What happens when an agency wins a pitch but fails to deliver on the promises that secured the account?

For Dr. Rotimi Olaniyan, Principal Consultant at Apex Marketing UK Ltd. and Programme Director of a postgraduate marketing programme at Nottingham Business School, the real test of an agency’s value lies beyond impressive presentations, but in its strategic thinking, operational capacity, resources and ability to deliver measurable results.

He therefore urges clients to prioritise proven competence and proper due diligence when selecting advertising partners.

His position comes amid the growing debate between global advertising groups Publicis and WPP over conventional agency pitching and the scrutiny required when major accounts are awarded.

While WPP Chief Executive Officer Cindy Rose has questioned agency appointments without sufficient due diligence, Publicis has challenged the effectiveness of traditional competitive pitches in evaluating prospective partners.

In an interview with MARKETING EDGE, Olaniyan, the Programme Director said Rose had a legitimate point but stressed that an impressive pitch does not guarantee effective delivery.

He explained that some agencies produce spectacular presentations but fail to match their promises with the actual client experience.

Conversely, agencies can build successful relationships through sustained engagement, demonstrated competence and mutual understanding without necessarily participating in conventional competitive pitches.

According to him, clients must assess agencies’ resources, strategic understanding, operational capacity and ability to meet business objectives before making appointments.

“The absence of a formal pitch should not be confused with the absence of competitive discipline or commercial scrutiny.”

He therefore emphasised that due diligence must remain central to every agency selection process, irrespective of the method adopted.

On developments in the global advertising industry, Olaniyan observed that holding companies were increasingly integrating creative, media, experiential, public relations, data, technology and artificial intelligence capabilities to provide broader solutions.

He said clients now expect agencies to contribute to business growth, customer acquisition, market penetration, brand equity and marketing productivity, rather than limit their services to advertising ideas and media planning.

For Nigerian agencies, the experiential marketing veteran said the challenge was to combine global technology and data capabilities with a deep understanding of local consumer and commercial realities.

He identified purchasing power, informal retail networks, route-to-market structures, media consumption and cultural diversity as factors that demand locally relevant solutions.

“The successful Nigerian agency of the future will combine access to world-class technology and data capabilities with deep local consumer and commercial intelligence.”

He added that local agencies must expand beyond traditional creative and media execution by strengthening their capabilities in business strategy, consumer intelligence, technology and integrated marketing solutions.

Addressing regulation, he acknowledged the role of the Advertising Regulatory Council of Nigeria’s Advertising Industry Standard of Practice (AISOP) in guiding agency engagement, including credentials presentations, creative presentations, strategic proposals, pitching and compensation.

However, he cautioned against interpreting the regulation of pitching as a requirement for every client appointment to follow the conventional competitive process.

He argued that industry standards should evolve with technology and commercial realities while promoting transparency, professionalism and fair compensation.

He also raised concerns about speculative pitching, maintaining that agencies should not be expected to invest substantial resources in creative concepts and strategic proposals without appropriate compensation.

Again, he affirmed that their professional contributions and intellectual property deserve protection.

As an alternative to presentation-led selection, the marketing specialist proposed that clients could give two or three shortlisted agencies clearly defined business challenges, supported by appropriate anonymised data, and assess their proposed solutions.

Such exercises, according to him,could reveal their analytical abilities, strategic thinking and capacity to improve campaign effectiveness and marketing returns.

He also identified structured capability assessments, paid proof-of-concept assignments and measurable performance benchmarks as useful selection methods.

However, he stressed that these approaches require transparent evaluation criteria, appropriate data governance and fair compensation.

On whether traditional pitching was becoming obsolete, Olaniyan said it was evolving rather than disappearing.

He maintained that competitive pitches would remain relevant when clients sought new brand platforms, alternative creative approaches or agency partners for unfamiliar markets.

He noted that creativity, cultural sensitivity, strategic judgement and client-agency chemistry remained important considerations that could not be entirely reduced to algorithms or quantitative scorecards.

Nevertheless, he said agency selection was shifting towards greater emphasis on demonstrated capabilities and evidence of performance.

Identifying technology, economics and the changing agency value proposition as key drivers, he explained that artificial intelligence was reshaping how marketing services were produced and assessed.

Meanwhile, clients faced increasing pressure to demonstrate returns on marketing investments, while agencies contended with the rising costs of competitive pitching.

He further observed that agencies were assuming broader responsibilities in data infrastructure, technology platforms, consumer intelligence and business transformation.

Consequently, clients were increasingly assessing them as strategic and technology partners rather than simply advertising service providers.

Olaniyan projected that future agency selection would combine selective competitive reviews, paid pilot assignments, direct capability assessments and performance-oriented procurement.

He said Nigerian agencies and clients could benefit from more transparent and commercially sensible processes that prioritise competence, accountability and fair assessment.

Reinforcing his position, the Nottingham Business School programme director urged clients to pay less attention to how impressively agencies present their proposals and more attention to their ability to deliver.

“We should spend less time evaluating how well agencies pitch and more time evaluating how well they can actually perform,” he said.