# Should I run a pitch or can I award the work directly?

**Short answer.** Pitch if you do not know the market, or if the assignment is big enough to justify weeks of work by three teams. If you already know the candidate and the amount is modest, a paid trial assignment is fairer and faster.

A pitch is expensive for everyone, you included. It is worth it when you do not know the market, or when the assignment is big enough to justify weeks of work by three teams. In every other case there are cheaper ways to reach the same choice.

## When to pitch

- **You do not know the market.** A pitch is then mainly a way to see three ways of thinking side by side.
- **The assignment is large or long-running.** A three-year relationship justifies weeks of work on both sides.
- **You have to be able to justify your choice.** With a public assignment or a purchasing department a procedure is not a luxury but a requirement.

## When not to pitch

- **You already know who you want.** A pitch with a foregone conclusion is an expensive formality, and the other participants always notice. It costs you goodwill you will need later.
- **The amount is modest.** Below a certain threshold the procedure costs more than it returns, on both sides of the table.
- **Your briefing is not settled.** Making three agencies guess what you want gives you three answers to three questions.

## The three alternatives

**The paid trial assignment.** Give one agency a small, real project with a real deadline and a real invoice. You learn more about working together in three weeks of work than in three presentations, at a fraction of the cost of a pitch.

**The chemistry round without work.** Three meetings of an hour and a half, with the same questions. Enough to choose when you are mainly looking for a partner rather than a concept.

**Awarding directly, well prepared.** Entirely legitimate, provided you check the figures and references as thoroughly as in a pitch. See [how to know whether an agency is financially healthy](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/is-een-bureau-financieel-gezond).

## What not to do under any circumstances

Launch a pitch to put pressure on your existing agency. It works once, it costs you the people you liked most, and the rest of the market hears about it.

If you are torn between the two, that is exactly the question a selection process at IKAg starts with: see [Agency selection & pitches](https://www.ikag.be/en/agency-selection).

See also: [how many agencies to invite](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/hoeveel-bureaus-uitnodigen) and [what a pitch costs you internally](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/wat-kost-een-pitch-intern).

## Related questions

- [How many agencies do I invite to a pitch?](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/hoeveel-bureaus-uitnodigen): In IKAg-guided processes the median is six on the longlist and three on the shortlist, and that three is remarkably tight: across twenty measured shortlists it ranged from two to four.
- [What does a pitch cost me internally?](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/wat-kost-een-pitch-intern): More than all the pitch fees together. Add up the hours of everyone who briefs, reads, listens and decides, and with three agencies you are quickly at several man-days per person involved.
- [Should I pay a pitch fee, and how much?](https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq/pitchvergoeding): Yes, the moment you ask agencies to make work rather than introduce themselves. A fee never covers an agency's costs, but it does change who takes part and how seriously.

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IKAg is the business consultant for marketing and agencies in Belgium and the Netherlands. Market figures come from the Agency Barometer, calculated on the annual accounts agencies filed with the National Bank themselves. Figures on pitches and satisfaction come from IKAg-guided processes, and are always presented as such.

- All questions: https://www.ikag.be/en/factsheets/faq
- Last updated: 2026-08-19