[No Comment] Questioning the creative pitching process

Should the creative pitching process continue as is or is it doing too much damage to the industry? These are questions asked by two different columnists on Bizcommunity.com recently, in case you didn’t catch it, what with all the load shedding and public holidays that have kept many from regular hours at their desks! First, Thendo Ratshitanga, exec chair of Tshirundu Communications outlined the arduous process Government puts agencies through in the pitching and tender process in a brilliant article. His view is that organisations must have stringent processes to evaluate bids and give sufficient time for agencies to submit their best effort, and that where there is apparent abuse in the frequency and shambles that seems to be the Government tender process that it should be reviewed by the Public Finance Management Act (PFMA) and Auditor-General as “fruitless and wasteful expenditure”. In a separate article, Bizcom’s marketing guru, Chris Moerdyk, warns against giving away your intellectual capital in endless pitches which are sometimes a smokescreen for clients to harvest ideas. He remains surprised why clients don’t all go for credentials-only pitches, when there are such success stories out there and that the industry should discourage creative and strategy pitches. Join the debate by adding your voice to this week’s poll: Should creative pitches be banned?.

Here’s to an uninterrupted working month!

Louise Marsland, editor@bizcommunity.com
Marketing news: marketingnews@bizcommunity.com

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This column originally published 5 May 2008.