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Market research
News Release from: CCB fast.MAP | Subject: risk-sharing pitch research
Edited by the Marketingservicestalk Editorial
Team on 30 April 2008
Perfect pitch research gamble pays off
Online research company CCB fast.MAP has been offering agencies a risk-sharing deal on its pitch-winner research that has proved so popular it's about to take an even bigger gamble.
For 14 months, CCB fast.MAP has offered agencies a two-thirds reduction on their pitch research bill if they don't win the business The bet has proved to be a winner both for the agencies and the research company
This article was originally published on Marketingservicestalk on 21 Feb 2008 at 8.00am (UK)
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Pitch-winning agencies have been delighted to pick up the full GBP4,500 bill - and there haven't been many losers, so the impact on CCBfM's profits has been easily sustainable.
It is now so confident that the 24-hour research (into consumer reaction to a brand and to an agency's proposed marketing strategies for that brand) offers the agency a winning edge in pitches that it is offering even better odds in future.
"We put our faith in both the strength of our research and in the common sense of those agencies which enter into a "perfect pitch" partnership with us; they obviously both realise the potential of the product and see the sense in cutting their losses if they lose the pitch," said CCB fast.MAP MD David Cole.
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This approach has proved popular because agencies are always short of budget for pitches, which are a massive gamble for them.
Most clients expect original thinking from pitching agencies, but there are few bold enough to actually go for mould-breaking concepts.
This creates a dilemma for agencies because they know if they play it safe they won't get the business, but nor will they if the client fears their proposals are too inspirational.
CCB fast.MAP's primary research allows its partner agencies and DM companies to add objectivity to the highly subjective area of creative preference and provide quantifiable proof of how consumers respond to the proposed concepts.
"And we do it fast, producing statistically relevant results in 24 hours or less," said Cole.
Jon Ingall, managing partner, Archibald, Ingall, Stretton, agrees: "This pitch research offers a highly effective way of getting rapid insight from consumers.
"Testing any creative work among thousands of people used to be expensive, labour-intensive work and take weeks.
but with CCB fast.MAP we can get tremendous depth of insight in days, saving money and taking the stress out of research".
"The research enables you to cost-effectively stay in touch with consumers, thus adding enormous value to the planning process," said Andrew Smith, planning director of Publicis Dialog.
"The results give agencies a powerful pitch argument - they can say: 'We researched this strategy/creative approach/offer among 1,000 people from your target market and discovered whatever", said Cole.
"Initially, we took a considerable risk when we gambled two-thirds of our fee against our partner agencies winning their pitches because the reduced fee would have meant we lost money.
However, a high proportion of them won and they also proved to be scrupulously honest in reporting back on their successes and footing the full bill," said Cole.
"This has given us the confidence to improve our offer to an 80 per cent discount if our clients fail to win their pitch - which illustrates how confident we are that our research can really give our clients the definitive edge," he added.
CCB fast.MAP has been involved in many major pitches including, for example, Norwich Union, Hewlett Packard, Sony, Britannia, Virgin Atlantic, Royal Mail, Kellogg's, Sainsbury's, Ladbrokes and Impulse.
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