Don’t ditch the pitch, disrupt the pitch… or yourself
‘Before ditching the pitch, why not ‘flip the pitch’? This is where the revenue terms are agreed upon first, with agencies only proceeding if the numbers add up. Or if you want to ditch the pitch, you had better be prepared to ditch a lot of other things too – but it’s working for Phoebe Netto, founder of Pure Public Relations.
In 2022 the argument about ditching the pitch resurfaced. The problem is that despite the inevitable applause it gets, the advertising industry doesn’t seem to genuinely want to part with the pitch.
Australian agencies spent an equivalent of $1 million on non-billed pitch hours in 2021, winning just over $3 million in new revenue in return on average, according to new data from the Ouch Factor survey.
The hidden costs of pitching in Australia are only getting worse. Agencies are losing money, clients are spending more time on the hunt than on the work, and staff are left despondent, stuck ‘on the bench’ working endlessly on pitches that may or may not go anywhere.
