Confused.com is the exception that proves the rule. According to reports the client offered to purchase the ideas from agencies involved in its recent competitive pitch process after the pitch had taken place.

Clients might be in favour of payment for pitching when polled in a survey but the reality is very different. Why would a client pay when there are plenty of firms lining up to pitch for free?

The issue is the oversupply of PR agencies; for every agency that wants to charge there will always be an agency willing to pitch for free. As a result the cost of pitching is priced into an agency’s overhead. Many agencies probably haven’t even considered the financial impact.

The only way this could work would be if the industry switched wholesale to a payment for pitching model under the campaigning leadership of an organisation such as the PRCA or PR Week.

The research is based on a survey of 186 PR agencies by Furlong PR.

Related posts:

• Sorrell: Free pitching – fixture of the marketing industry (8 October 2009)
• Could the D&AD be a model for payment-for-pitching in the PR industry? (23 September 2009)
• Pitch lessons from other marketing services sectors (23 September 2009)