Alan Gilbody

If you ask a design agency to pitch creative ideas for free, are you approaching the project in the right way and are you going to get the best agency work back?

To free pitch or not, is something each design agency needs to decide based on the return for their initial creative investment.

If the win for the agency is a continued relationship and more paid work with a client over a bigger portfolio of products, then obviously the initial free pitch may be well worth it. The same may not be true, however, for a free pitch on a ‘one-off’ project.

Below are some of the key points that you need to consider before asking your agency to pitch for free…

1. You may not end up with the best agency fit for your project.

Free pitching creative work is part and parcel of the big budget advertising world. However, in this arena budgets are huge and investment of studio time can see rewards in excess of 20 times the initial investment of agency time. There is a huge incentive for agencies to throw their top talent against this free pitch.

Outside this world of ‘super-massive’ budgets, lets take branding and packaging design, agencies are asked to pitch for potential projects with much lower budgets.

The advantage to the client is free creative work, however, if this work is also based around defining a new brand positioning, then a sizeable piece of work needs to be undertaken by the agency well in advance of producing any actual creative or realised ideas.

The fact is, that the best agency to work on your project may ultimately not want to, as they do not want to give ideas away for free.

2. You may not get the best people working on it.

In some design studios, the work on a free pitch often tends to be squeezed in around paying projects and not given as much time as a paid project.

The other factor to look at, is that you may not get the core team on a project, only whoever is available at that point to work on it. Especially if there is a tight deadline and the right people are tied up on paid work.

So realistically, are you getting the full set of deliverables and design breadth of thinking that you would normally get from a paid first creative stage?

3. You will not own the IP of the work.

If you don’t pay for the creative work then put simply, you don’t own what is presented. The IP is retained by the agency that created the work.

We were recently in a situation where we presented work on a paid pitch. We won the pitch and one of the other ideas that we presented was saved for a project further down the line. From the clients point of view that’s a win-win they own everything that was presented including an additional design for a future rollout.

Introducing a pitch fee is one way round this. Therefore, the agency gets paid a reasonable rate for the work that they have produced and the client maintains intellectual property of everything presented at that stage.

So how should you choose an agency?

We always encourage clients to select agencies based on the three C’s: Chemistry, Case studies and Credentials.

Let’s start with Chemistry. A quick phone call for a chat or an online meeting is a great way to dig around and find out – Do I want to work with these people? Don’t forget, that question works both ways!

Secondly, Case studies. The reason that you are talking to the agency in the first place is that you have seen their work and concluded that they are able to do a great job based on previous examples.

Ask yourself, do they need to prove to me that they can do an equally good job on my snack brand, or does the wealth of experience shown in their case studies and design thinking give me enough confidence?

Lastly are agency Credentials. Don’t forget, an agency is also a brand. They have to differentiate themselves and explain why they stand out from the competition and why they are right for you.

Here in the UK, we have a fantastically talented design industry. We are lucky to attract the interest of clients from all over the world. So it’s not just about design ability in an industry filled with talented individuals. Ask your agency what makes them special? What makes them stand out from the crowd? What makes them different?

You can see some of our work here.

We’ve all heard the stories of agencies and designers being briefed on the back of a fag packet or post-it notes. Briefings take many shapes and forms. Some are very thorough, others are very top line and need a lot of digging around work out the objectives.

You can only do a great piece of work if you get a great brief. By a great brief, what I mean is a very detailed explanation of what your key aims are along with any mandatories.

Now, whether you are designing a flavour extension to a product, or repositioning an entire range of FMCG products, the core principles of briefing remain the same. In order to make sure that you are happy with the deliverables, you need to pull together a ‘bobby-dazzler’ of a brief!

So, how do you go about doing this?

You can see what a great brief produces here.

The brand positioning is the story that you tell your consumers. That story needs to have a point of difference, something to differentiate you from your competitor. A product truth, something that you can credibly say about your product. Also a tone of voice, the personality you want to project to the consumer.

Depending on your agency of choice, there may be a variety of ‘trademarked’ tools (ask them for the trademark documentation 😉) and processes in order to get you to brand Valhalla. These usually consist of levels of varying degrees of complexity and bamboozlement with phrases such as ‘retail safaris’ and ‘brand equity analysis audits’. We think it doesn’t need to be that complicated.

What is a brand?

A brand is what your customers perceive about you and how you make them feel. Brand positioning is about developing a unique perception about your brand in the mind of the consumer.

In order to discover the opportunity, it is important to consider:
1) What your product does well (credibility)
2) How you can be different and unique from the competition (differentiation)
3) Research and analyse consumer trends to understand what your consumer needs (relevance)

Be credible.

We begin by identifying the credibility of your brand. This is about specifying what your brand can do well. Do you have centuries of heritage linked to your brand or product, or a bespoke process of creating your products? What makes your product the best in its category? Is there something hidden away in the production process or recipe that can be extracted and highlighted to create credibility?

Be Relevant.

Secondly, we look at the relevance of your brand to your target consumer or identify new ones. This ensures that consumers will understand the benefit and what specific ‘needs’ it answers for them. This stage is all about looking in detail at the consumer. Identifying the target audience and exploring trends to create insights in order to discover consumer needs and behaviour. Here we utilise insights and trends from established research houses.

Differentiate.

We can then explore how well your competitors meet these needs and discover any gaps in how well the various need states are met so as to ensure differentiation. This is important, when we carry out a competitive mapping exercise to help identify any gaps in the market and ensure that you can hold a unique position to your competition.

All of this comes together to identify the unique opportunities for the brand. Using all this information we craft ownable and unique brand propositions, which build the ‘foundations’ of the brand. These detail the brand essence, core belief, product truth and tone of voice.

This is an important basis to not only guide the design, but also everything regarding the brand moving forward.

You can see some examples of this here. There are some more expanded examples on our Behance credentials page.

Most brand owners have been there and asked them self this question. It’s really easy to get complacent and refuse the need for a change to your branding and packaging design because you’re either doing really, or there is no budget. But when is the right time – when you are on the upwards slope or when you are sliding down?

“But we only changed it a year ago.”

Great. But is it working? Has it enticed new consumers and enthused your existing ones? Sure your research group told you that Brian in Leeds and Wendy in North London were ‘uber excited’ but has that excitement played out in consumer world after launch? Or were Wendy and Brian just excited about getting free nibbles at consumer research group. The truth is that you should always be evaluating the brand and packaging on how well it meets consumer needs.

“But surely will cost a lot?”

You might be pleasantly surprised. Ultimately though, It’s an investment. Probably your most important investment as everything you do, create and say will be underpinned by it. The cost is based on what needs doing. It may not need a complete overhaul, just a re-evaluation of the pack architecture or simply more appetising food photography.

“But mine is the best product out there.” 

Sure you have the best tasting cake / pizza / dog biscuits out there. But here is the simple truth, so does everyone who launches a new product. That’s WHY they are launching a new product and that’s exactly why YOU need to stand out in the minds, memories and shopping baskets of the people buying it. Don’t just rely on you being the ‘best’ as all of your competition are, in their minds also the best.

“But it’s always been like this”

Life is change. Everything changes. Brands evolve and consumers evolve. So do their tastes and opinions. The best brands change to become more relevant, to answer new consumer needs or existing needs better. So should you.

“But we have never sold more than we do now. People love us.” 

Great. Hopefully that will continue but great brands remain fresh and constantly innovate. The reason consumers love you is because you met their needs. Consumer needs evolve and change. What is your plan to stay on top of this ever changing market place?

The truth is, its much easier to plan your next ‘big thing’ when you on the upwards trajectory when consumers are on our side, rather than a downwards one when they have moves onto the next big thing.

You can see some examples of our confectionary branding and packaging here. There are some more expanded examples on our Behance credentials page.