Both Waddell and Buckwell said they made it clear that spec work wasn’t a requirement for the pitch process and it wasn’t focused on obtaining free ideas.
“By no means was this about, ‘We’re going to generate 100 great ideas off this pitch and run with it,’” said Waddell. “That wasn't the case at all. It was really about making it clear that I’m going to spend the time before the end of the year to hear from people.”
“In the brief that we gave in the email, we said we will not be judging any creative work,” said Buckwell. “This is purely based on your own creds and your own story and how you see our challenge.”
LinkedIn Learnings
Both Waddell and Buckwell said they would use LinkedIn posts the next time they are seeking an agency, but will likely be more specific in their brief given the volume of responses they received.
“What I would do is really clarify the type of agencies I was looking for, like the size of agency, the sort of work [in which] they should have experience … and the type of agency specifically that I was looking for,” Buckwell said.
They also said they were encouraged by the number of independent and small agencies interested in the opportunities.
“[With] formal RFPs of the past there are certain thresholds [agencies] need to hit in terms of business size or hours [they] can dedicate,” to an account, Waddell said. For that reason, small shops would have never gotten a chance, he added.
Only time will tell whether soliciting agencies by posts becomes a larger trend for marketers. It is worth noting that these opportunities are generally smaller and less traditional compared to large brand remits.
Lindsey Slaby, founder of marketing strategy consultant Sunday Dinner, said it is unlikely that this will become a tactic that larger marketers will implement. “Hiring an agency is complex and not a crowdsourced moment to me, unless they have briefs in these [posts],” Slaby said.