Perhaps one of the more nettlesome issues among public relations firms is how to handle the creative pitch process. Specifically, to what extent should an agency "give away" creative?

This issue always leads to heated discussion because it touches both emotion and the pocketbook.

Let's start with the pocketbook. As we all know, creative pitches are expensive. In a lean economy where money is tight and new budgets are rare, gambling with dollars on creative that may or may not do the trick is a risky proposition indeed. In my twenty years in the business, even small pitches will run an agency $5k to $15k in staff time. Large, multi-million dollar assignments that involve several steps — from credentials to proposals to in-person pitching — can run well over $100k in time from start to finish. Add to that out-of-pocket expenses. At agencies where I've worked, it is not unusual to spend anywhere from $10k to $100k just on hard costs associated with creative.

Beyond pocketbook, there are the emotional or intangible costs.

Why should an agency offer up one of its most precious assets—creativity—without any compensation? Doesn't that degrade and devalue the core value of the agency in the first place? And doesn't that open the door for organizations to simply issue request for proposals (RFPs) in search of "free" ideas rather than a real communications partner?

Then there are those crazy creative demands that show up in RFPs. Brodeur received an RFP that requires all participants to not only submit creative, but also a video of the brainstorming session that led to the creative!

There are "fair" clients out there. My recent favorite was several years ago when Wells Fargo did the right and noble thing and actually paid the two finalists (Brodeur was one) for the final program idea and creative. By compensating the finalists for their creative, Wells Fargo not only received higher quality, but also signaled that they would be a good partner once the business was secured.

Unfortunately, few are willing to pay for the creative in a new business pitch. At the same time, my friends on the corporate side of the table say they need evidence that an agency can apply their creativity to their specific need. They don't want to see what you've done for others. They want to see how the agency can and would think for them.

I don't see how an agency can do that absent giving clients some creative investment.

What do I mean by creative?

At its simplest level, creative is an idea. It is analyzing a situation, drawing insight into a client's issue and delivering an idea based on that insight that translates into strategy. At this level, creative can simply be words on a page, or a narrative in a conversation. It is an idea that generates what we often call that "aha" moment — a moment that opens the client to a new way of looking at and addressing their communications problem.

I regularly include one or more creative elements in pitches. I don't view it as a "give-away." I view it as an investment. That investment varies based on the assessment of each individual opportunity. To mitigate any pocketbook or emotional baggage, I do the following:

• Pitch creative selectively. Creative is akin to marketing and promotion. Do it selectively. Only include speculative creative for opportunities that are (a) well matched to our agency's strengths; (b) well funded; and (c) have good long-term promise that merits the investment required of good creative.
• Pitch creative strategically. The issue is not necessarily the specific creative content. It is the content that opens a client's eyes to the agency's core skills and underscores its strategic skill set. Not everyone responds to the same thing in the same way. I loosely follow an outline called "Chemistry by Design" to try and organize creative in a way that makes the most sense given the personality and culture of the client.
• Pitch creative economically. The good news is that with today's technology, there are more and more economical ways to show creativity that are not very costly. Want to put together a video? Purchase a flip video camera for $125, shoot, edit and upload to YouTube. Off-the-shelf packages can produce a podcasts for peanuts. Online and overseas outsourcing agents can develop logos and creative around simple concepts at incredibly low prices.

The fact is much of the creative we "give away" never gets used. A recent figure I saw estimated that number to be greater than 50 percent. Sounds right to me. I find, however, that it is a very good way of giving client insight into who we are and how we think. It needn't be expensive, just good.

Jerry Johnson is executive vice president of Strategic Planning at Brodeur. Over the past twenty years Jerry has done the "agency holding company trifecta," having worked at Ogilvy (WPP), Powell Tate (IPG), and now Brodeur (Omnicom).