It's World of Fucking Wonder

This from Business Week columnist Steve McKee. How To Hire an Ad Agency.

"4. Don't ask for—or even entertain—speculative work. Speculative campaigns are the bane of the agency business. Spec campaigns are like steroids, artificially inflating the appearance of an agency and often overstating its true capabilities.

It's easy to think that by asking for speculative work you're getting true sample of the agency's work, but you're not. The timeline is artificial, the discovery process is shortchanged, and in the excitement of a new business pitch an agency can focus disproportionate resources on the task, something unlikely to happen in an ongoing relationship. It's a dirty little secret of the agency business that freelancers are often brought on board to help develop spec work—freelancers nowhere to be found once the agency is awarded the account.

But the biggest reason not to ask for spec work is that the best agencies—the ones you really want—won't do it. They don't have to simply because their services are in demand. The more an agency is willing to jump through speculative hoops for you, the more you should be [suspicious]. If they're ready to give away their work there must not be a very good market for it."

What do you think about Spec work? We don't do it here at Russell Herder, and I know we've lost at least one major account because of it. I agree that an agency should be hesitant to offer free work, but I also understand that sometimes you have to play tough to win a coveted account. Sometimes I get really tired about the "rules" associated with advertising.