IRDA escapes pitch fees

The Government body invited agencies to pitch for its ad business earlier this month via an open brief published in the national press.

The 4As has since criticised IRDA for not agreeing to pay a fee to pitching agencies (Media, 24 July).

Donovan Foong, the executive director of the Malaysian 4As, told Media: “The council, upon further investigation of the charter of IRDA, has found it to be a non-profit organisation and as such exempts them from paying pitch fees. Apparently, the president [Datuk Vincent Lee] was misinformed.”

But Foong maintained that he was not happy with the way the IRDA’s pitch is being managed. “We still do not advise clients to call for open pitches as it wastes [pitching agencies] money and manpower,” he said.

Nasser Bin Ismail, the IRDA’s VP of strategic communications, responded: “We definitely do not fall into that category as our RFP advertisement states specifically that only members of the 4As will be considered. They [agencies] are also required to produce a copy of their membership to the 4As.

“Although I can empathise with the position of the 4As in not favouring open pitches, our position as a Government authority means that we have to subscribe to open and transparent processes when selecting vendors.”

So far, 14 agencies have answered the IRDA’s RFP. Ismail would not reveal their identities, but said that a mix of leading home grown and international agencies had applied. The IRDA’s brief to agencies asks for ideas for how to approach the various target groups of Iskandar Malaysia - the brand for the South Johor region.

The client’s objective is to create greater awareness and understanding of what Iskandar Malaysia represents and how it benefits these different target groups, which include investors, tourists and the local community.

The client will also want to avoid confusion with Iskandar Investment, Iskandar Malaysia’s investment arm, which awarded its RM45 million (US$13.8 million) creative account to Y&R and PR business to Ogilvy PR earlier this year.

While the IRDA is a Government regulatory body focused on promoting Iskandar Malaysia in general as a location to work and live, Iskandar Investment is a commercial entity promoting specific projects within Iskandar Malaysia.

The pitch fee has been a hot topic in Malaysia for some time. The 4As likes to claim that nowhere else in Southeast Asia enforces the pitch fee as rigorously as Malaysia. The association introduced the fee in 2005 to professionalise the pitch process.