EXMAN backs pitch fee payment, tasks clients on rejection without compensation
The hard financial costs of the pitch process was once again brought to fore at the Experiential Marketers’ Association of Nigeria’s (EXMAN) recently concluded 2020 Annual General Meeting (AGM). After reaching a consensus, the group stated that organisations inviting experiential marketing agencies for pitch should prepare to pay N500, 000 as rejection fee to the agencies not picked.
A single market pitch can take several thousand billable hours of agency time and can cost a lot of money in non-recoverable costs. However, agencies often allege that clients use their ideas, after rejection, on many occasions without proper compensation or acknowledgement.
Specifically communicating the group’s resolution at the AGM, Tade Adekunle, EXMAN President, stated that rejection fee be paid to the group’s members after attending a pitch, considering the level of research, creativity and funding that goes into the ideas presented to clients. To support the President’s position, some EXMAN members who were present at the meeting alleged that some organisations usually end up appropriating concepts presented at a pitch without giving credit to the owners or paying for it.
In his words: “When you invite 17 or 18 agencies to come and pitch for a business they will only take one or two agencies and thereafter you will start seeing some of the ideas that some of the rejected agencies have given. Also, when agencies go for pitch they incur cost on research, creatives and others.
“So, the association has decided that clients can ask for the profile of the various agencies, and then they can say this agency is good enough to work for us instead of calling 20 agencies to come and pitch.”
Mr. Adekunle explained further that if organisations write back that they can’t pay rejection fee, no EXMAN member would partake in such pitch, adding that if corporate organisations champion corporate governance, then it will be unethical to ask agencies to wave rejection fee.
He added that members must have informed the association secretariat that they are invited for a pitch and EXMAN would write the client who must have agreed to pay the fee before embarking on the pitch process.
However, he stated that members cannot say they don’t want the rejection fee from client, warning that if such happens, they would have to face disciplinary committee.
“For our members, the resolution taken here today cannot be waved. You can’t say no to a rejection fee. What the association is saying is that you cannot wave that. If you don’t collect it, you will face the disciplinary committee of EXMAN,” he emphasised.
During the AGM, EXMAN inducted some new agencies into its fold, which includes Bloow48 Invents Limited, Lilvera Group, Boomerang, Ipanache and Ziing Marketing.
Rosemary Akpo, MD, EXP Nigeria was elected the Publicity Secretary of the association because the position was vacant while Tade and the incumbent executives were applauded and members moved a motion that they continue the leadership of the association.
As part of its programmes for the year, the association had Experiential Marketing Conference (#EXM2020), a day before its AGM, to chat a way forward for industry players and the marketing world and had large attendance from across the world. The conference, which was held August 13 on Zoom, was themed, “Defying Gravity: The Future of Customer Experience Marketing”.
The experts at the conference tasked experiential marketing agencies, others on innovative consumer experience, collaboration and others amid COVID-19 pandemic.
Ose Osundeko, Group Head Digital Marketing, Fidelity Bank Plc and keynote speaker who spoke on “Using digital to transform the customer experience” said it is imperative for brands to put customers at the centre of what they do, adding that deploying the right strategies in the digital space will further help transform customer experience.
Similarly, Femi Adelusi, President, Media Independent Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MIPAN) and discussant urged experiential marketing agencies to begin to look at how to leverage data and deploying innovative ways to take consumer experience into the digital space.
In addition, Sola Antwi, COO, Divergent MS and discussant, stated that brands need to be innovative and align their strategy with stakeholders even when they are thinking digital, adding that consumer experience is key to the survival of any business.
Matt Davies, a renowned creative brand strategist from United Kingdom and keynote speaker, while speaking on “Using the power of agile design thinking to transform brands’’, urged agencies to help their client through, especially at this time by coming up with innovative ideas and not just waiting for client brief.
Thereafter, he explained that innovation involves strategic thinking and takes steps which he termed the “Innovation Wheel” and they are discovering, problemising, solutionising, verifying and planning.
Innocent Oboh, CEO, Dijo and discussant, on his own part said the best way to achieve innovation is when practitioners identify the problem, proffer solutions and go back to the consumer with the solution.
Kehinde Salami, CEO, Ideas House and discussant stated that they have to be a mind shift from the top to bottom, adding that a new business model has to come up. He therefore tasked EXMAN members to come up with HR solutions, also solutions that will help in the area of promotion and others.
On another note, Alex Goma, Managing Director, Grand Cereal Limited and keynote speaker while speaking on the topic, “How to provide transformational leadership in times of crises”, said: “Transformational leadership is about taking an organisation through change and delivering results in a matter that inspires trust,” stating that COVID-19 might have caused a tough time for organisations but overcoming the challenges takes courage, clarity of purpose, communication, agility and resilience.
Kayode Olagesin, CEO, Towncriers and discussant said organisations have to build the culture of resilience before crisis, adding that they are opportunities in the time of crisis.
On her own part, Rosemary Akpo, MD, EXP Nigeria and discussant said there is power in collaborative thinking, urging experiential marketing practitioners to embark on collaboration.
Over 500 people linked up and participated in the conference. While Nigerians made up the bulk of participants, others joined from USA, South Africa, Ghana, Liberia, Mozambique, Kenya and lastly United Kingdom where Dr. Rotimi Olaniyan, Publisher, ExperientialNG and faculty member, Nottingham Business School, UK, who moderated the discussion is based. It is noteworthy that some of the discussants and EXMAN members were on ground at Abelinis, owned by Abiodun Oshinibosi, Vice president, EXMAN and AGM planning committee chairman, were the technical support came from.
EXMAN is the sectoral trade body for forward-looking experiential marketing communications agencies in Nigeria. The association protects, promotes and regulates the activities of certified players within the experiential marketing industry in Nigeria and boast of over thirty billion naira as total billing.
Meanwhile experts at its Experiential Marketing Conference (#EXM2020) also called for innovation and collaboration.
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