The ad agency industry is all a Twitter, and a blog over the Zappos RFP. Some are thrilled with the process, most are pissed off. The recent Advertising Age article http://tinyurl.com/ks26tk
and associated comments are telling of the frustration agencies have with the RFP/pitch process. Well it does suck, sort of. Here is my comment posted on the Advertising Age site.
This is a challenge for both sides of the table. We were not one of the first 16, but were in the mix early and were able to have just about as much contact as necessary with the Zappos team. We also did not make it to the next round; we choose to believe our materials received a fair review. Aaron Mangness’ comment (added to Ignited’s blog)http://tinyurl.com/n3pe79 spells out the intention of Zappos.
I think Mike @ Ignited is right, I think Zappos is right – the RFP process sucks for everyone, Client/Agency relationships are more like marriage than deciding where one might eat lunch today. As such, some dating is in order – maybe even speed dating is necessary. It’s not pretty, unfortunately.
Where it appears things got hairy for Zappos was when so many agencies expressed an interest. Their RFP indicated “…all agencies will be invited to present their proposal.” That gave us the perspective there would be two opportunities to impress the Zappos people. When they became overwhelmed, it may have been to everyone’s benefit to communicate with all agencies about the situation and that the game is changing. Additionally, we were left waiting to hear about our status while those selected began Twittering about their good fortune. It was sort of like waiting to find out if we were voted off the island. It was not until 12:29 AM on Friday July 10 that we received word.
Now I understand why – more than 80 submissions, a looming deadline, and a holiday. So many factors for our friends at Zappos.
Do I wish we were there – no doubt, we believe we did what was necessary to get into the finals. Zappos, unfortunately did not. Would I do it again, not without understanding the number of agencies they are considering, but we’d most likely show up. Good clients are hard to come by and I believe Zappos would be as good a client as they are a company.
We are doing more and more to get away from the RFP/pitch process, it is unavoidable. And exhilarating. And sharpens the agency. For that alone we think the Zappos effort was worthwhile.
