Let’s Talk about Ad Production, Tenders Yes or No?

Let’s talk about ad production, tenders yes or no? For us they are crucial.

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

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 three different proposals to have more scenarios to evaluate’?

But don’t tenders slow down execution times?

‘As a system integrator in the 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’.