Press

Read More: LBB

Pitch processes for creative and media projects are essential, but often prove to be complex and time-consuming

We talked about this with Stefano Arbitrio, Coo / HQ Office in Milan, VA CONSULTING and Antonhy Cardamone, Managing Director Ebiquity Italy

In today’s highly competitive marketing landscape, companies are constantly seeking effective solutions to optimise their time and maximise the impact of their advertising campaigns.  

VA Consulting and Ebiquity have developed a new operational model to simplify and maximise this process: One Pitch. This innovative process allows companies to manage the pitch and selection of suppliers for both the creative and media aspects through a single, integrated process, ensuring greater efficiency, continuity, and transparency. Moreover, with One Pitch, it is possible to immediately assess the integration of the creative component into the media strategy and vice versa.

What is One Pitch?

One Pitch is an integrated process that allows companies to:​

• Unify the process: A single Gantt chart, unified Q&A sessions, a single RFP and RFQ.
• Optimise time: Up to 50% reduction in meetings, reduced supplier selection times, and significantly shorter pitch timelines.
• Increase synergy: Create a unique context where agencies can present integrated proposals, maximising the effectiveness of communication and work teams.
• Benefit from a turnkey process: Rely on a team of experts who handle all phases of the pitch, from supplier selection to contract review.
• Maximise ROI: Thanks to an integrated approach, measurable results and a higher return on investment are achieved.

​VA Consulting​ and Ebiquity have a longstanding collaboration in analysing marketing and communication investments for their clients. The integration of skills and expertise allows the two companies to continuously propose innovation to the advertising market.

Read More: LBB

The team at VA Consulting on the importance of using agency scorecards

We talked about this with Stefano Arbitrio, Coo / HQ Office in Milan, VA CONSULTING.

Selecting the right advertising agency is crucial for the success of marketing campaigns. However, evaluating proposals from different agencies can be a complex task. The services being acquired involve creativity, strategic thinking, and a deep understanding of your brand, which cannot always be precisely quantified.

At VA Consulting, we understand the challenges involved in selecting a creative agency. That’s why we offer expert guidance in optimising project management and costs in all marketing activities, including agency pitches.
This article explores the importance of using agency scorecards and provides key principles to consider when developing your own:

1. Alignment with Internal Stakeholders:
   The chosen evaluation method should align with the vision of internal decision-makers. Ensure the scorecard reflects the criteria that are most valued in an agency partner.
2. Avoid Arbitrary Scoring:
   Focus on what truly matters in selecting the “right” agency for your specific needs. Avoid generic questions/evaluations that do not address the challenges to be overcome.
3. Adapt Questions and Prioritise Value:
   Before starting a pitch process, identify your company’s pain points and desired outcomes. Tailor scorecard questions to assess these priorities along with more general capabilities and characteristics of the creative agency.
4. Mitigate Evaluation Panel Fluctuation:
   Ideally, the evaluation panel should remain consistent throughout the pitch. However, this is not always possible. Consider using a simple scoring system like the average of scores to minimise inconsistencies if some panel members change.
5. Go Beyond Numbers:
   While numerical scores (e.g., 1-5) can be helpful, prioritise qualitative feedback alongside them. Detailed comments from the panel offer valuable insights for an informed, normalised, and consistent decision-making process.
6. Keep it Simple:
   Overly complex scoring systems create confusion and hinder effective evaluation. Always aim for a scorecard with clear and concise questions (ideally less than 10) and a limited number of weighted criteria.
7. Maintain Objectivity:
   Emotions and past experiences with agencies should not influence the evaluation process. These discussions should have taken place during the pre-selection phase. Each shortlisted agency deserves an impartial score based on the established criteria.

In summary:
A well-designed, objective, and simple scorecard is essential for a fair and efficient agency selection. It promotes transparency and ensures that each agency involved in the pitch receives a fair and consistent evaluation.
By following these principles, you can develop a scorecard that allows you to select the ideal agency partner for the success of your marketing campaigns.

Read More: AdForum Worldwide Summit – New York 2024

We are thrilled to announce that VA Consulting will be participating in the AdForum Worldwide Summit taking place in New York from May 13th to 17th! hashtag#AdForumsummit

We must say it’s an incredibly valuable experience where we are able to tap into a wealth of knowledge and a network of contacts that we never could have imagined. The opportunity to participate in the New York event is truly exciting. We can’t wait to meet established colleagues and leading agencies in person. I’m sure that it will be a unique opportunity to further expand our knowledge.

Philippe Paget | Hervé de Clerck | Hannah Cowie | Carol Mason

hashtag#MarketingTransformation hashtag#PitchConsulting hashtag#AgencySelection

Read More: LBB

It is the auditor who manage them who make the difference. The creativity of a TV commercial is 60% down to the agency, 40% down to the director. And efficiency also gains.

We talked about this with Stefano Arbitrio, Coo / HQ Office in Milan, VA CONSULTING.

Why do you consider the bidding process fundamental in TV productions?

‘For several reasons. First of all because it is a ‘compliance’ selection process in line with the company policies that most of our clients have to adhere to. Secondly, it provides the possibility to evaluate and choose between different projects, creative interpretations and economic proposals. Let us consider, for example, a competition of production companies (triple bid) for the production of a television commercial: the interpretation of the ph’s director can make significant additions or creative improvements to the commercial itself compared to those proposed by the agency that devised the campaign. It is well known, in fact, that the creativity of a commercial is on average 60% due to the creative agency and 40% to the director of the production company. So why not receive 3 different proposals to have more scenarios to evaluate’?

But don’t tenders slow down execution times?

‘As a system integrator in marketing area, among other responsibilities, we also play the fundamental role of a third party by helping our clients to be compliant with company standards by guiding them in choosing the best tendering approach per project type. The pitch context does not have to be associated with a long and cumbersome bureaucratic process of stages and scoring models or with a large investment on the supplier side. You can structure beauty contests, light pitches or triple bids where proposals and economics are compared in a single round. Once the type of tender has been chosen, it is essential to manage all communication between the stakeholders: Marketing & Communication, Procurement, Finance, suppliers and the VA itself in total transparency.

It is an approach to partner selection that does not slow down the execution time but allows you to make a wise choice. We invest in training our resources and tools for this very purpose: launch a tender and make the process lean and fast. This way you get the desired result and at the same time optimise your budget by ensuring the best possible creativity for your ad campaign.

The promise for the future is to capitalise as much as possible on the use of an ‘independent’ auditor to ensure the highest standards of tender management and benchmarking in order to dispel this notion that tenders can reduce the profit margins of suppliers with the sole objective of playing down the price’.

Read More: AdForum Worldwide Summit – London 2023

VA Consulting enjoyed a busy and inspiring week at #AdForum worldwide Summit in London 2023. It was a great opportunity to meet the best class agencies in our industry. The team from VA had a wonderful time connecting with colleagues, learning from each other, and sharing in our excitement for the future.

– MullenLowe Global – Kristen Cavallo Claire hollands
– WPP – Mark Read
– Fold7 – Ryan Newey Marc Nohr
– MSQ – Peter Reid Kate howe Jamie elliott
– Accenture Song – Bill Scott Annette king
– Worldwide Partners, Inc. – John Harris
– DEPT® Dimi Albers Missy Foristall
– Iris – Claire Humphris Ian Millner Steve Bell
– Stagwell – Mark Penn Ryan Linder
– Accomplice – Ryan Lietaer Mark Hunter
– Not Perfect Vilnius – Paulius Senuta
– Forsman & Bodenfors – Toby Southgate
– Amplify – Jonathan Emmins
– Kairos Group – Mike Craddock Chris Parnell
– Pablo London – Gareth Mercer Harriet Knight
– Mother – Michael Wall Peter Ravailhe

Thanks to all and to everyone who made this event possible Hervé de Clerck Philippe Paget Peter Cowie Carol Mason Hannah Cowie

#adforumsummit

Read More: Youmark Magazine

VA Consulting, a Marketing Production Consultancy company operating in all areas of advertising ATL (creative agencies, productions, post-production, etc.), BTL (Pos, events, etc.), TTL (Social media and Digital) and Digital transformation (e-commerce, website, CRM etc.), confirms its commitment to expanding its marketing investment optimization services in the Trade and Store Promotion areas.

“We help companies to coordinate the company departments involved in the process of selecting and evaluating the participants in the pitch in order to have an organic picture of the activity to be contracted that is functional to the company’s values, making costs efficient according to the objectives.

Normally, the complexity of the activities to be put in place goes beyond the competence of the individual functions, and there is a risk that the criterion of choice is only the lowest cost, leaving out other aspects that are becoming fundamental.

More and more, in fact, companies need partners who collaborate consistently with their code of ethics, following the guidelines of their social report but at the same time perform their duties with quality and effectiveness, it is no longer just a problem of lower cost, the vision HSE (Health, Safety & Environment) is now essential and can not be disconnected from the company.

All services that are entrusted to external partners will be increasingly analyzed by stakeholders and shareholders from the ethical point of view, of their consistency with ESG models and sustainability in general; it is therefore no longer acceptable an analysis that focuses purely on the cost without knowing what happens in the last ‘mile’, where the company strongly risks its image,” explains in the note Roberto La Rosa, Head of Trade analysis services.

Thanks to its network VA Consulting is able to address national and international clients and is able to support the whole process also for SMEs that need ad hoc structure and know-how.

It’s with this continuous evolution of technologies and services that the company led by CEO Alessandro Arbitrio, continues the press note, strengthens its role, combining deep knowledge in the production field to more and more accurate and innovative analysis tools. So in 2022 the commitment to understand and anticipate trends is confirmed, to allow its customers to control and improve processes aimed at maximizing the marketing budgets available.

Read More: Engage Magazine

VA Consulting, a Marketing Production Consultancy company operating in all areas of advertising ATL (creative agencies, productions, post-production, etc.), BTL (Pos, events, etc.), TTL (Social media and Digital) and DX (Digital transformation), confirms its commitment to expanding its marketing investment optimization services in the Customer Relationship Management (CRM) area.

“We are able to control and optimize complex CRM projects, so as to ensure the usability of data for the execution of various business processes in order to meet the ever-increasing investments of our customers in this area. This is not just about analyzing the creativity of DEM or Newsletters, this type of creative control and realization activity is part of our traditional services”.

Thanks to its network, VA Consulting is able to address national and international brands.

“To provide these services, we need expertise in various areas ranging from data architecture to Business Intelligence and Continuous Process Improvement to enable CRM to do trade-union operations across the several areas of the company” says Carlo Degirolamo, head of CRM analysis services.

It is with this continuous evolution of technologies and services that the company led by CEO Alessandro Arbitrio strengthens its role, combining deep knowledge in the production field to increasingly timely and innovative analysis tools.

Thus, in 2022, the commitment to understand and anticipate trends is confirmed, in order to allow its clients to control and improve the processes to maximize the marketing budget available.

Read More: LBB

As MCA’s founder and CEO Pat Murphy connects with Alessandro Arbitrio’s Italian-based VA Consulting, the pair tell LBB why the move represents part of a fundamental shift in the global production landscape.