Four Northern agencies are furious over a pitch they claim degenerated
into a fiasco.
All four were invited to contest the account of GA Property Services,
the estate agency division of General Accident, only to be told that
none had won the business.
Advertising Principles in Leeds, which says it invested more than pounds
20,000 in the pitch, is calling on the company to explain its behaviour.
Phil Hesketh, the new-business director of Advertising Principles, said
he had made several attempts to contact Keith Burns, the marketing
manager of GA Property Services, but without success.
He said: ‘Estate agents have a reputation alongside used-car and double-
glazing salesmen and behaviour like this doesn’t help.’
Two other Leeds shops, Brahm and Charles Walls, pitched for the pounds
900,000 account alongside Manchester’s BDH.
Later, all received letters from Burns expressing regret that ‘we will
not be pursuing a relationship with your company’. Burns was unavailable
as Campaign went to press.
The row comes just over a year after the Incorporated Society of British
Advertisers and the Institute of Practitioners in Advertising drew up a
pitching code for agencies and clients which urges clients to offer
losing agencies a post-pitch debrief.
This week, John Hooper, the director general of ISBA, urged the agencies
to voice their concerns to senior executives of GA, which is not an ISBA
member.
He said: ‘It’s worrying that this company has not justified its actions
better to the agencies. ’
