Research reveals 70% of clients expect designers to free pitch
- Thread starter scotty
- Start date
Paul Murray
Ultimate Member
Not surprising to be honest, if you don't pitch for free they'll just pick from the ones that do. Offering out a project for tender is also a way to manipulate your current supplier into dropping their rates. A studio I was at last year were pitching something for one of the major football clubs, only to find out the day before the pitch that they were sticking with their current supplier. They'd had a fair few members of staffing working solidly for a week on it and the agency got squat for it.
I know a designer who spent 3 days on ideas for a pitch, including working til midnight to get everything ready, only to find out the day after the pitch that another studio had been awarded the work a week ago and they had no hope of ever winning it. I guess the clients just like to get some extra ideas for nothing. And why not, when the countries top creatives are willing to give them away for nothing.
Also…
I know a designer who spent 3 days on ideas for a pitch, including working til midnight to get everything ready, only to find out the day after the pitch that another studio had been awarded the work a week ago and they had no hope of ever winning it. I guess the clients just like to get some extra ideas for nothing. And why not, when the countries top creatives are willing to give them away for nothing.
Also…
I bloody knew it!
scotty
Ultimate Member
It's my policy not to pitch or work on spec.
I'd rather walk away as people can see what I do from my folio even though it's hard to do so sometimes especially when work is thin on the ground.
That being said, I once did but it was for one of those clients and a job that couldn't be refused.
It was through one of the worlds best known agencies for probably the biggest event (I'm still under an NDA).
It was to design mascots with variants the the main and partner event, show how it's be implemented for billboards and everything else.
I spent just under a week working all hours putting a presentation together.
I didn't get the gig but I was amongst some good company but I was actually quite relieved as it's considered to be a bit of a poison chalice.
Thing is, it's a massive investment to pitch for a project especially if it's a company that has to pay it's staff.
They pay twice. Once for the pitch and then the lost revenue.
You may end up doing more than half the work on a project to get it to a pitch stage.
Just recently I was approached to do a job and agreed.
I got the brief and it was obvious I was pitching against other Designer/Illustrators so I walked.
Say no to spec!
I'd rather walk away as people can see what I do from my folio even though it's hard to do so sometimes especially when work is thin on the ground.
That being said, I once did but it was for one of those clients and a job that couldn't be refused.
It was through one of the worlds best known agencies for probably the biggest event (I'm still under an NDA).
It was to design mascots with variants the the main and partner event, show how it's be implemented for billboards and everything else.
I spent just under a week working all hours putting a presentation together.
I didn't get the gig but I was amongst some good company but I was actually quite relieved as it's considered to be a bit of a poison chalice.
Thing is, it's a massive investment to pitch for a project especially if it's a company that has to pay it's staff.
They pay twice. Once for the pitch and then the lost revenue.
You may end up doing more than half the work on a project to get it to a pitch stage.
Just recently I was approached to do a job and agreed.
I got the brief and it was obvious I was pitching against other Designer/Illustrators so I walked.
Say no to spec!