to get to the extreme, cross the limits and even do the unthinkable when pitching for a juicy business deal.