Firstly, I should say that these views are personal, and not a reflection of CIN’s views. Important to say that straight up top, as I am attempting to discuss a topic which is highly divisive in the creative sector.
On a number of occasions we have been asked to submit designs for projects before we’ve been commissioned to do the work. To add to this, we’re not the only company who has been asked. Speculative work (or Free Pitching) is a wide spread practice in the creative sector. A project for one of Derby’s largest institutions saw around 10 design agencies pitch for branding and web design work. For every winner there are nine losers. Whilst talking to one of our compatriots about our decision to decline the invitation to pitch, we were told that to compete with the big boys we needed to think like them.
Think like the big boys?
I recently asked Erik Spiekermann for his advice to any designers considering taking on speculative work. His response, simply; “Do not, ever.”
Speculative work is a stain on our sector. So why do we allow it to happen?
We allow it to happen because we can’t sell. Creative people don’t always make the best business people. We don’t think we’ve got what it takes to convince people on the merits of our record that we are worth hiring. So in a last vain attempt, we give away our most prized assets (our ideas) in the hope that someone might recognise their genius and agree to pay for them. The problem is, when we give our ideas away for free, we give away any ounce of credibility we ever had. I’ve had fellow designers tell me how they’ve been screwed by clients who’ve taken their concepts and given them to another company to reap the benefits. I experienced this myself when I worked for a previous employer; one of my rejected designs for a company later became the layout for their website, without permission or payment of any kind. They’re angry, I’m angry, but can we blame people for taking advantage of us when we ourselves don’t value our most prized assets?
What about charity?
If opinions are split already, I’m going to split them again. Some people think Spec work is bad, but not when it comes to charity. I’m going to disagree again. If a charity approaches you to do some free work, then fair enough, it’s your call. But if a charity approached us, as well as ten other agencies, or gave an open invite on the web, I’d respectfully decline. I think it’s wrong to waste so many companies valuable time and assets. I’d much rather they chose who they want to work with and stick with them, have faith in them, and allow them to see it through.
Pitching process
If we’re asked to pitch for business by presenting previous work, and by discussing our overall approach, that’s absolutely fine. We’re excited talk to people about why we do what we do, why we’re different from others, and how we can help them best achieve their goals. We want to work with good people, who have great ideas and great businesses. People who share our values, value our time, and recognise the power of good design. If they can’t hire us based on our credentials, and they want to see some sort of mock-up, they’ve shown they don’t value or understand our process, and they probably aren’t the clients we are looking to work with.
We recently interviewed a graduate for a position in the studio. When we mentioned that we do not take part in free pitching, the student looked shocked, “That’s a radical stance.” It’s sad that students are not being taught the value that design has and the power they possess as designers. When we participate in these design competitions/lotteries, we make things worse for ourselves and future generations.
Of course, this problem will not go away, it has infected our industry from top to bottom. Some companies have become very good at playing the game and have a vested interest in keeping the system as it is. I do not expect this article to change the status quo, I’m not that naive. I’ve sat with other designers for hours discussing and debating this issue, and whilst people may agree it’s not a great situation, they don’t want to be left out, and are happy to accept things the way they are. The only way the status quo will change is if everyone in our sector says “ENOUGH” and “NO MORE.” The problem is, there will always be someone who’s willing to work for free in an attempt to impress a potential new client. We’ve lost work where we were in a prime position to win because we refused to put forward some free ideas as a goodwill gesture, and someone else was. It costs something to stick by your principles. May the best designer win? Rubbish. The best ideas don’t always get chosen; clients can be subjective rather than objective, an existing relationship can help sway things, and sometimes it comes down to who’s cheapest.
I’m convinced more than ever that refusing to pitch is the right thing for our business. I would rather spend my time working with clients who value and respect our time enough to pay us, than play the design lottery. If a client doesn’t want to pay for your professional time, that client isn’t worth working for, I don’t care who they are!
Thanks for reading.
Andy Cogdon
Cogdon, Clark & Tranter
Twitter @cctcreative
P.S. Ok, so I know I’ve been reasonably provocative in the discussion. As I said, these are my views, not necessarily CIN’s. BUT… What do you think? Do you agree/disagree? Am I an idealist, or do I need to get with the real world? Please comment on this blog to engage with the discussions, or if Twitter is more your persuasion, #nospec will put you in the thick of it.
For further information, visit www.no-spec.com
I agree with Erik. Engaging in spec work is a waste of time for everyone involved (unless your business is a website selling contest listings and encouraging designers to work for free).
I agree Andy. We were suckered in to ‘free pitching’ when we were starting up and it just lead to us spending time and money on something completely un-worthwile. The briefs are always just that – brief, meaning you cannot provide the same understanding of the clients needs you would normally do, therefore taking a shot in the dark with the design just ‘hoping’ they like it.
I know spec work isn’t the same as generally doing free work but I like this site all the same…
http://www.shouldiworkforfree.com/
I totally agree. Freebies are rearing their ugly heads left and right these days. Any prospect that asks you to do work for free isn’t even à client to begin with
I wholeheartedly agree with everything you’ve written. The entire “think like the big boys” mentality is sad, and pisses me off big time.
I have to say I’m pretty convinced by your argument. I’d also add (I’m frequently a commissioner of major design/digital contracts) that in my experience agencies who provide design proposals – for websites especially – end up causing a lot of division for the client. I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve explained to executives that a particular agency has the right skills, experience, capacity, geographical presence etc. only to descend into an argument because “yeah, but they had a map on the homepage, and I hate maps” or somesuch – try explaining it’s only a visual, agencies weren’t asked to provide a visual anyway, it’s not part of the selection criteria etc. Honestly, the times I’ve been frustrated by this are countless.
Combatting this culture isn’t easy though. See this for an example of where a client resorted to threats to enforce a spec competition: http://www.heraldscotland.com/mobile/news/politics/2014-chief-was-sidelined-after-fall-out-with-salmond-1.1108812
Be interested to know what others think of ‘competitions’ like this. Personally, I think they’re exploitative and unethical.
I agree entirely and frankly I’m surprised that your opinion could be considered provocative. I gather that doing this kind of nonsense is more common among younger designers nowadays. Just crazy.
I want to comment because I was one of those responsible for the ten agency bid mentioned and I feel it is appropriate to comment from an informed position. Incubation at the University of Derby wanted a new integrated brand to support our 70+ tenants and develop business opportunities. We invited all our tenants in the creative field to participate and all the companies we had already dealt with. There was a comprehensive brief with full budget details. 10 chose to “pitch”. This pitch was based upon the chosen new name for incubation and we needed to understand what these 10 creatives interpreted as the best brand approach to make it unique and effective.
For us the fairest way was to see the proposals and meet each of the teams. We met each and made a choice based on a rigorous matrix covering the spending regulations for a public sector organisation and all the creative aspects. There were six people on the review panel including creative and professional marketing experts.
We chose a small local creative agency because their ideas and execution wowed us. That unavoidably means 9 disappointments. But whether you pitch or not there is only one winner.
If agencies had randomly come to “sell” to us we could not have got the huge breadth of input that we did and the companies would not have had the creative opportunity.
Ultimately we chose the pitch method because we could buy a known output – you can buy a great agency but that never guarantees their work is great for you.
So we paid for our design, it wasn’t the cheapest but it was the best. We have taken NOTHING from any of the 9 other pitches and we have created a brand new working relationship.
So our experience was excellent.
When we sent the invitation 10 companies chose to pitch and 1 didn’t.
Thanks for everyone who’s commented here. We’ve had loads of feedback and responses on Twitter.
Thanks for your post Robin. It’s interesting to hear the response from a client’s point of view.
As stated in the article, we were the one and only company who declined to pitch. We are in the minority, but so far the majority haven’t spoken up. It would be very interesting to hear from some of the creative companies who chose to pitch. What was their experience; positive/negative? Would they do it again?
Post here or drop us a line on Twitter @cctcreative
Can’t agree more, just been stung myself last week we sorted rubbish artwork out for client and they then took it to another printer, gutted!!!
Robin, here is some ethical guidance for public sector organisations when selecting designers http://bit.ly/mhvAUj
In my opinion, Derby University has ripped off 9 young creative businesses. Businesses that it professes to support. For me, that is the worst part. I would like to ask if the review panel and professional marketing experts were paid, or did they give up their time for free too? I disagree that you have taken NOTHING from the other pitching companies. Ideas take time. It is a professional process and should be treated as such. On a more positive note though, the businesses who lost out in the pitch might have learned a valuable business lesson. Don’t work for free!
Excellent article, agree with everything. Really interesting to see both sides too.
Andy, I’m not a designer, but I am a freelance copywriter and socia media consultant. I have often been asked to provide work on spec…it usually goes something like, “Write one article on this subject and submit it as proof of your work.” Sure! Me and 50 other people will each send you a ‘free’ article…and then why would you need to hire anyone?
One’s portfolio, references, recommendations, etc. suffice as proof of one’s abilities. There is absolutely no good reason a confident, experienced freelancer should agree to perform work on spec.
You have to also consider what ‘free pitch’ work is saying to your existing clients too.
Why should a potential new client who decides to rock up asking for some spec ideas get free time, whilst your existing clients are still charged at an hourly rate for the same service? It’s not on quite frankly.
And this idea of ‘if you want to compete with the big boys then you need to think like them’ attitude is slightly unrealistic. Fine if your business has the resources to be able to do hours and hours of spec work, but mine doesn’t and I’m pretty sure most other small design studios don’t either. And any small business that spends it’s time doing everything for free isn’t going to be around for very long it has to be said.
[...] Why we never do spec work « The CIN Blog. [...]
I certainly respect yours and the view points of the other contributors to your blog – as we said last night Andy at Friar Gate studios it’s certainly not a fresh topic is it? As promised though here’s my opposing view.
Your blog explained your stance that you “respectfully decline” offers to pitch and went on to outline “we’ve lost work where we were in a prime position to win because we refused to put forward some free ideas” really tables my argument.
Let’s talk straight, with pitching you can either suck it up and get on with it or not. No one agency declining is going to make a jot of difference overall to this working practice is it? If you and your agency want to work on a certain brand/sector/client and that’s the way your prospect wishes to run the selection process then that’s what you’ve got to do. In fact in this current market I’ve noted lawyers, accountants and other professional services firms approaching our agency offering “to prove themselves” with no commitment of winning our business.
BCS has been running for 16 years following an MBO from the now WPP owned Grey Communications. From day one our strategy was always to pitch for work, but to try and ensure you had at least a 20% advantage in a pitch situation. Sometimes that easy through your network/past expertise/previous relationships etc. Sometimes you need to be a little more “creative” in gaining that edge. Oh yes, and sometimes you get it wrong – as I believe we were one of the ten you refer to in your first paragraph!
However, if you believe you are a strong competitor and your team are engaged and wants to win/work on a great piece of business. If you know that winning is going to enhance your agencies reputation and increase your fee income then you go for it. Massively. Insight, strategy, asset creation, campaign deployment, mock ups – the works.
Like Andy said I don’t think pitching is going to vanish but it’s for us as businesses to decide if/what we pitch for and make a stand for what we think is acceptable, along with what will get the best results.
Over the last 10 years we have worked with a variety of clients, across a range of projects – some of which we have pitched for and others whom have appointed us based on our approach & credentials.
If you are on client side, I think it’s fair & professional to short list after a credentials presentation and out of those, if you really need to see ideas, then ask 3 agencies to pitch strategy/creative IF the size of the opportunity warrants the time investment. For example asking 11 agencies to pitch creative for a £6,000 project is disproportionate, as if you collectively worked out the time those agencies have put in it would amount to over £22,000. ( taking an average of 4 days, so take an average of £2000 per agency)
In defence of the University of Derby, we have worked with the central Marketing Department and they do normally take this approach, inviting agencies which they feel are suitable for the project following credentials. So not quite sure what happened on this particular one.
Whilst we are talking of pitching, I felt it only right that I mention Bombardier’s pitch to Thameslink, which was I believe was over a 6 years period for them for a contract value 1.4 billion. That is a no doubt, a large carrot worth pitching for, and understand that it’s what their industry is used to doing – along with many others, the total investment to do that pitch was over 100 million pounds – so around 7% of the contact value. They made a business decision to go for it, there are other which they don’t go for. (So it’s not just our industry that pitch!). So on top of the horrendous decision by our British government that they have not currently being awarded the Thames Link contract, 1500 job losses, potentially ending our UK train manufacturing industry & they also have to account for all the time gone into bidding process. You can help try to reverse this decision by our government by visiting http://www.facebook.com/#!/pages/Thameslink-Protest/118345774919703
Pitching seems part of the world and for large accounts appointing the right agency is a huge decision for a Marketing Director – what produced is reflected directly on them, so it’s important that a process is gone through to find the right agency BUT it’s also important that the appointment process is done to best practice and proportionate to the value of the contract. And back to my first point, it’s important for agencies to decide how, if and what projects they go for.
A great topic for continued discussion.
Andy, Russ – It’s 3 weeks on and interestingly none of the 9 have acknowledged positive or negative feelings. One in fact did respond but made a general point in support of pitching but didn’t mention the University. Murray makes a really good agency point and Dawn an excellent industry in general point.
In answer to the Russ question we were all on paid time! Undertaking work that we felt was necessary to be FAIR from our perspective. If any of us felt we were ripping someone off we wouldn’t do it and I think such negative emotional remarks try to paint us as something we are not. One of the crucial rules for the public sector is that anything over £3000 has to go out to tender – the purpose of this is to prevent corruption i.e. deals with “mates” and the negatives that can come with this.
I have personally been involved in pitches from the delivery side worth many many millions of pounds. We had a simple metric for success, putting some science behind the win some lose some analogy. If you didn’t pitch you didn’t exist – the end.
Firstly, I’m pleased to admit we pitch for work. As a creative agency born on the back of acquiring my first Mac in 1985, when agencies were few and far between (probably only a dozen in Derby), it was quite feasible to be paid a fee towards a pitch process.
Secondly, if I can turn by baseball cap round for a minute, and look at this from a client ‘who is spending public money’ point-of-view then quite frankly, their hands are bound by regulation, rather than a desire to waste designers time and with it the ability to earn an honest living.
The decision on whether Origination pitches for a project is based initially on the content of the brief itself. If we find the brief to be concise, informative, appears to be factually accurate and creates a level playing field, then I’m confident our strategy and creativity will stack up against anyone. Therefore we will be in with a fighting chance of winning and probably continue the process.
On the other hand, if as we’ve found on the odd occasion recently, a brief contains elements that are inaccurate, unfair or disproportionate to the value of the project, then we politely decline and go again.
The mid-point for me would be for ‘agencies’ to respond to a tender opportunity, receive a brief in return and submit their credentials in such a way to best demonstrate their ability to meet the clients requirements. The client should then be willing to ‘pay a nominal fee’ to each selected agency, therefore demonstrating a willingness to commit on both sides from the start.
‘Enough’ and ‘no more’ ! Couldn’t agree more with you !
It will be a momentous day in the design world when a client never asks for spec work, every again.
Great article and the more agencies say NO (collectively) the better for everyone it will be.
We have to pitch work to survive – it’s a necessary evil of the profession we’re in.
In a way, it is lost time if you don’t win the work, but the creative process you go through to complete a brief can go on to inform other projects in the future. It’s not something I like doing as an employee, and often leaves a sour taste when it’s not a ‘won’ project. With any business, there’s a feeling you’re being taken advantage of in having to work for free. I am much more in favour of requesting a ‘nominal’ fee to cover the creative time taken to produce pitch work, but understand that not every organisation has the luxury to pay these fees to a number of competing studios.
Another scenario would be that before the client looks to creative studios for work, they meet and speculate that their may be pitch work soon by conduct a round of preliminary discussions. This way, the client gauges how suitable a studio is to win a given pitch, and the time-waste factor is kept to a minimum for the ump-teen studios who don’t stand to gain a contract/project from the work.
It’s a very interesting discussion that won’t go away.
Thanks for this, just helped me make-up mind about a pitch i thought to be cheeky at best, a waste of lots designers’ time at worst. yep stick to your guns everyone!