The ANA & 4As 10 Positive Pitch Principles are a practical framework to make agency reviews more transparent, respectful and effective, helping CMOs choose better partners faster while reducing cost, disruption and risk. They codify what high performing advertisers already do, from tighter shortlists to fairer deals and structured feedback.
If you lead marketing, procurement or global media, you already feel the pain these principles aim to solve. Big pitches are expensive, emotionally draining and highly political. ANA research shared with the industry suggests a major review can cost clients more than $400,000, and when you factor in agency participation across a three‑agency shortlist, the ecosystem may be burning through $1 million or more per review.
That is a huge tax on growth.
In the #MediaSnack Live breakdown, we welcome ID Comms pitch lead Yasmena Depko to stress‑test each principle from a real‑world perspective. The conversation is deliberately practical: which rules actually change outcomes, which are brilliant basics, and how should sophisticated advertisers sequence them into a modern process like ID Comms' 25‑day five‑figure pitch sprint.
For CMOs and procurement leaders, the key takeaway is simple: these are not theoretical guidelines. Used properly, they are a governance upgrade for your entire media and creative ecosystem. In this article we unpack the ID Comms tier ranking, show how to apply the principles and suggest concrete ways to cut pitch burnout while improving agency relationships.
The ID Comms Breakdown is a point‑of‑view overlay on the ANA & 4As principles, ranking each one by impact on pitch quality: S tier for mission‑critical, A tier for high value, and B tier for brilliant basics. It reflects hundreds of global pitches that ID Comms has designed and managed for complex advertisers.
At the top of the ranking sit three S‑tier rules: begin with transparency, prioritize chemistry and treat feedback as a gift. Together they define the culture of your pitch. You can have flawless timelines and RFIs, yet still fail if those three are missing.
S‑tier principle one is mutual transparency. At the start of every review, leading CMOs are now sharing a clear articulation of the business problem, the reasons the incumbent may be under pressure and the decision‑making criteria. As Greg Wright at the ANA notes, you cannot expect great agency solutions if you refuse to share the real brief, the real numbers and the real politics.
On #MediaSnack, Yasmena is unequivocal: transparency is S tier because it aligns stakeholders internally and sets agencies up to succeed. In practice this looks like clean baseline data, a clear definition of scope and honest commentary about what has not worked so far. When advertisers skip this step, they invite mis‑aligned proposals, scope creep and commercial re‑negotiations before the ink is dry.
S‑tier principle two is chemistry. This is not about soft, fluffy workshops. It is the structured evaluation of 'who we will be solving hard problems with at 11pm on a Sunday.' As Matt Kassindorf and Greg Wright put it in the ANA discussion, every relationship has problems; you want to know you trust the people on the other side of the table.
#MediaSnack makes an important correction to the folklore: you cannot win purely on chemistry, but you can absolutely lose on it. That insight is grounded in hundreds of chemistry sessions that ID Comms have hosted in agency offices around the world. When teams finally sit together, gaps in culture, collaboration style or decision‑making are suddenly visible.
The third S‑tier rule is feedback. Agencies routinely put heart, soul and significant money into pitches. Too often they receive a one‑line rejection. ANA and 4As both argue for structured debriefs. ID Comms goes further and treats feedback as a service to the whole market. A consistent feedback culture raises the quality of future pitches because agencies adapt and improve.
For advertisers, the implications of the ID Comms tier list are operational and financial. S‑ and A‑tier principles directly affect the cost, speed and outcome of reviews.
Start with timelines. The ANA & 4As recommend clear schedules and realistic duration. ID Comms has responded by designing a 25‑day five‑figure pitch format that compresses agency engagement into a focused sprint. The result is less burnout and a cleaner link between pitch activity and business growth. In a category where traditional reviews have dragged on for six months or more, that speed is transformative.
Shortlists are another A‑tier area. ANA and 4As propose limiting RFP shortlists to three or four agencies. That sounds obvious, but many global advertisers still push six or more partners through full creative or media evaluations. On the episode, Yasmena acknowledges that stakeholder politics can inflate lists, yet stresses the discipline of converging to a tight finalist set quickly. Doing so saves client and agency time and reduces the noise around final decisions.
On the commercial side, the principle of negotiating a fair agreement moves pitch conversations away from a race to the bottom on fees. ANA and 4As explicitly call for mutually beneficial arrangements and acknowledge that profitable agencies are better equipped to invest in people, tools and systems that drive client growth. ID Comms operationalizes this with its STAR model of shared targets and rewards, blending service evaluations, value controls and business KPIs into incentive structures.
Finally, compensation for pitch labour and clarity on speculative work, although ranked B tier by Yasmena, are becoming hygiene factors. ANA and 4As recommend that marketers define the role of spec work and set expectations on IP ownership and stipends upfront. While pitch fees rarely cover true agency costs, clear rules are a signal of respect and often attract better talent to your review.
CMOs, procurement directors and global heads of media should now treat the ANA & 4As 10 Positive Pitch Principles as a checklist for redesigning their internal pitch playbook. The ID Comms perspective suggests three practical moves.
First, codify transparency. Before you call agencies, align internally on why you are pitching, what problems you are trying to solve and how you will make the final decision. Capture that in a single page that includes commercial context, brand ambition and known pain points with the incumbent. Make that document the anchor of your RFI and chemistry sessions.
Second, choreograph chemistry with intent. Replace the old roadshow of endless presentations with lean, purposeful working sessions. ID Comms typically designs in‑person workshops where client and agency teams solve real brief components together within a few hours. The focus is on how both sides think, not just what they slide‑share. You quickly see cultural fit, problem‑solving style and leadership behavior under pressure.
Third, institutionalize feedback and closure. Design your pitch calendar so that within days of a decision, every agency receives a structured debrief that covers what they did well, where they fell short and how they might improve future responses. Not only is this respectful, it has a compounding effect: agencies who feel respected are more likely to say yes to your next review, and they will prioritize your brief with their best people.
For complex advertisers, embracing these principles is not about adding more process. It is about simplifying. When you treat pitches as the start of long‑term commercial partnerships, not one‑off procurement events, you can right‑size the effort, accelerate timelines and reduce wasted cost on both sides.
If you want expert support to put these principles to work, ID Comms can coach your team through a 25‑day sprint that cuts out the theatre and focuses entirely on growth outcomes.
1. What are the ANA & 4As 10 Positive Pitch Principles?
They are joint guidelines from the Association of National Advertisers and the 4As that set expectations for transparent, fair and efficient client‑agency pitches.
2. Why do these principles matter to CMOs?
They reduce pitch cost and disruption, protect brand reputation and help marketing leaders select agencies that can drive long‑term growth.
3. How do the principles change media pitches specifically?
They encourage tighter shortlists, realistic timelines and clearer commercial models, which are critical in complex, data‑heavy media reviews.
4. What does ID Comms mean by S‑tier principles?
S‑tier principles are the ones with the greatest impact on pitch success: transparency, chemistry and structured feedback top that list.
5. Can a pitch really be completed in 25 days?
Yes, with a disciplined scope and aligned stakeholders. ID Comms has built a 25‑day sprint format that compresses engagement without sacrificing rigor.
6. Should we always pay agencies a pitch fee?
Not always, but when you expect significant strategic or speculative work, a clearly defined stipend signals respect and can raise the quality of participation.
7. How many agencies should be on our shortlist?
ANA and 4As recommend three to four. That number is usually enough to see range without overwhelming stakeholders or driving unnecessary cost.
8. What kind of feedback should losing agencies receive?
Specific, actionable feedback on strategy, execution, team performance and commercial fit, ideally shared in a live conversation rather than an email.
9. How does the STAR model of remuneration work?
It links agency fees to shared targets and rewards, combining service scores, value delivery and business KPIs in a transparent incentive structure.
10. Where can we learn more about running better pitches?
You can explore resources from ANA, 4As and ID Comms, and watch the full #MediaSnack Live discussion reviewing the 10 Positive Pitch Principles.
If you would like to confidentially discuss your own pitch gameplan and your options to protect your competitive advantage in media, get in touch with ID Comms today.
Chemistry counts. So this is really about just the need to get people together in person, in a room, and that, you know, you cannot just conduct a pitch entirely over video calls. S tier for sure. You know, you cannot win a pitch based purely on chemistry. You can most definitely lose a pitch based on poor chemistry. Hello, I am Tom Denford in New York. And I am David Indo from London. Welcome to Media Snack Live. It is our weekly roundup of all the important news and stories and trends you need to know about the global media marketing industry. In every show we ask, what is going on. What are the implications for advertisers. And what should marketers be thinking about next. Thanks for joining us. Let us get into this week s show. Welcome back to Media Snack Live. If you saw last week s episode, you know that we reviewed the new 10 pitch best practice principles with the ANA and the 4As. And we, as I said last week, we love seeing these trade associations collaborate and bringing us some best practice, particularly when it comes down to improving the pitch process. So today, we are going to go look at those things again, but I am joined by super pitch expert, Yasmena, in our team at ID Comms. Hi, Yasmena. Hi. So Yasmena, if you have not ever met Yasmena before, she leads our pitch practice globally. Yasmena is the expert on agency pitches, and she is an advisor to dozens of CMOs and procurement teams around the world when they are looking for a new agency. Yasmena, you have looked at the ANA s and the 4As new principles, yes. Yep. So what we thought we would do is that you and I are just going to watch back some short clips from last week s episode where Matt and Greg introduce each principle, and then Yasmena is going to tier rank them brutally. We are going to put them in some kind of priority order, and what we think is the really absolutely critical advice from those principles. Okay, so you ready to dig into that. Yeah, let us do it. Great. The first principle that they shared with us is called begin with mutual commitment to transparency. Here is what Greg had to say. Ultimately, you know, you want to set up all of the agencies that are participating in the pitch, you want to set them up for success because you are really looking for the best possible agency for you to create this relationship with. And so in order to do that, you have to have this kind of transparent mindset going forward that, you know, if you have got data that you can share around what is the business problem that you are trying to solve, or what were the problems. If you are re pitching, you are looking, you know, you are trying to replace your incumbent, what were the reasons that it did not work out with that incumbent. Importance of transparency in a pitch, how do you rank that one. Definitely S tier all the way. Transparency is so important from the start of any pitch process. It just means that stakeholders are aligned, intentions are clear, and decision making process is locked in. And like they said, being transparent from the start allows everyone, and especially the agencies, to bring their best solutions forward for the clients. Right. Principle number two, carefully consider the agencies invited. Let us have a listen. The pitch is an extra project that is added on top of things. Always. So, when you start involving more and more agencies, you are just expanding the amount of time that you need to invest in reviewing each of those pitches, meeting with them, and getting, and not just you, but your team, whoever else needs to be involved in that review process. And so if you are able to really narrow the field for what kind of agencies you are looking for in advance, then that will ultimately help the entire process be a little bit more streamlined and manageable for folks. All right. For this one, I would definitely go with A tier. We have to be a little bit realistic because stakeholders do sometimes come in with agencies they want us to include or to learn more about, see if they are a good fit. But in the end, the goal really is to do exactly what the principle says, and bring the list of finalist agencies down to the top three or four as quickly as possible. Okay. Principle three is establish and adhere to a good strict timeline for a pitch. Let us have a listen. If you can keep that timeline shorter or a more appropriately timed, then it allows the client to invest more of their thought process and time into the overall pitch and reviewing the responses and having chemistry meetings and so on. So I think from our perspective, it is incredibly important to really know where your expected timeline is for those that are participating as well. A tier. Traditional pitches take way too long. We address this directly with our five figure pitch process, reducing agency engagement to just a 25 day sprint. Managing expectations and enforcing speed really keeps the focus purely on business growth. Right. Let us go to principle number four, which is keeping RFIs simple. And we know that the RFI is sometimes a screening tool, right. It can be pretty straightforward, but let us see what the ANA and 4As have to say. Often what we would find is that the RFI and the RFP got conflated, and there was a lot of information asked in an RFI which really should be in the RFP, and that was the intent here. As one of the task force members when we were on that RFI template said, There really should be nothing in an RFI that the agency cannot answer by itself. B tier. Brilliant basics. Could not agree more. And we tend to have information at hand that we can use that will save both the agency and our client time and resources, and instead we focus on using the RFI to capability test in reference to the brief, but also to test the appetite. Right. Principle number five. They call this chemistry counts. So this is really about just the need to get people together in person in a room, and that you cannot just conduct a pitch entirely over video calls. Let us have a listen. It is who do you want to talk to and who do you feel comfortable with dealing with problems. Every client agency relationship, every personal relationship has problems, and that person on the other side of it, you want to feel something there. You want to feel trust, you want to feel respect, you want to feel confidence that they have got your back and you have got theirs, and that you are going to work together to drive a business solution that is going to work. S tier for sure. We build lean and efficient pitches, and you cannot understate the importance of real working sessions together. And while we say that you cannot win a pitch based purely on chemistry, you can most definitely lose a pitch based on poor chemistry. And you manage these chemistry meetings on behalf of advertisers. So you take the advertisers typically into the agency, and so you see where that magic happens. It really is critical. Yes, exactly, and it is so important, and it is also really interesting to see how each agency handles those sessions because you really get a taste for their culture and get to see everything firsthand of how they will work together both throughout this process, but also in a future potential partnership. Listening to these new guidelines, you might be wondering, Well, this all sounds great in theory, but how do I actually execute a pitch like this without disrupting my entire marketing team for six months. That is exactly why we are launching Pitch Week. From June 8th to 12th, the ID Comms leadership team is hosting a five day live masterclass. For just one hour per day from 11 to 12 Eastern, we are going to open up our playbook and show you exactly how to run a world class rigorous agency pitch in just 25 days. You will learn how to cut the dead weight early, stop the endless dog and pony shows, and secure total financial transparency from your next agency pitch. You can attend completely anonymously, so your current agencies will not even know you are there, but you will have full access to ask us questions live during each class. And because this is our live launch, we are waiving the standard 299 dollars registration fee. If you sign up today, you will get access to all five sessions for just 99 dollars, and that 99 dollars gets you all the live Q and A, plus you will get to download our 25 day pitch toolkit, which is packed with the exact templates and scorecards that we use for the biggest brands in the world. Stop the pitch burnout. Get your team trained. You can scan the QR code on screen now or go to idcomms.com/pitchweek right now to lock in your seat for June 8th. Right, let us get back to the show. Principle six is define the role of speculative work, and we talked on Media Snack last week. This is very much to do more with creative and production pitches rather than the media pitches that you might do. But I know you also look at and manage creative pitches on behalf of advertisers. So let us listen to that and see what you are going to rank the speculative work principle. And if a client is going to ask for spec work, that is a whole separate conversation we can have. But the important thing is to identify and know that if an agency is doing spec work, the client does not own that work unless there is some sort of monetary exchange or prior agreement. And that really comes from our legal counsel. You cannot expect to own something of somebody else s work in a pitch process. B tier for this one. This is, like you said, Tom, much more common for the creative pitches that we run versus any media pitch. But we manage this very easily by making sure all intentions are laid out upfront at the beginning of any process, and then that really allows the agencies to decide how they want to engage within the process. And Yasmena, in your experiences, are we finding that advertisers are happy to do that. They are happy to be clear on what they are going to require in terms of spec work upfront. Yes, definitely. It honestly comes out in a lot of the scope of work conversations when we are building these out, and then if that is what ends up being what the client wants, then we can work that in from the beginning. Principle number seven, compensate for pitch labour and ideas. I said to the guys last week I thought this was quite a controversial one because, again, it seems to be quite the divisive of the principles. Let us watch, and then I am very keen to hear how you rank this one. I think we know agencies incur costs, a significant amount of cost and time, just as on the client side, in order to respond to these pitches and all the spec work or chemistry meetings and what have you. So there are some major clients out there that absolutely pay a pitch fee, and they make that clear right up front. And I think that is important, if you are going to extend a pitch fee or compensation to the agencies participating, that that be identified upfront. B tier for this one. Clients are willing to pay this fee sometimes. It is never going to be enough to cover the true cost of an agency participating in a pitch. And like they said, it also costs the client money to pitch and involve and run a process, whether themselves or through hiring a consultant. Either way, it does take time and money. But we can see that clients are being much more reasonable as to their expectations of the agencies, and the days of flying a bunch of stakeholders all around the globe to different locations and making agencies do those sorts of things is dwindling down. So I think you have found, Yasmena, over the last five years or so, pitches are much leaner, with probably fewer stakeholders, better managed now, and that can bring the cost down for everybody. Exactly. There is usually a core team, and then we work with them to see when they want to bring in which stakeholders. Not all stakeholders need to be part of an entire process. In some cases a live meeting is better in person, like we talked about, and in some instances, for example a tools and tech demonstration, we need more people logged in because they want to have MarTech and all these different teams dialled in as well, and in those cases we may say a Zoom or a Google Meet session would be the more realistic and better option. That way also everybody can have their own screen and really follow along versus sitting in a big meeting room where you are trying to squint to see the screen. Okay, principle number eight, stop the pitch once a decision is made. I thought that this was kind of a really obvious thing, but apparently there are some horror stories of pitches that have just run on and nobody has ever made a decision and or told anybody who won or who did not win. I do not think that applies to anything that we have run, Yasmena, but you can tell me if that is true. Let us listen to what they had to say, and then you can rank it for us. If a client has seen an agency and just has decided this, You know, I really like these people. I want to work with these people. I respect the work they have done. I think we are going to go with it, just because you have said there is going to be a lot more things in the pitch process does not mean you have to do it. Because the other agencies are all going to incur costs, and yet you have already made a decision. So it does happen, and the idea here is just again be communicative. A tier. We have a rigorous process in place, and we have that for a reason, but at the same time, we know that stakeholders need to move a little faster sometimes, or like they said on last week s show, a decision is made and there is no reason to keep lugging the process along. In those instances, we do exactly what they are talking about and respect everybody s time and resources and work towards ending the process in a way that still makes sure that our clients are getting the most out of the entire pitch process. And what would you say is, how does a pitch typically wrap up. You have got to get all the stakeholders aligned. That is the thing sometimes that can take most of the time in the final stages. Exactly. That is the thing that gets underrated a little bit, how much effort and conversation needs to be put in place in order to get stakeholders aligned, help make the business case, show the from to, really just lay everything out, make sure everybody is aligned from the CEO, CMO, all the way to procurement and the media team, because it is such a big decision with such a big budget allocation against it that everyone really needs to make sure that this is solidified internally and we can move forward. You are very good at just putting a bow on the end of a pitch, make sure everyone is very happy. So if you need help with that, you need to get in contact with Yasmena. Right, principle number nine, feedback is a gift. I love this one. I am curious to see how you are going to rank it. They were saying that agencies need debriefs. I cannot believe that people are still running pitches where they do not debrief agencies, because we have done that for 20 years. But let us see what they have to say, and then I want to see where you rank that, Yasmena. It is so hard for an agency when they put their heart, soul, money, blood, sweat, and tears into a pitch, and then they are told, You did not win. And that is it. There is no why. And I think again it goes back to respect to some degree. If an agency is committing to doing their best possible work in the pitch, it really behooves the client to explain to them why they did not win, and it helps the agency get better. S tier. Cannot agree more that this is so important, and not just for our pitch process but also for the industry as a whole. Everybody improves when feedback is shared, so we make sure that this is a critical part of our pitch process. It is part of any final announcement plan that we put together, and we make sure to do debriefs with all agencies, including the successful agency or agencies, to make sure that even they learn about what they did great and also where there might still be gaps to fill. Just tell us how agency CEOs react to feedback. They are so appreciative. It is really mind boggling sometimes the comments that we get about how thankful they are, and they do not always get this, because it is for us such standard practice. They really are appreciative of it. They take everything to heart. You see the teams making notes and really coming back to us sometimes even to say, For future learning, how can we improve on this. What can we make clearer next time. They use the feedback to help improve how they go to market as an agency as a whole. And we find as well that when we consistently give them good quality feedback, the next time we invite them to a pitch on behalf of one of our clients, they are more likely to say yes, want to participate, and also bring their best people. They are going to prioritise that pitch for our client because they know it is going to be a good process, and they know they are going to get good feedback. So even if they are not successful, they see it as a constructive and productive investment of their own time. So principle 10 is negotiate a fair agreement, which is quite a foundational principle of ID Comms and the way that we run these things because we are not just trying to negotiate a cheap agency. We really want both sides to be invested in long term commercial success that works for both sides. So let us look at this final principle, and then we can do our final tier ranking, and then we will summarise and wrap up. If an agency is well run and profitable, they can invest in tools, systems, approaches, and people that will benefit the client. It is important for a client to have an agency that is profitable and well run. When you think about some of the major costs that are involved inside an agency, it is people. And it is the people that the client wants on their business. If you want these people, they come at a cost, and that is all part of doing something that is fair. The mutually beneficial part is really critical, because the right people are going to do the right job in helping the client s business move forward. That is what the agency is being hired to do. A tier. Being mutually beneficial is really critical. Could not agree more. We always focus heavily on the STAR method, shared targets and rewards. We want to ensure that the agencies have a strong incentive in their remuneration. At the same time, we make sure that our clients are protected as well, making sure that they can audit the agencies, and then this really allows for a powerful objective partnership. You and the team take a lot of time investing in getting these commercial models right. They have almost always got some form of incentive or bonus mechanic as part of the agency fee. Yes, exactly. We tailor this to each client s needs and what they are hoping the partnership continues to get out of the relationship after the pitch process. For example, it will typically include an agency service evaluation, some sort of value control or billable control, where we are monitoring performance and quality of the media being purchased, and also business targets that allow the agency and the client to be held to the same targets. If I am getting this right, I think you have ranked everything either S, A, or B, which is really good, which means that those are all very positive things. We have not been negative about any of the principles, and the reason is because they are all very good, and we support them. There is no C, D, or E tier principles. We will link below again to the ANA principles if you want to review those. That is our complete tier ranking of the ANA s pitch principles. What did you think. Leave a comment down below if you agree or disagree or if you have different or better principles that we can add to the list. Thank you, huge thank you to Yasmena for your expert insights. Remember, Yasmena and I will be hosting Pitch Week soon, where you can learn how to run a great agency pitch yourself that follows all of these best practice rules, and you can go to idcomms.com/pitchweek to register for that. So do not forget, keep optimising those beautiful agency relationships, demand transparency, and we will see you next time on MediaSnack Live. Thanks for watching MediaSnack Live. If you found it helpful and want to learn more, head to idcomms.com to get more tips, tools, and resources to help you get good at media. We will see you next week.