Ghost Pitches

Week 01

?We received an invite to a pitch for the launch of a new division of a big company. The brand name was good. The project seemed exciting and we considered a response time of 04 weeks as good enough to get us going.

We went through the brief and requested a face to face meeting (Zoom, Teams) to understand the background, the context, and try to enter a dialogue. We also sent our set of questions in time, just in case they prefer that. After multiple follow-ups and nearly two weeks in the process, we finally got a reply terming most of the questions as irrelevant. Taken back a bit, tried to again arrange a meeting, but didn't get the answers. Eventually, someone told us, this is the best the team can respond!

Keeping in mind the magnitude of the pitch and as a start-up always looking for new avenues and opportunities, we went ahead and put a world-class team from the UK, Germany, India, Dubai, and Pakistan to make some head and tail of the brief.

You all know the drill that follows for any pitch. The due diligence, analysis, brainstorming sessions, countless late evenings, debates, tissue paper sessions and the mandatory fights. In the end, we prepared a great response to show the power of purposeful thinking and creativity that was helping to solve a business challenge.

The pitch which was supposed to happen in 04 weeks had now entered the final week, with no sign of the client. To my horror and surprise, we even got the out of office reply from the two key members of the client four days before the earlier confirmed pitch day.

Week 11

Finally, after 10 weeks, the presentation happened virtually. For the first time, we got some good vibes, especially when the senior-most client commented, your response to the challenge is brilliant. It is 90% on the strategy and 88% on the creative. (I still don't know how they got to that %, but then who cares). The other marketing person added we are pleasantly surprised as didn't expect such a brilliant and detailed strategic and creative response. We are simply blown away!

Once our presentation was over, the client even shared the approved internal strategy deck which seemed quite aligned with our proposal. We were told to expect to hear from them in 04 days with the next steps.

Week 15

After a couple of follow-ups, we were informed on a weekend that we didn't make it to the second round! No reason was given other than it is the decision of the team! We tried hard to understand but it was not making any sense.

Gutted obviously with the client’s response, we put on a brave face and informed all the team members who also couldn't comprehend and believe that. They all had so many questions, but we were lost with words to give any reasonable explanation.

Week 16

I don't know what transpired over the weekend, but shockingly received a text message on a Saturday evening that there was some confusion and we have made it to the second round! We were now asked to present to the board in another 10 days' time.

Week 19

We were now presenting to one more person (apparently from the board) after 28 days instead of 10 days. We were amongst the 'lucky' 03 agencies who have made it to this round. We were informed that the pitch process will soon be completed after one more presentation to the owners, 03 days after this presentation!

Week 22

As with the entire timeline, we were past the 20 days mark. Eventually, someone 'unofficially' from the client informed us that they have gone with another agency! No reason was given at all. In this whole saga, the marketing team didn't bother to talk once or responded to any emails. We don't even know what happened to the 90% of the strategy, and 88% on the creative front comment!

Week 26

The decision to award a business entirely lies with the client and we all respect that. In this particular case, it really hurts that the client decided to not even let us know where we failed or lacked despite our repeated requests. I don't know why it is so difficult to respond if the process is completely transparent.

For all the agency start-ups, despite all the passion, hunger, and good intentions, if we continue to accept every brief, we will suffer. Such clients will play with us emotionally, financially, and drain us out. Without any shadow of a doubt, I should have declined the pitch when nobody bothered to reply to the questions properly at the very beginning.

Week 34

Unbelievable, it might sound, last week, we have been again called upon to work on another pitch by the same client. This time around, the sanity prevailed and we decided against pitching. If the client wishes to give us the work, they have already seen our strategic and creative prowess, we don't want to be part of ghost pitches any longer.

In case clients are reading this, agencies deserve equal and fair treatment with respect. It is not hard to show some decency to at least respond, attend phone calls, no matter if you have to give the bad news. We are not harassing you with follow-ups, but it is unfair that you ask for work, take the response and don't bother to even reply.

In this day and age, experiences matter and this is something as an industry we have to come and support. We must stop this bullying and if the client does this, call it out. Client's shouldn't take start-up agencies for a ride. The era of ghost pitches should end for once and all. Like any brief, pitches should be well thought out and be paid by the clients.

Let's all be a little brave and take a stand against this unfair practice together.