We have all heard or read about tenders, and much has been discussed about their effectiveness or the transfer of this model to the hiring of services in the private industry.

For better or worse we have adopted in the industry an scheme called “pitch” that is nothing more than a process of selecting digital agencies through an evaluation cycle previously established by the advertiser or client.

This selection or pitch process can be composed of several stages according to the client, but it is generally based on two moments: the first, the RFI (or request for information) that is basically about calling several agencies (ideal, about 5) and evaluating what they do, what experience they have, their credentials, their certifications, verifiable success cases, among other factors.

After this preselection process, it is passed to the second stage called RFP (or request for proposition) that is already based on a specific contribution case or creative proposal for the client. Without a doubt, when reaching this part of the process, at least 3 agencies should have been selected and being very clear about what the client will quote.

Iab Mexico considers that for the agency selection processes three basic principles by the advertiser should be considered:

Transparency: that is, they are clear with the budget and information is complete (if necessary a legal agreement of confidentiality known as NDA can be signed).

commitment: that the client or advertiser has the conviction of finishing the complete process and assigning the project to a digital agency.

clarity in selection criteria: that the client is very clear in the aspects when evaluating the agencies, can even assign percentages, for example creativity 30%, strategy 30%, price 20%, level of service 20 percent.

It is important to mention that in addition to equal conditions to participate and evaluate the agencies, the advertiser must seek compare agencies in similar conditions and that they have true experience about the project to be traded, for example web development, digital perfomance, metric, social medium or similar.

Remember, the intellectual property of ideas, strategies, proposals (digital or offiline) is from the agency as long as its services are not hired.

If you have an agency selection process we recommend broadly reviewing the material that Iab Mexico has at your disposal to choose an agency Digital .