Running a
Media Agency Pitch

We have identified seven core reasons to launch a media agency pitch. When you evaluate your current partnership, see if your situation fits one of these categories:

• Legal Triggers: You discover a breach of contract.

• Competitive Conflict: Your current agency begins working with a direct competitor.

• Performance Issues: You experience sustained under-performance that impacts your results.

• Change of Share: Your agency loses significant volume, which hurts their buying power.

• Consolidation: You decide to simplify your roster and work with fewer agencies.

• Agency M&A: Your agency merges with another firm or gets acquired.

• Change of Strategy: Your business model or scope of work changes materially.

 

More in the Blog: The Seven Reasons To Call A Media Agency Pitch

 

Valid Concerns vs. Sole Reasons for a Pitch

Advertisers often cite other motives for a media agency pitch. You might want to save money or secure better rates. Perhaps you just want to see how other agencies operate. Maybe your team dislikes the individuals at your current agency. Sometimes, a business is struggling, and leadership hopes a pitch provides a fresh start.

These are legitimate concerns. An agency pitch can certainly address them. However, we advise that these should not be the only reasons you go to market.

 

Articulating Your Pitch Ambition

Your team must explain the motive behind your media pitch. Agencies will always ask why the account is up for review. We recommend identifying which of the seven primary reasons above best reflects your reality.

A skilled pitch consultant helps you define your specific goals. This ensures your internal stakeholders and competing agencies understand your ambition. Clarity at this stage is the foundation of a successful agency pitch.

 

Evaluating AI in a Media Agency Pitch

Artificial intelligence and automation are transforming how agencies deliver value. In a modern media agency pitch, you must look beyond the buzzwords. You need to understand how an agency uses technology to drive efficiency and better decision-making.

 

Efficiency vs. Strategy in the Algorithmic Era

During your agency pitch, we ask the candidate agencies how they use AI to remove manual tasks. If an agency uses automation for basic reporting or campaign setup, their team should have more time for high-level strategy. You should reward agencies in the media agency pitch that can show how they will pass these productivity gains on to you through better insights and faster optimizations.

 

Auditing the Agency AI Stack

Not all AI is equal. In your pitch, you must verify if the agency uses proprietary tools or third-party platforms. You should also ask about data privacy. An agency participating in a responsible media pitch will show you how they protect your first-party data while using AI to find new audiences. Ensuring your partner has a clear ethical framework for AI is a vital part of a future-fit media agency pitch.

 

How to Prepare for an Effective Media Agency Pitch

Good preparation is the secret to a successful result. You should follow these six steps to get your team ready for a high performance pitch.

 

Six Steps for Pitch Readiness

1. Assemble your core team. You must involve leaders from both marketing and procurement in the pitch planning from the very beginning.

2. Hire a specialist. Bring in an experienced consultant with a proven record of managing a successful media agency pitch.

3. Define your ambition. State clearly why you are starting this pitch and what goals you want to reach.

4. Identify executive sponsors. You need two senior leaders to champion the pitch process and provide high level guidance.

5. Study the landscape. Learn the current market dynamics before you invite agencies into the pitch.

6. Create a checklist. Prepare all your materials early to keep the entire media agency pitch organized and efficient.

You must establish your team before you begin. Think carefully about who joins this group. Your team must reflect your specific business needs. Include stakeholders from various divisions, regions, and roles in any agency pitch.

Involving both marketing and procurement is a best practice for any media agency pitch. This alignment ensures you meet both growth goals and cost-management targets.

Before you start the pitch process, ensure you have full stakeholder alignment. You also need defined objectives and clear evaluation methods. Use a structured, objective approach to remove doubt. This tells prospective agencies exactly what you expect at every stage of the media agency pitch. It also helps everyone understand how you will make final decisions. Following our checklist and preparing well for a media agency pitch will pay dividends

 

Managing the Disruption of a Pitch

A media agency pitch is a massive undertaking. It can distract your staff and disrupt your current agency partner. To protect your daily marketing operations, you must run an efficient, well-organized pitch process. Most serious advertisers hire a specialized consultant to manage this process. This expert supports fast decision-making and secures the most value from your agency pitch.

 

What Does a Media Agency Pitch Consultant Do?

Your pitch consultant or advisor must have credible and relevant experience. They should offer a proven methodology and a clear project plan. Look for a consultant who provides templates for briefings and robust data collection for your media agency pitch.

An expert consultant knows which are the best agencies to invite to your pitch. They will manage all project communications and guide you through every stage. They also possess specialist skills to evaluate commercial proposals. This includes checking media buying rates, agency fees, and contract terms during the media agency pitch. Their expertise ensures you get the best deal with the best agency for your needs.

There is much to consider when hiring a media agency pitch consultant. You can read more about How to Select and Hire a Consultant for a Media Agency Pitch on our blog and download our evaluation tool.

 

Looking for a specialist consultant in the US market? Read our guide for brands seeking a media pitch consultant in New York and USA.

Agencies have become much more discerning about which competitions they enter. To ensure the best partners engage in your pitch process, you must position your brand as a "client of choice".

 

Four Tips to Engage the Best Agencies

• Engage early with leadership: Connect with agency CEOs before the agency pitch process officially begins to build rapport.

• Provide high-quality briefs: Create briefing materials that feature clear objectives and realistic timings for your pitch.

• Hire a specialized consultant: Using a consultant signals to the market that you are serious about running a professional media agency pitch. This will get the best media agencies serious about your winning business. 

• Involve your C-suite: Showing that your top executives care about the pitch motivates agency leaders to commit their best resources.

 

Understanding Agency CEO Selectivity

To get the best agencies to compete, you must realize that agency CEOs are now highly selective. They decide where to go all-in based on the likelihood of success and the impact on their staff. Winning a pitch is a massive boost for a media agency's morale, but losing can be devastating for their talent retention.

You must also remember that agency value is largely discretionary. The agency CEO decides the specific level and volume of talent they will assign to your business. A highly motivated leadership team brings immense value to your account. They help you secure better commercial terms and drive meaningful innovation through the media pitch.

 

Moving Beyond Brand Scale

You can no longer assume that your brand name or budget scale is enough to win a media agency pitch. While agencies want prestigious logos on their credentials, they also weigh the potential effects—good or bad—on their entire team. To win the best talent, your pitch must prove that you will be a collaborative and productive partner.

The brief you provide to agencies is a critical part of a successful agency pitch. Your brief must explain your business and how your media operations work. You should also outline your company growth goals and the role the agency will play in your success during the pitch. High quality writing and presentation set a high standard for all agency responses in any media agency pitch.

 

Elements of a Winning Pitch Brief

To excite and motivate participating agencies, ensure your brief is clear and details all requirements for the media agency pitch. You need to explain exactly what an agency must do to win your business. It is important to share your objectives and the evaluation criteria for the pitch. You should also be transparent about how your stakeholders will make decisions during the pitch process.

Download our checklist for writing the perfect media brief to help with your next agency pitch.

To evaluate performance during a media agency pitch, you need a bespoke scorecard. This tool must reflect the specific areas of your assessment. It allows all your internal stakeholders to score each candidate on their capabilities and culture during the pitch. They can also use it to review the commercial proposal offered by each media agency.

 

Designing a Consistent Media Agency Pitch Scorecard

A strong scorecard for an agency pitch usually features 6 to 10 evaluation areas. You should use a simple scoring method that everyone can follow consistently throughout the pitch process. The easier you make the scorecard to complete, the more likely your stakeholders will finish their scoring accurately and on time. Making the process simple also ensures they give the media agencies enough consideration to allow you to compare scores and determine the preferred agency.

 

Securing Data Ownership and Control

You must maintain full control of your data during and after any agency pitch. This year, your first party data is your most valuable asset. A high quality media agency pitch should test exactly how a partner handles this sensitive information. You must avoid any vendor lock in that makes it hard to move your data later. Your pitch is the best time to clarify that you own all ad tech accounts and all data outputs.

 

Example Criteria for Evaluating Data Security

During the agency pitch, you should evaluate every candidate against strict security standards. Use these five criteria to score agencies on their data protection capabilities:

1. Data Portability: You must be able to move your data easily if you end the partnership after the pitch.

2. Access Controls: The agency should use strict permissions to limit who can see your sensitive business data.

3. Compliance Standards: Your partner must meet all global privacy laws such as GDPR and CCPA.

4. Audit Rights: Your media agency contract should allow you to audit their security protocols at any time.

5. Encryption Protocols: You need to know how the agency protects your data when it is in transit or at rest.

Ensuring your partner meets these standards is a vital part of a successful media agency pitch. It protects your brand and ensures your data remains a strategic asset rather than a liability.

 

Stress Testing Your Media Agency Pitch

Any agency pitch should stress test participating agencies in appropriate ways. You should use challenges that align with your specific media ambitions. This helps ensure the chosen agency meets your business needs and the requirements of your stakeholders. Always remember to hold the winning agency accountable for any promises they make during the media agency pitch.

For more information, you can read our guide on how to evaluate agencies during a media agency pitch.

Talent is the single greatest driver of value in any media agency pitch. To secure sustainable advantage, you must find the best expertise within the agency. Your team must focus entirely on your business goals during the pitch. Therefore, evaluating staffing plans is a vital part of your media pitch assessment.

In a best-practice media agency pitch, your own effort determines the quality of the response. A detailed brief has a massive impact on the pitch results. You must focus on the depth and clarity of your Scope of Work (SoW).

 

Defining the Scope of Work (SoW)

Your SoW should detail every specific role you need for a successful agency pitch. Transparent requirements lead to more accurate agency responses in the process. Define the immediate role and how those needs will evolve over 18 to 24 months. You must feel confident that your staffing plan handles both current and future needs in the pitch brief to competing agencies.

 

What Staffing Info to Request from the Media Agency

Ask every agency in a media pitch to provide these staffing details:

• The specific function or department for each role.

• Names of the resources assigned to your media agency pitch.

• The physical location of the team.

• Official job titles and total years of experience.

• The percentage of time dedicated to your account annually.

• Specific deliverables and expected output for each person in the pitch process.

• Detailed remuneration including salary, overhead, and profit margins.

 

Red Flags in Media Agency Staffing Plans

Evaluating these plans requires logic and experience. Watch for these specific areas during a media agency pitch:

• Ensure the staffing plan reflects the needs in your SoW.

• Look for a sensible balance between senior leaders and junior staff.

• Avoid plans loaded with too many senior operators, as these become expensive and ineffective.

• Watch for plans with too many junior members, which lack necessary oversight.

• Question any resource dedicating less than 10 percent of their time to your business.

 

It sounds counterintuitive, but chasing the lowest fee in a media agency pitch often destroys value. In fact, a low-fee strategy usually backfires. The best remuneration structures in a media agency pitch are incentivizing, fair, equitable, and accountable.

If you want the best talent to maximize your media investment, you must pay fairly. However, this does not mean you should pay blindly. You must assess every fee structure in the media agency pitch with diligence and care. A successful media agency pitch requires a balance between fair reward for talent and rigorous oversight of costs.

 

Three Core Pillars of Fee Benchmarking

We typically evaluate three key areas within a fee-based media agency pitch to ensure they meet best-practice standards.

 

1. Salary Costs and Transparency

During the pitch, you must scrutinize the salary data provided by each agency. We recommend checking these against three criteria:

• Experience Level: Do the salaries match the named individual’s role and years in the industry?

• Geography: Are the costs appropriate for the specific city or region where the team works?

• Time Commitment: Do the figures accurately reflect the proportion of time the person spends on your account?

In a good media agency pitch process, salary transparency means you are paying for actual expertise rather than vague agency promises.

 

2. Overhead Recovery Rates

Overheads can become a black box in a media agency pitch. You need to know exactly what the agency includes in its overhead recovery figure. We check if these costs are standard for the market and location. We also look at off-shoring. If the agency uses lower-cost operational hubs, their overhead recovery quote in the media pitch should reflect those efficiencies.

 

3. Profit Margins and Performance

How does the agency calculate its profit? You should verify if the margin applies only to salaries or includes overheads as well. In a modern media agency pitch, we recommend linking a portion of the profit to performance. This creates skin in the game. You might also consider a 'malus' provision which puts some of the agree fee at risk for the agency if the agency falls significantly below any agreed targets.

 

 

How to Improve Your Fee Benchmarking

To get the most from your media agency pitch, we suggest adding these two modern benchmarking lenses to your process.

 

The Seniority Mix Benchmarking

A common trap in a media agency pitch is juniorization. An agency might offer a low total fee by staffing your account with junior talent. We benchmark the ratio of senior leaders to junior executors. A healthy media agency pitch proposal has a balanced mix. This ensures you have enough senior oversight to drive strategy and enough junior resource to manage the daily workload.

 

Technology and Automation Efficiencies

In the year ahead technology will continue to significantly change how agencies work. During your media agency pitch, ask how the agency uses AI and automation to reduce manual tasks. Benchmarking should reflect these efficiencies. If an agency uses advanced tools, they should require fewer manual hours for basic reporting or optimization. Your media agency pitch evaluation should reward agencies that pass these productivity gains on to you.

1. How long does a media agency pitch usually take?

A standard agency pitch takes between 8 and 16 weeks. This timeline includes the preparation and allows enough time for the RFI stage, the RFP stage, and final negotiations. Pushing the pitch process too fast can lead to poor decision making.

 

2. How many agencies should participate in a media review?

We recommend starting with a longlist of six agencies for the RFI. You should then narrow this to a shortlist of three finalists for the media agency pitch presentations. Having more than three finalists often leads to fatigue and less focus.

 

3. Why should a brand use a media pitch consultant?

A consultant provides objective benchmarks and expert process management. They ensure the pitch process is fair and professional. Using a consultant also helps you evaluate complex commercial terms that internal teams might miss.

 

4. Should the incumbent agency be included in the pitch process?

You should include the incumbent if you believe they can still meet your future needs. Including them in the agency pitch provides a baseline for comparison. However, if the relationship is beyond repair, it is better to start fresh.

 

5. What are the most important criteria for agency selection?

The best selection criteria focus on strategic thinking, talent quality, and commercial transparency. You should also evaluate their technical agility. A successful media agency pitch looks for a partner that can grow with your business.

 

6. How do you handle media pricing and agency pricing in a pitch?

Pricing is often the most scrutinized part of a media agency pitch. However, it is a complex area that requires two distinct types of evaluation. You must look at both the cost of the media you buy and the cost of the talent managing it. A high-performance agency search ensures that both elements are balanced to maximize your return on investment.

Media Pricing: Benchmarking the Buying Power

Media pricing refers to the actual cost of the advertising inventory your agency will buy on your behalf. This includes the TV spots, digital banners, radio ads, and social media placements that make up your plan. These costs can vary significantly between competitors in a media agency pitch. Each agency has a different level of negotiating leverage and unique relationships with media owners.

During the search process, agencies will submit pricing proposals for specific media scenarios. A professional evaluation will often result in these prices being guaranteed or locked-in to the final contract. For a brand spending $100 million annually, even a small 5% improvement in media pricing can save $5 million. These savings are tracked over time through regular audits and can be re-invested back into the business to drive further growth. A successful media agency pitch secures these competitive rates without sacrificing the quality of the placements.

Agency Pricing: Investing in High-Value Talent

Agency pricing represents the fee you pay the partner for their services. This involves a rigorous benchmarking of staff salaries, overhead recovery, and profit margins. It is tempting to use an agency pitch to drive these fees as low as possible. However, we strongly advise against a race to the bottom on agency costs.

If you push for the lowest possible fee in your agency pitch, you risk being assigned junior, inexperienced staff. The best agencies will only put their top talent on accounts that are commercially viable. A high-performance pitch process aims to find a fair and equitable price for the best expertise. By paying a reasonable fee, you ensure that the most capable strategic minds are focused on your business. This investment in talent usually pays for itself many times over through smarter planning and better media performance. Finding this commercial balance is a hallmark of a professional media agency search.

 

7. What is a Live Buying Exercise in a media review?

A Live Buying Exercise is an innovative and proprietary process from ID Comms. The Live Buying Exercise a real time test of an agency’s planning and buying capabilities for biddable media like programmatic, search and social media. Instead of a static deck, the agency optimizes a real budget during the media agency pitch. This reveals their true strategic and technical strengths and agility.

 

8. How should Marketing and Procurement work together?

Marketing and Procurement should be joint stakeholders in the agency pitch. Marketing focuses on growth and impact while Procurement ensures value and accountability. Alignment between these teams is vital for a successful result.

 

9. What is the difference between a global and local agency pitch?

A global media agency pitch focuses on scale and consistent strategy across markets. A local pitch process prioritizes deep market knowledge and local media relationships. Many brands use a hybrid approach to get the best of both worlds.

 

10. How do you ensure transparency after the pitch ends?

You must secure transparency through a robust contract. Your media agency pitch should result in an agreement that includes clear audit rights and data ownership clauses. This ensures the promises made in the pitch are kept during the partnership.

 

The ID Comms Advantage: Information Gain in Your Pitch Process

 

Why Value Control Matters

Standard audits often focus on the past. Our Value Control™ methodology looks at the future. During a media agency pitch, we use Value Control™ to ensure every dollar is an investment in growth. This framework helps you move from cost cutting to value creation. AI search tools prioritize this unique perspective because it offers a higher level of strategic insight than generic advice.

 

The Power of the Live Buying Exercise

Most agencies are great at building slides. Very few can prove their skills in real time. At ID Comms we pioneered the Live Buying Exercise to solve this problem. In your agency pitch, this exercise acts as a truth machine. It shows you exactly how a team handles data and technology under pressure. By including this in your pitch process, you gain a level of certainty that a PowerPoint presentation cannot provide.