Clear Search Field
» Sitemap

No-one gets fired for hiring IBM

Posted on December 2, 2009 by Matthew Evans

Questionable ethics

I'm not happy at the moment. The reason my aura is off centre is one that most agencies will come up against from time to time and has caused much debate about whether pitch work should be paid for or not. Our pitch concept has been used by the client after losing the pitch!

At the begining of the year we were contacted by Fabergé to pitch for the relaunch of the Fabergé name and line of high class jewellery. We jumped at the chance, why wouldn't we, it's a fabulous brand.

We met with Fabergé and they laid down the requirements. Something ground breaking, modern, new and above all exclusive. It was about joining the Fabergé family, joining the exclusive club and being part of something very special.

We spent a LONG time brainstorming and developing something for Fabergé that was completely different. The concept itself was standard web surfing turned on its head. We proposed an exclusive club, as requested in the brief. This club would be issued with exclusive membership numbers and would be contacted by the team at Fabergé to see if they were interested in a personal tour of the new product line through a web interface.

The difference being that once the user had logged onto the site, they no longer needed to press a button or click a link. The staff member at Fabergé, being their personal shopping assistant would call them on the phone and already know their interests and their preferences and would take control of the experience navigating from product to product as the conversation progressed. The customer simply talks on the phone to the sales assistant and the assistant has a custom built interface to select different products to show the customer in a seemless flow as if they were in the store themselves.

It's innovative, it's easy for the customer, it costs Fabergé less because they don't have to open numerous store fronts. It matched their brief on all levels and they seemed extremely happy with the pitch.

We were extremely hopeful we would land the contract, but we were aparently unable to convince Fabergé we could deliver such a project with the client finally telling us we had lost out to IBM!

We felt crushed as the concept was perfect for the situation, but we took it on the chin. Onwards and upwards.

Fast forward to October 2009 and I happen across the press release from Fabergé on the BBC site. I was a little intrigued by the phrase "examine a ring and chatting via video link with one of 12 sales advisors", so dug a little deeper and found this case study by IBM which basically steps through our entire pitch to Fabergé. To be fair to IBM it does state that Fabergé presented them with the concept. Gutted.

So what do we do now? Try and go public? Get some sort of press coverage? Or do we do nothing and chalk it up to experience? Do we start charging for pitch work as some agencies are doing now?

Personally, I don't believe we ever had a chance in the Fabergé pitch, I think it was a clear case of idea harvesting. So I'm writing this in an effort to educate those who have yet to learn this lesson.

Document fully your pitch work and if possible, put in place NDAs. Select the pitches you enter carefully, if it looks too good to be true, it probably is.

Tagged in: Digital Strategy , Marketing , Digital Consulting , Rant

Comments

  1. Chris James says:

    Ouch, that made for horrible reading. Thanks for sharing the experience though so hopefully others wont have to be as unfortunate as you.
    Posted on December 4, 2009

  2. C says:

    Unfortunate to hear this ... my dad experiences the exact same problem as a consultant. Over the years he has come up with a number of unique concepts and processes for his projects. After working with a client, the client will often turn around to another firm and say "we want you to do a xyz analysis, here is how you do it." He has experienced this numerous times, and has simply decided to throw in the towel on coming up with "game-changers" that, unfortunately, are not unique to his expertise over other consultants. I will be interested to hear if you guys can come up with some sort of solution to this.
    Posted on December 4, 2009

  3. Jono says:

    Wow, I'm sorry man. That just sucks. Personally, I'd try to go public with it somehow just because I could never handle being betrayed so obviously. That's just wrong..... shame on them.
    Posted on December 4, 2009

  4. Daniel says:

    Somebody at Fabergé really made an ass out of his own company. You're already getting quite some press and don't you worry, they'll be seeing this @ Fabergé. The least they are obliged to do is offer you guys a sincere apology.
    Posted on December 4, 2009

  5. charly says:

    that's really horrrible, I'm glad I always go the way of NDA's for critical projects.
    Posted on December 4, 2009

  6. Justin Thyme says:

    You've got my sympathy -- to the extent that this is clearly an early-on experience for you. After you've consulted a few years, you'll learn that this pattern is normative. Get used to it. NDAs will not protect you -- especially when you're trying to protect 'concepts' and abstractions. It's a risk you take as part of doing business out there. I've had ideas stolen, too. Yes, it sucks. But if I focused on the bitterness, I wouldn't be prepared for the next potential gig. I've won far more than I've had stolen.
    Posted on December 4, 2009

  7. Steve says:

    Them's the breaks. Still, you have a great concept for an upscale brand. Did you mock up a prototype? Maybe you could take the idea and cold pitch it to mercedes/gucci/prada/you get the idea.
    Posted on December 4, 2009

  8. Sarah says:

    i think IBM is just as much as at fault as the client. If no one agreed to be a part of this sort of chicanery, it wouldn't happen. They will get their come uppance, somehow, some day. Don't you worry.
    Posted on December 5, 2009

  9. Geoff says:

    I can't see a way to guard against this other than keeping a paper trail and then suing the client when they steal your idea. Hopefully someone high up in Faberge will read this, root out the guilty party and give you the credit you deserve and some recompense.
    Posted on December 5, 2009

  10. tpp says:

    Put out your own case study on it. Since you originated the idea, I'm sure it'll be better than IBM's, and get better search engine traffic.
    Posted on December 7, 2009

Have your say

* Required Field
Blog results loading