14 Comments

To me this feels misplaced. At a time when the industry is trying to make a point that free pitching is bad, and that design should be respected, a 'competition' comes along, which is judged by people from within the industry. What is the difference between a free pitch and a competition?

Don't get me wrong, the Mental Health Foundation is a great cause. I may just be being cynical, but all I can see here is free work for them, and free promotion for the other two organisations. How is this any different to the 2012 Olympic bid logo free pitch/competition, which was so hugely criticised?

If this was aimed at students that is one thing (there is something in it for both sides), but it is aimed at 'creatives', presumably professional? I'd be interested to hear what people think.
Marc
2010-01-15 15:30:56

Are students allowed to enter?
Jennie
2010-01-15 16:01:06

This is a sneaky way of getting your work done for free. It should just be aimed at students not professional creatives. The creatives should boycott this. I know this might feel like sour grapes but come on, we already have to pitch for free!!!!
Ken Walker
2010-01-15 16:23:31

I've checked the rules and it is actually only open to professionals.
Marc
2010-01-15 17:04:21

At one point it was agencies/clients expecting professional photographers to shoot ideas for free so that the agencies/clients could choose the result they liked best before committing themselves to any cost (to them!) - and photographers didn't like it; now a photography agency and their clients are asking agencies/creatives to come up with ideas for free so that the photography agency and their clients can choose the idea they like best before committing themselves to any cost (to them!) - and the agencies/creatives hate it! To echo Marc's comment about respect, I guess we have come full circle - I just can't work out if we are all going forward or backward.
Clive Frost
2010-01-15 18:58:19

The difference between a ‘free pitch’ and a ‘competition’ is quite simple...

The decision to free pitch is based on a commercial assessment attached to revenue. A competition, in this instance, is the decision to invest your time for no financial gain. The prize is recognition, and to have your creative work produced by others who have also invested their time and money.

A charity doesn’t have money that’s why your time and quality of creative thinking is invaluable and that is transparently laid out from the outset.

The decision to ‘free pitch’ is based on Return and Value. The most important part of that assessment is intellectual property - your ideas and quality of ideas which is what every creative, whether in design or advertising, needs to protect with a vengeance because, this is the VALUE that is abused. Especially if it is attached to revenue and sales of a client.

The brief says creative ideas not highly finished mac visuals. This is about quality thinking not draining resource.

In considering a pitch if the revenue isn’t there you look for the PR opportunity. It may not have the cash but can I get this out in the industry or does this look good on our client list thereby adding value to the company. Well here’s your opportunity.

Traditionally, charity work is the opportunity for the creative industry to do the work they would like to do.
They enter it for awards and if it is as good as the originators think it is, it will be recognised. You will be accredited with being an award winning shop/individual with award winning creative thinking. If you’re commercial enough you can convert that into revenue.

Fight the fight for ‘the end to free pitching‘ but this is a competition. At the least you don’t have to waste your time psychoanalysing the agenda of a Marketing Director and his company.
Adrian
2010-01-15 21:17:59

Funny that the people that complain about having "to pitch for free" (As Adrian stated correctly, this isn't a pitch but a competition) find the time to go and comment onto blogs about how they feel about this cruel, cruel world.

"Free promotion for other two organizations (Marc)":
Yes, you are being cynical. Just try to think what would happen if one would follow your take on this. Should all companies now stop getting involved in helping good causes because cynical Marc has a problem with this kind of self promotion? Yes, companies often try to put themselves to appear in a better light by taking actions like this. But after a project like this someone has been helped with (in this case Mental Health Foundation). But I really don't think that a photographers agent has to start these initiatives to polish his "bad reputation". It seems more like other people already put their expertise and recourses to a good cause for free and now ask others to join in.

If you don't want to enter, don't. You sound like you would be forced to take part.
I very much agree with the lovely statement of Adrian. very well written and commented.
Ramiro Giselic
2010-01-16 13:48:09

I agree, well said Adrian, but Marc and Ken... its a competition, and it's for charity!!! it's like saying don't enter your images into photography awards as that would be free pitching! It's not an invitation to pitch for business, but an opportunity for creatives in design and advertsing to get recognition through a competition. Like all creative competitions of course it's free publicity for those involved, so what...it's for charity, and the agency running it are clearly investing their time for free too!
Stuart
2010-01-18 17:19:09

Would they ask a plumber to install new toilets in their bathrooms for free? No... it is wrong on so many levels. In no way do I mean to crticise the work the charity do but I am totally fed up with this cheapening of what we do for a living.

It should at least be open to students too to give it any gravitas. And competitions usually have a prize, don't they???
Jonathan
2010-01-19 12:33:00

No... of course you wouldn't ask a plumber to install a new toilet for free, however... you might invite plumbers (who are interested, that is) to show how skilled they are at installing a toilet as part of a competition, that will be on display all over the country in posh showrooms for other plumbers to admire for 2 weeks (only). Especially if it's for a good cause, say- for people without toilets, and potentially some of the most esteemed plumbers in the business will hear of your work?

If your not into competitions to raise your profile for charity, don't enter, but this is not free pitching, it's a competition!
Ben D
2010-01-21 12:28:44

Ben D – What rubbish, are you a designer? read the brief (maybe you wrote it) they want everything from concepts to days of your time to art direct the campaign to finished artwork. The thing that rubs me is that it isn't a 'competition' open to all (only experienced, qualified creative professionals/agencies)... Why is that? I suspect they made it a 'competition' rather than approach an agency to work pro bono (something I have done many times and know most agencies do) because it suits their purpose, they will get lots of creative ideas rather than the 2 or 3 options they get from an agency. Also agencies won't free pitch for pro bono work and this is what this is maybe done maybe (I hope) unwittingly.

Also a 'competition' should be a chance for students and junior designers to improve their portfolio of work if they opened it to them then I wouldn't have a problem with it, 15 years ago I would have probably entered.

Of course you are right I can choose not to enter, I won't and I urge people who respect what they do for a living to not enter either or to contact the charity direct and offer their services for free BEFORE you do any creative work.
Jonathan
2010-01-21 14:33:32

I can totally understand that as an established creative you may not want to enter this competition. I'm just starting out, so for me this provides a great opportunity to possibly see my work on a billboard. It's interesting for me to see peoples comments on working for free, especially when you consider the amount of young creatives and students who take on unpaid placements and give their ideas away for free and agencies don't bat an eye at that, it's expected. I do agree that the competition should have been open to students.
Sally
2010-01-22 11:18:39

I can totally understand that as an established creative you may not want to enter this competition. I'm just starting out, so for me this provides a great opportunity to possibly see my work on a billboard. It's interesting for me to see peoples comments on working for free, especially when you consider the amount of young creatives and students who take on unpaid placements and give their ideas away for free and agencies don't bat an eye at that, it's expected. I do agree that the competition should have been open to students.
Sally
2010-01-22 11:30:08

Some interestingly mixed views!

To come back on this, I don't have a problem with competitions, working for charities or pro bono work. I also have to admit that we do occasionally pitch for free, if we think the resulting job is great enough. My point with this is that it is somewhere between a totally open competition, and a pitch for a job. Adrian, I agree with many of your sentiments, but you end with "At the least you don’t have to waste your time psychoanalysing the agenda of a Marketing Director and his company" for this – but that is exactly what you have to do, it is effectively a marketing brief. It is not like a photography competition where you must enter something that you have already taken and be judged on it, or an open brief competition where you must make, say, a film, and the result of which could be used by you for many other purposes beyond the competition/brief. The solutions to this will only be relevant to this, because it is a marketing brief.

There are many companies that are happy to work on a pro bono basis for charities, whether this be in whole or in part. At least with this relationship both sides can agree what they want to get out of a project, often with fantastic results. For me, this is not that.
Marc
2010-01-29 15:20:20

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