News, events and advice on agency compensation matters ...
The following is excerpted from a letter from an AAAA member agency to a major client, in response to a new-business RFP, October 2007:

"ABC Agency received your RFP dated today. The terms of the RFP are not acceptable to ABC and therefore we will not be responding to this RFP. The following terms of the RFP would not conform to our standards or our industry's standards:

• You have asked for speculative creative work without offering any compensation.
  
• You have stated that you would own any work that was submitted, even though you would not pay consideration for the work product.
  
• The outcome of the process may be to not choose an agency or to retain as many agencies as you wish -- making it difficult for us to evaluate the level of investment we would be willing to attribute to this review.
  
• You have not provided an anticipated budget that you would ask an agency to work within.
  
• The timing of the RFP is not reasonable -- speculative work for a major brand in eight days.
  

We would not agree to work on a cost-plus basis for the majority of our work product. We believe that our marketing strategies in the category are significantly more valuable than those used in your example.

If you choose to reevaluate your RFP process to one that is more in keeping with the protocols of both the American Association of Advertising Agencies and the Association of National Advertisers, we would be pleased to revisit our participation in your review. Thank you for considering ABC to be among a group of qualified marketing partners that you would consider."

For more information, AAAA members are encouraged to utilize the resources available in the New Business Tool Kit, available on the AAAAgencySearch.com Web site.