Mother launches internal initiative to limit ‘relentless’ pitching

Agency network Mother will be launching Pitch It Forward, an internal initiative that donates all of the network’s profits from the first year of retained fees with a new client. The initiative promises to donate Mother's first-year profits from all new retained clients that eschew a full creative pitch and choose to appoint Mother after a chemistry meeting. At the end of the first year, these profits will be donated on their behalf to one of the network’s not-for-profit partners. 

This initiative is part of Make our Children Proud, the purpose arm of Mother. The agency says that the aim of this initiative is to “limit the relentless pitching merry-go-round and instead invest its potential profit in creative projects that support its purpose”. Pitch It Forward will be implemented across all of Mother’s global practices including TSLA and Mother Shanghai.

Eunice Tan, partner at TSLA, said: “The gesture to Pitch it Forward presents our potential clients with a statement of our family values from the get go—turning the wasteful use of resources into a positive contribution for the future. Not all clients need or want to run a pitch, we’re hoping the principles of Pitch It Forward are rapidly adopted to bring about a shift in what is considered normal.”

Chris Gallery, partner at Mother London, said that the best work always comes out of strong relationships with clients, built on shared values, ambition and purpose.

“So why don’t we aim to build these strong relationships - and the basis for a successful partnership - earlier in the pitch process?” he said. “After 25 years of pitching at Mother, deep down—no matter how hungry we are for it - we know the creative advertising pitch process is a time consuming and sadly sometimes wasteful exercise."

Gallery told Campaign UK that that he hopes other agencies will adopt a similar approach in bid to simplify the pitch process. "I look forward to losing pitches against other agencies but at least we won't have wasted all that time," he says.