Agency Future was at the excellent Reboot today and we decided to get into the ‘ACTION’ theme by holding an inpromptu workshop to debate the future of creative agencies.

We were pleasantly surprised when around 20 people showed up for what was a really useful and friendly gathering with some genuinely excellent points raised and debated. More people were still arriving when we had to wrap things up and we could have gone on for longer.

The majority of attendants were agency creatives and there was a lot of common ground in terms of recognising our own agencies’ shortcomings when it came to meeting clients’ needs. Some of the things we agreed on:

* Never assume the client knows less than you do
* Never try and sell a one-size-fits-all approach
* The importance of working closer together with clients – putting an end to the ‘we do this, you do that’ approach in other words
* The value in agencies making and marketing their own products – even if it’s just to gain a better understanding of market realities

But the one thing that really seemed to resonate was the need to reinvent the pitching process. Several agencies are already refusing to pitch for free, and at today’s talk several people mentioned that the traditional pitch scenario left a lot to be desired: clients get a highly polished, arguably artificial impression of the agency, the agency doesn’t really get any genuine business insight.

One way round that could be to have agency teams spend a period of time with the client on a range of different exercises, from creative brainstorming to simply sitting round the table listening to the supply chain being described. At its core this idea is about exploring the chemistry between the two organisations. Is there a natural fit? After all, isn’t it better to find that out before retainer agreements have been signed, and everyone concerned is feeling demotivated and short-changed?