Fallon, 4Creative, Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R and The Brooklyn Brothers were shortlisted to pitch for the business.
All four had attended meetings with the client and presented concepts.
However, agencies were told this week that Innocent had decided not to pursue any of the routes and would develop its own ideas in-house.
A spokeswoman for Innocent defended the move, stating that all agencies entered the process "clear about the terms of engagement".
"As an entrepreneurial business, we didn't feel it necessary to be tied to one party.
"We talked to a range of people. In the end it was our in-house team that developed the work we preferred," she said.
Innocent first reviewed in June 2007, but opted to stay with incumbent, Lowe.
It later restarted agency talks before moving the business in-house.
Comments
Risky business - hope the work lives up to it
Yet another example of a client wasting everyones time with costly indeciciveness. Makes you wonder if they think these pitches come for free. Oh well, I suppose they'll be lucky to have anyone pitch if they do decide to move out of house again.
Viva the entrepeneurs!!
If this 'entrepreneurial business' didn't feel it necessary to be tied to one party, what was it doing hanging its account out for pitch?
If the agencies had been asked to present concepts, and there is no payment made to them for their efforts, then this client, like so many others who do likewise, should be shot at dawn and blacklisted. That's not how you do business, and any 'entrepreneurial business' should be aware of that.
Power to them, but I hope they've considered the 'management' dynamic this decision will bring with it. Managing creative relationships are an art form, as any Creative Director and/or client will tell you. Good luck though and I think we all look forward to hearing how this goes.
Did I get this right? Something like: We will allow you to pitch your ideas/concepts and then we'll decide whether we're serious about it or not? Agencies are desperate, Brands are completely lost... oh glorious days....
Hello all. innocent here. I'd like to set the record straight re our relationship with agencies, and the last few weeks' process.
We stopped retaining a creative agency in Feb this year, and have no plans to change that. We want to work with whoever is right for each job, whether that's our internal creative team or an agency, or a collaboration between the 2, and so we stopped retaining an agency to give us that flexibility.
For our new brief (which, incidentally, is a one-off campaign brief and not a £4m piece of business as reported) we wanted to get a breadth of ideas, and invited a few agencies to contribute. We were completely clear with everyone about the process (i.e. no win-no fee, one project only / no future retainer, internal team competing alongside etc) and they all took part on that basis.
We were completely serious about this process and the likelihood of the winning idea coming from an agency - after all, why else would we have invested so much of our own time briefing agencies and reviewing responses?
This isn't a question of us 'scrapping our pitch' - we ran a genuine pitch, and the internal team won. If any of the parties who took part feel like their time has been wasted, then I'd be surprised and very disappointed.
It is really bad how clients think this is acceptable. imagine if the tables were turned and a big supermarket held a pitch for a smoothie maker to produce their next blockbuster smoothie, only to turn around at the last minute and after a few hundred thousands of investment and research so say,actually, nah, we'll do it ourselves. they'd probably look to sue!
we had a great example at our agency recently where after tendering and then pitching for a re-brand alongside about ten other agencies (god knows why they needed so many), the client then turned around and decided that to save money on agency fees for their rebrand, they would hold a public competition with a £500 prize for the winning logo!
just goes to show that some clents really have no clue. we need more 'creative' people in procurement!
just read charlotte's comments, (must've been posted whilst i was typing!), good for you for explaining your side and quite possibly this has been blown out of proportion. however, sadly there are all too many clients that do pull out after pitches with little to no consideration for allthe time, effort and money that went in. not winning a pitch is one thing but to have your time wasted by indecisiveness is another. (not referring to you Charlotte)
I'd like to know why Innocent didn't ask its in-house team to come up with the goods BEFORE it called in the external agencies?
I'm sure the agencies involved (4Creative, Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R and The Brooklyn Brothers) will be keen to see what the in-house creative team produce, If only to see that there concept hasn't been tweaked slightly and then rolled out...as this happen to me not so long back. Where do the agencies stand on this when this happens, if creative has already been submitted?
In house... I draw your attention to (not in any particular order of crap-ness) Specsavers, EasyJet and Ryanair. No further submissions your 'onner!
did anyone expect more from our smuggest brand?
makes my skin crawl, if only someone else could mush some fruit up and supply it to my local sandwich shop and supermarket.
DPL - 04/09/2008
This isn't the first time Innocent have done this and it won't be the last either. BEWARE! We are a design agency with first hand experience of their so-called pitch strategy.
And the upshot is the agencies feel they've been involved in a non-pitch, the internal team feel like their management has used some flash agencies as a stick to beat them with and Innocent takes a big chunk of it's brand value and flushes it down the loo. Everybody's happy!
If you work in a competitive business environment, you meet competition, wherever it comes from. What's more, someone else is paying you from their business revenues, which means they get to chose how they spend it (and in this case appears they were clear about that from the outset). If that's unpalatable, you could switch and go and work for a monopoly.....
This certainly seems to have provoked some debate.
All you guys might like to know that there's a new blog dedicated to all things newbiz/pitching-related.
Funnily enough, the most recent topic on http://thepitchleader.blogspot.com/ concerns exactly this issue.
Stops - 04/09/2008
Sell the shares. You can count the number of successful self-advertisers on the fingers of one hand - Bernard Mathews err... Taking advertising in-house should be added to arriving at meetings by helicopter and moving the offices offshore as a singular sign of an imminent downturn in business
Hello Everyone,
After seeing so much press regarding this innocent drinks pitch and there being quite a great deal of negative comments thrown about, I feel the need to have my say too.
I have known the innocent team for nearly two years now and worked on the agency side of the relationship. At my previous agency I worked closely with the innocent creative and communications teams, all have been most respectful to their agencies.
I have attended strategy meetings with the innocent teams, where innocent have been open and honest about their marketing intentions from the start, bringing the agency right to the table at the beginning of projects. innocent have at all times taken the agency comments into account, been upfront on budgets and always allowed me to PR the work produced.
On every occasion that the agency was briefed, should the outcome have been that their in-house team had the better idea, we were considered for other projects almost immediately. At times, innocent teams worked on site at the agency, and vice versa, working with them is an enjoyable experience.
I strongly believe that innocent make a great client, I have never had a bad experience with them. I can also confirm that I have run a few pitches with innocent and each time, no matter what the outcome, I have found them to handle the pitch in a friendly, and fair manner, to which the best creative idea wins.
And on many occasions our ideas won and the innocent in-house creative teams were happy to follow our creative lead.
Charles Billot: Deputy Managing Director - Fifty Foot Squid
Comments
charlie robertson - 04/09/2008
Risky business - hope the work lives up to it
Nick Leatham - 04/09/2008
Yet another example of a client wasting everyones time with costly indeciciveness. Makes you wonder if they think these pitches come for free. Oh well, I suppose they'll be lucky to have anyone pitch if they do decide to move out of house again. Viva the entrepeneurs!!
ANDY SELLERS - 04/09/2008
If this 'entrepreneurial business' didn't feel it necessary to be tied to one party, what was it doing hanging its account out for pitch? If the agencies had been asked to present concepts, and there is no payment made to them for their efforts, then this client, like so many others who do likewise, should be shot at dawn and blacklisted. That's not how you do business, and any 'entrepreneurial business' should be aware of that.
Pamela Edmond - 04/09/2008
Power to them, but I hope they've considered the 'management' dynamic this decision will bring with it. Managing creative relationships are an art form, as any Creative Director and/or client will tell you. Good luck though and I think we all look forward to hearing how this goes.
Nuno Santos - 04/09/2008
Did I get this right? Something like: We will allow you to pitch your ideas/concepts and then we'll decide whether we're serious about it or not? Agencies are desperate, Brands are completely lost... oh glorious days....
jezwaspsrule - 04/09/2008
BORING
Richard Hayter - 04/09/2008
Innocent? Far from it.
Charlotte Rawlins - 04/09/2008
Hello all. innocent here. I'd like to set the record straight re our relationship with agencies, and the last few weeks' process. We stopped retaining a creative agency in Feb this year, and have no plans to change that. We want to work with whoever is right for each job, whether that's our internal creative team or an agency, or a collaboration between the 2, and so we stopped retaining an agency to give us that flexibility. For our new brief (which, incidentally, is a one-off campaign brief and not a £4m piece of business as reported) we wanted to get a breadth of ideas, and invited a few agencies to contribute. We were completely clear with everyone about the process (i.e. no win-no fee, one project only / no future retainer, internal team competing alongside etc) and they all took part on that basis. We were completely serious about this process and the likelihood of the winning idea coming from an agency - after all, why else would we have invested so much of our own time briefing agencies and reviewing responses? This isn't a question of us 'scrapping our pitch' - we ran a genuine pitch, and the internal team won. If any of the parties who took part feel like their time has been wasted, then I'd be surprised and very disappointed.
alex parr - 04/09/2008
It is really bad how clients think this is acceptable. imagine if the tables were turned and a big supermarket held a pitch for a smoothie maker to produce their next blockbuster smoothie, only to turn around at the last minute and after a few hundred thousands of investment and research so say,actually, nah, we'll do it ourselves. they'd probably look to sue! we had a great example at our agency recently where after tendering and then pitching for a re-brand alongside about ten other agencies (god knows why they needed so many), the client then turned around and decided that to save money on agency fees for their rebrand, they would hold a public competition with a £500 prize for the winning logo! just goes to show that some clents really have no clue. we need more 'creative' people in procurement!
alex parr - 04/09/2008
just read charlotte's comments, (must've been posted whilst i was typing!), good for you for explaining your side and quite possibly this has been blown out of proportion. however, sadly there are all too many clients that do pull out after pitches with little to no consideration for allthe time, effort and money that went in. not winning a pitch is one thing but to have your time wasted by indecisiveness is another. (not referring to you Charlotte)
jezwaspsrule - 04/09/2008
IT'S STILL BORING
alex parr - 04/09/2008
quit reading it then.
Francesca Fisher - 04/09/2008
I'd like to know why Innocent didn't ask its in-house team to come up with the goods BEFORE it called in the external agencies?
Dave Moore - 04/09/2008
I'm sure the agencies involved (4Creative, Rainey Kelly Campbell Roalfe/Y&R and The Brooklyn Brothers) will be keen to see what the in-house creative team produce, If only to see that there concept hasn't been tweaked slightly and then rolled out...as this happen to me not so long back. Where do the agencies stand on this when this happens, if creative has already been submitted?
sue turner - 04/09/2008
In house... I draw your attention to (not in any particular order of crap-ness) Specsavers, EasyJet and Ryanair. No further submissions your 'onner!
johnny rambleton - 04/09/2008
did anyone expect more from our smuggest brand? makes my skin crawl, if only someone else could mush some fruit up and supply it to my local sandwich shop and supermarket.
DPL - 04/09/2008
This isn't the first time Innocent have done this and it won't be the last either. BEWARE! We are a design agency with first hand experience of their so-called pitch strategy.
Richard Hayter - 04/09/2008
And the upshot is the agencies feel they've been involved in a non-pitch, the internal team feel like their management has used some flash agencies as a stick to beat them with and Innocent takes a big chunk of it's brand value and flushes it down the loo. Everybody's happy!
Chris Askew - 04/09/2008
If you work in a competitive business environment, you meet competition, wherever it comes from. What's more, someone else is paying you from their business revenues, which means they get to chose how they spend it (and in this case appears they were clear about that from the outset). If that's unpalatable, you could switch and go and work for a monopoly.....
Robin Bonn - 04/09/2008
This certainly seems to have provoked some debate. All you guys might like to know that there's a new blog dedicated to all things newbiz/pitching-related. Funnily enough, the most recent topic on http://thepitchleader.blogspot.com/ concerns exactly this issue.
Stops - 04/09/2008
Sell the shares. You can count the number of successful self-advertisers on the fingers of one hand - Bernard Mathews err... Taking advertising in-house should be added to arriving at meetings by helicopter and moving the offices offshore as a singular sign of an imminent downturn in business
Charles Billot - 12/09/2008
Hello Everyone,
After seeing so much press regarding this innocent drinks pitch and there being quite a great deal of negative comments thrown about, I feel the need to have my say too.
I have known the innocent team for nearly two years now and worked on the agency side of the relationship. At my previous agency I worked closely with the innocent creative and communications teams, all have been most respectful to their agencies.
I have attended strategy meetings with the innocent teams, where innocent have been open and honest about their marketing intentions from the start, bringing the agency right to the table at the beginning of projects. innocent have at all times taken the agency comments into account, been upfront on budgets and always allowed me to PR the work produced.
On every occasion that the agency was briefed, should the outcome have been that their in-house team had the better idea, we were considered for other projects almost immediately. At times, innocent teams worked on site at the agency, and vice versa, working with them is an enjoyable experience.
I strongly believe that innocent make a great client, I have never had a bad experience with them. I can also confirm that I have run a few pitches with innocent and each time, no matter what the outcome, I have found them to handle the pitch in a friendly, and fair manner, to which the best creative idea wins.
And on many occasions our ideas won and the innocent in-house creative teams were happy to follow our creative lead.
Charles Billot: Deputy Managing Director - Fifty Foot Squid