Our response to an article that ran in today’s Ad Age about the “4A’s Missive Sent to Search Consultants Argues for New Agreements in New-Business Pitch Contracts”

Rather than trying to put the onus on consultants to add a “creative ownership” clause to its contract with the client, how about if the agencies refuse to sign any mutual confidentiality contracts that have clauses transferring the ownership of agency pitch IP to clients without compensation.

We also believe this is a telltale sign of how a client views the agency relationship and work product – if they don’t respect it now, it’s not going to get better later. This is also the kind of client we prefer not to do business with.

Honestly, we’ve never come across a situation where the client did not understand that any work shown by an agency during a pitch is still the IP of that agency unless some monetary consideration is negotiated. It’s not like the pitch work is a new business tchotchke.