Could you imagine going to 3-4 attorneys or accountants and asking them to give you advice (let’s say for the sake of argument 10-15 hours each), but you only pay for the advice you like from one of them? Sound ludicrous? Well, it’s happening more and more with creative services…an outcome of the bad economy.
Last month I heard that Direct TV was bidding out their latest TV ad instead of using their agency. They created a competition for other video professionals and agencies to create an ad that they provided information about for entry into a competition. In the business we call this kind of request a request for “spec” work. the problem with spec work is that you ask people to do a lot of work, but don’t guarantee the business to them. See my comments for more on this…
Stephen Bouikidis said,
April 6, 2009 at 11:58 am
With Direct TV the promise was a low six-figure payment to the winner. For the losers (of which there are probably many), a big fat ZERO. When you consider that this could take many weeks to produce and out-of-pocket expenses running thousands of dollars how fair is this?
Fast forward two weeks. I have a client who is considering doing the same thing for their new logo. There is a service that charges a fee to have your logo designed via a competition. To the winner goes the spoils. To go to a professional it would cost my client 20-30% more. For that extra 20-30% they would get a logo that would reflect their vision because they would be engaged in a process where they would interact with the designer, and have hours of revisions to come up with something that they are happy with. In the other scenario, the client would send out the request with specifications on the project, no interaction with the designers and pick (or not pick) a “winner”.
Scenario three. A large company goes out to six of their vendors/creative services firms and asks them to come up with concepts for no payment. If they like the concept, they pay. If not…tough luck.
It is unfortunate that during hard times, people seem to think that taking advantage of hungry talent is OK. What if someone asked you to do a lot of work for no payment…or payment contingent upon their opinion of your work. This practice is truly unfortunate and one which I and the creative community does NOT condone. I’d love to hear your opinions on this….PLEASE COMMENT!
Eric said,
April 9, 2009 at 10:23 am
I agree wholeheartedly with you. Working on my own as a freelance copywriter for almost 25 years, I rarely have seen where any spec work has turned into an actual assignment. What protection do you have that your “rejected” concepts are not used by the client at another time? Your portfolio should speak for itself and give the prospective client a solid indication of the kind of work that they can expect from you without having to “give away” your creative services. Unfortunately there are a lot of people hungry for the work today so they are willing to take the risk.
Bill said,
April 9, 2009 at 5:20 pm
I think there are two sides to this. On one hand you have the creative community who legitimately feels that their work has value to businesses that need to promote them selves. And it IS insulting to ask any professional to work for free unless the work is “chosen.” On the other side is a businesses looking to get cheap work. Note, I said cheap, not good. Creative companies that engage in “spec” work usually do so because they have some spare time (a common occurrence in a down economy) or they see a potential valuable relationship and consider the time spent on “spec” work a sales cost. However, the work done for spec is almost never their best. It’s the equivalent of walking by a slot machine on the way out of a casino and deciding the throw in a few buck just for fun. It’s rarely a serious investment by a creative firm because, after all, it’s not a serious investment by the company requesting the “spec” work. It also shows very little desire to develop a trusting relationship with a creative firm. In the end companies who ask for “spec” work are as the saying goes “penny wise and dollar foolish.” They will pay less for the work done but ultimately, they are paying for results. And only a trusting relationship and an appropriate budget will allow for the creative exploration and research that deliver effective results.
Dan said,
April 9, 2009 at 5:26 pm
Have you heard about the NO!SPEC campaign?
http://www.no-spec.com/
The NO!SPEC campaign: Serves as a vehicle to unite those who support the notion that spec work devalues the potential of design and ultimately does a disservice to the client.