Creative agencies and the marketers they pitch their ideas to are being brought together by a new global movement called PitchMark, a tangible way to deter idea theft and resolve the issue of pitch fees through its digital platform, PitchMark.org.
The new web-based service held an inaugural debate “Should Clients Pay a Pitch Fee” at its launch in Singapore.
On the one hand, creators of original ideas, concepts or proposals want to trust their clients with their best ideas, but have concerns whether their intellectual property rights will be respected during and after the request for proposal (RFP) process. On the other hand, marketers want to shortlist original concepts that best meet their requirements without having to pay an upfront pitch fee to all participating agencies.
With PitchMark, creators can upload and date-stamp their concepts, creative ideas, designs and business proposals before presenting them to clients. Clients will not be charged a pitch fee from PitchMark. With their ideas PitchMarked, PitchMark annunciates the creator’s concept or idea and all the rights reserved by the creator. Clients also can signal their commitment not to share or use ideas without permission by joining PitchMark. They benefit from attracting better pitches from the creative community, for free.