7 May, 2025 At a Design Business Association forum this week, leaders shared practical tips to help studios avoid free pitching. Rob Alderson reports. In his farewell letter, previous editor Tom Banks referenced the “perennial issues” which Design Week has covered time and again down the years. One stuck in his mind above all others – free pitching. Blair Enns, the author of the Win Without Pitching Manifesto, called it, “the addictive and destructive opioid of both client and agency.” From panel discussions to think-pieces, millions of words have been expended on the topic and many agencies have changed their stance. The industry as a whole? Not so much. Not only does it still happen – it’s still expected. In the recent What Clients Think report, the vast majority of clients – 74% – said they would not expect to pay for a creative pitch. And according to Deborah Dawton, chief executive of the Design Business Association (DBA), free pitching becomes more of a problem in tough economic times like these, when competition for work intensifies. The DBA stance is that its members “shouldn’t take part in pitches that require unpaid work” although it isn’t a stipulation to join the organisation. “Free pitching devalues creativity, erodes professional standards, and undermines the impact of design,” the DBA writes on its website. “It is as bad for clients as it is for agencies and is a practice that has no place in an industry respected around the world for the creative quality and commercial impact of its design work.” Partnering with Design Week, the DBA has made several resources available for anyone, including advice for agencies and advice for design buyers. And this week the DBA held a webinar where various design leaders discussed the issue, why it still happens, and what design businesses can do to push back against the practice. The event was held under Chatham House rules, which means we can’t attribute these insights to specific people, but here are some of the practical and thought-provoking points which came out of the session. Set your stall out from the start The first thing any design studio should do is to work out their policy towards free pitching. What do you do? What don’t you do? And why do you draw the line where you draw it? This creates “a philosophy of your view on pitching and a philosophy of your own work” which can be clearly articulated and not up for negotiation. The next step is to publish a version of this on your website, or at least have it ready in your client-facing materials. “The client will only ask you to pitch for free if they see numerous alternatives to hiring you.” These client policies have become increasingly popular in helping studios agree on a position they are comfortable with. They also remove the need to re-hash the conversation every time a request to free pitch crops up. As one speaker put it, “The prospect’s mind is malleable; the client’s mind is fixed,” so it’s good to make all this clear right from the start in terms of how you are – and aren’t – prepared to work. “You tell them, ‘This is how it works’,” the speaker said. “You can’t tell them those things once you’ve been hired.” One agency leader who has a public policy like this admitted they still get asked to do free pitches. “But it makes it easier to walk away,” they said, “and we attract better fit clients.” Morale matters Alongside a studio’s external stance on free pitching, one speaker made the point that it plays an internal role too. Refusing to free pitch they said, “sends a good message to the team that their expertise and their time is valued.” They continued, “It fosters a sense of professional self-respect that I think is sometimes lacking in firms that chase everything.” In doing so, it helps build the kind of culture many creative leaders are striving for – where everyone’s skills are recognised, respected and rewarded. Double down on positioning Building on the recent “death of design discourse” – another industry topic that recurs at regular intervals – one speaker encouraged studios to sharpen their sense of who they are and what they do best. “The client will only ask you to pitch for free if they see numerous alternatives to hiring you,” they said. With the “massive disruption of AI” already in full swing, they said agencies should start thinking – and talking – about design as “one tool in your box” and “a tool that helps you do something else.” “Most agencies sound like every other agency,” another speaker said. They spoke of the “massive blur” where the same words, phrases and promises crop up again and again. This is why, they suggested, clients are drawn towards requesting a free pitch – because they can’t separate the agencies they are trying to choose between (this person wasn’t defending that, just passing on what they had heard from many years of client-side experience). They said every agency should be clear and honest about what they’re best at – “Don’t try to convince me you can do everything for everybody.” It’s the impact, stupid “Be confident in the work, and the results the work generates,” one speaker said. “That’s a quick way to distance yourself from the decorators in the industry.” This means talking about your previous work in a way that is meaningful for clients. “Promote the success of the work, the impact, not the awards that it won.” A big part of this comes down to your case studies. One studio boss explained that because they don’t free pitch, they have poured more time and effort into their case studies, to speak the language clients speak and include the data points that are likely to matter to them. By creating a stronger creds deck, this agency had won work it had refused to free pitch for. Relationships can bypass pitches It seems obvious to say that relationships matter in design, as in any other industry. But good relationships with clients – combined with successful work – can help design studios skip the pitch stage altogether. One speaker explained how their studio was recently contacted by a client they worked with 20 years ago. She had just taken a new role at a major company and wanted them to work on its rebrand. Another speaker warned that many studios don’t seem to think about relationships as deeply as they should. “Agencies are brilliant at thinking about the company and the brand but completely forget about the humans sitting on that Zoom call,” they said. Consider your clients fears and motivations – how can you make their life easier? How can you get them promoted? “We are all in the empathy business in design – why aren’t we using empathy more prevalently?” It’s tough out there Every speaker acknowledged that with the design industry buffeted by strong winds from many directions, it’s a hard business environment to operate in. Every studio needs to make decisions that work from them when it comes to free pitching. One speaker even admitted that despite their public stance against free pitching – they do, on occasion do it, although they only present opinions rather than spec design work. The problem is that things are unlikely to change unless the majority of studios say no. As one speaker put it, “There is always an agency – or ten agencies – that are willing to do it. That’s why it’s a learned behaviour on the client side.” You can access the DBA’s advice and resources on free pitching here. Industries in this article Brands in this article What to read next