DM agencies risk plagiarism in pitches

by Staff, Brand Republic 02-Jun-08, 14:00

LONDON - Direct marketing agencies are exposing their ideas to plagiarism because they fail to effectively copyright their work during the pitch process, according to research by the Direct Marketing Association.

The independent research, conducted for the DMA by relationship consultancy ClientView and due to be released later in the summer, also reveals that two-thirds of winning agencies have been shown losers' work post-pitch.

While 83% of agencies believe they own the copyright to their pitch work just 50% make this clear in writing.

Some agencies feel that they unnecessarily, and all too easily, negotiate away many of their rights, which can lead to lost revenue and strained relationships. This often happens when work is used across other media, overseas or when a client changes agency.

In a bid to combat these problems, the DMA will be launching a series of as yet unannounced initiatives to highlight best practice and improve the quality of engagement between clients and agencies throughout the pitch process.

Tim Dearing, who headed the ClientView insight study, said: "Most agency heads we spoke with admit they need to take more steps to protect their copyright and interests during pitches.

However, they do worry about putting themselves at a commercial disadvantage. Yet most clients do not have a problem with the agency trying to protect its work and ideas, providing the agency are not seen as being unreasonable or to heavy handed about it. Interestingly, the most lax agencies were those who expressed most concern about their pitch work being plagiarised".

Comments

Charles Sludden - 02/06/2008

How true We had a few of our ideas re-interpretated and had even with a signed Non Disclosure Agreement & separate confidentiality agreement in place we lost out to "others" with similar ideas. We still cannot believe that companies treat agencies with such blatant disregard. Nor that these "similar" ideas weren't our concepts tweaked to suit the client and incumbents requirements and that the existing agency couldn't have come up with a similar idea no matter how hard they tried Time that we all stood firm, but then I also blame the agency who did the tweaking and I know who they are but don't think they care as the pressure on them to hold the account and responsibility to their shareholders outweighed the need for fair practice. A level playing field would be welcome

AwallafaShagba - 03/06/2008

In my experience NDA's do not stand up I am afraid. When we all work in a dog eats dog industry, nothing is sacred. SOS !

RS NEAL - 03/06/2008

Totally agree that its high time the pitch process became regulated. A minority of clients take advantage time after time and too many agencies are prepared to put up with shabby treatment or feel they will lose out if they kick-up a fuss.

Scott Knox - 03/06/2008

I fully agree. Far too many agencies do little to protect what is effectively their only commodity – their creative ideas. This is why three years ago the MCCA set up its Pitch Protection Plan. The plan allows agencies to register any original piece of work with the MCCA and its lawyers. On receipt of this a certificate is issued to the agency that can be used to prove that the work has been registered. This effectively warns clients that they should think twice before using any of the ideas contained within this pitch, without recourse or payment to the agency that created it. We would invite any agencies that have problems in this area to join with us in our collective endeavour to stamp out this sort of plagiarism. Scott Knox Managing Director Marketing Communications Consultants Association