Pitch satisfaction falls as agencies grade marketers a ‘D+’ in TrinityP3 report

Australian marketers and procurement teams have been handed a D+ score by agencies in TrinityP3’s latest State of the Pitch report, with overall satisfaction around pitch processes falling for the second year running.

The report, released today, found the average pitch rating dropped to 2.99 out of 5, down from 3.13 last year. TrinityP3 global CEO Darren Woolley said the results reflected growing frustration with how marketers and procurement teams are managing the pitch process.

“If the pitch were graded using the American grading system, it feels like this year pitching in Australia went from a C- to D+ in the eyes of many agencies, which I’m not sure is cause for celebration,” Woolley said. “This is the second year we have run the survey and what we are seeing is nothing is improving.”

TrinityP3’s report is based on feedback from agencies involved in more than 70 pitches conducted across Australia and New Zealand over six months, covering budgets from $50,000 to $10 million and 24 industry categories. The findings point to growing frustration among agencies, with Woolley warning that “under the downward economic pressure, many aspects of the pitch process are getting worse.”

Among the challenges highlighted in the report, agency respondents noted a growing lack of clarity in decision-making, with many marketers struggling to drive the process without C-suite involvement. 

“We’re definitely seeing an uptick of direct CEO and broader C-suite involvement in pitches,” Woolley said. “And more ‘local-global’ pitches, where the scope is local but the client is compelled to seek sign-off from regional or global leadership.”

The survey also revealed growing concerns about procurement’s involvement in pitch processes, with agencies reporting that procurement teams are showing less experience in managing marketing categories. 

“The category-specific experience of procurement in marketing is going backwards, which presents challenges for all concerned,” Woolley added.

According to the report, 87% of pitches did not offer agency pitch fees, while 66% required agencies to prepare speculative creative work, a media trading exercise, or both. Over half the pitches were reported as taking two to three months to complete.

“As we saw last year, many marketers continue to boil the ocean in their search for the right agency,” Woolley said. “It doesn’t need to be that way, and it shouldn’t be. This year we had agencies reporting pitch lists of up to 13 agencies. Some clients will have open tendering requirements, but you have to wonder what the refining time is like on a pitch like that.”

The report also tracked shifts in client priorities, with strategy, creative/content, social media, influencer marketing and production among the top five capabilities sought by marketers. 

Woolley also noted a significant increase in the importance placed on production, particularly when it comes to agencies’ use of AI tools.

“It’s no surprise that strategy reigns supreme,” Woolley said. “But what is interesting is the uptick in ‘production’. We definitely see clients placing greater emphasis on stress-testing agency approaches to production, and within this, their level of AI maturity. We predict that AI-enabled production will only become bigger as a pitch battleground.”

The report also found growing compliance pressures, particularly around data privacy, as part of the pitch process. Meanwhile, priorities around ESG and DE&I appear to have slipped, with Woolley suggesting many clients, particularly those with US operations, are shifting their focus away from these areas.