Making the most of the work that didn’t pay

Written by Simon Bennison

Wednesday, 18 March 2009 14:48

If you’re proud of the work you’ve done for a pitch, should you publicise it even if you didn’t win the contract?

Advertising agencies often do a lot of work that never gets made, work for themselves, make up a client, or even make an ad for a client that isn’t theirs just to show what they can do; like Lee and Dan did with their VW ‘indestructible’ advert. They’re no longer allowed to show the ad on their website for legal reasons, but the old adage is that there’s no such thing as bad publicity. VW felt that the film was ‘bringing the brand into disrepute’ but I wonder how much new work Lee and Dan won as a result of their short film?

What about publicising design work that you did for a pitch that you didn’t win, do the positives outweigh the negatives?

A recent agency website that we visited had published blog posts on its homepage about work done for pitches they didn’t win. The message that this communicates all depends on the reader, but which way do you see it:

A: “We go in for a lot of pitches that we don’t win”, or...

B: "We did this and it wasn't considered good enough for the client", or...

C: “Let’s not let good work go to waste, you win some you lose some. We think this is great and we hope you do too”

I would be interested to get some opinion on this.

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