• by Larissa Faw , May 12, 2021

Agency SuperHeroes NY projects that one in three U.S. brands will consider switching up their ad agency roster in the next six months. With that level of potential demand for agency services in mind it is “flipping the script” to generate new business.

The agency’s “The Client Pitch” works just like a traditional competitive review, except instead of the agency pitching work to the client, brands are expected to compete against each other to woo the agency.

Brands are invited to first submit a quick explanation of why they want to participate to TheClientPitch.com by Tuesday, May 25. From this list, four brands will be chosen to pitch their brand. For assistance, SuperHeroes has even created a humorous “score sheet” to show how they will be grading each pitch. There is also the typical pitch fee, $500, for the four finalist brands, which will be donated to NoKidHungry.org.

While this effort is undeniably meant to land new accounts, agency leaders say this process will help them find better partnerships with potential clients. 

“With the U.S. returning to optimist mode, we started getting pitch requests from a range of brands, and we stumbled on these difficult questions, like: ‘what is best for us?’ And ‘who will we be successful with?’ as well as  'who will we have a great time with?,’” says Rogier Vijverberg, ECD and founder of Superheroes. “Being a nimble agency, we only have so many hours in a day, and pitches are always uncertain in their outcome. So we thought what if we flip the process?”

Ultimately this review provides an introduction to brands from the agency, he adds. “There are quite a number of brands looking for an agency like us, and they should know what we stand for. So what if they could present themselves to us, allowing us to make a better choice, instead of vice versa?“

“I want to encourage brands to focus on finding different ways of selecting an agency, one that is more focused on building sustainable relationships,” he says. “The Client Pitch is a good start.“

Although the pitch review just launched this week, the first responses have been “encouraging,” says Vijverberg.