Hornet Signs UK Director Troy Browne to Global Roster
October 28, 2026
Nerdo ECD Claus Cibils continues his careful dissection of the creative pitching ecosystem with his latest Stash editorial, looking at the process from the winner’s perspective: what can be learned, what can be improved?
The email lands… Subject: Congratulations, your proposal was selected!
The team chat lights up with GIFs and confetti emojis everywhere. And just like that, the whole pitch process looks like a success. For one of the many who participated.
Even carrying the trophy, we need to ask: What did it take to get here? Was this a good process? Did this pitch reward creativity or endurance? Did the client get genuinely different ideas to choose from? Or just beautifully designed variations of what the room already expected?
The uncomfortable part is how easily we recreate the conditions we complain about.
“Even carrying the trophy, we need to ask: What did it take to get here? Was this a good process? Did this pitch reward creativity or endurance?”
An agency can spend weeks trying to get answers while competing for an account. Then it wins and needs a studio or director. It knows what it wished had been different. Now it can improve the next competition or forward the same uncertainty with a new deadline.
Some decisions belong to clients, some to agencies, and the people invited to compete can challenge what they’re being asked to do. The power isn’t equal. Neither is the responsibility.
If we ask people to invest time, we’d better be prepared to give them ours.
Twenty studios get asked for reels. How many are we actually prepared to look at properly? If we can seriously consider six or eight studios, let’s take a closer look rather than collect twenty reels we barely have time to watch. Say we shortlist three with a keen eye. Maybe even talk to them.
And please, not the same six familiar names every time. New perspectives are part of what makes competition valuable.
Three finalists. Let’s not disappear until presentation day. Three teams are now investing in a job only one will get. Leave the same question unanswered, and we can end up paying for the guesswork three times.
Put the decision-makers in the conversation while the ideas can still change. The client explains what matters most. The agency sees a better route. A director challenges a reference.
An hour of genuine exchange can turn three elaborate guesses into three ideas worth comparing. The client gets better creative choices. The agency gets thinking it can develop and defend. Studios and directors can spend their talent on exploring the possibilities rather than reading minds.
“The problem isn’t the investment itself. It’s how we’ve allowed pitching to operate, kept feeding it, and stopped demanding that it make better use of everyone’s effort.”
That’s efficiency: Better use of everyone’s time, money, talent, and resources to produce stronger creative work and better-informed decisions.
Sometimes it requires more upfront preparation, more collaboration, and fair compensation and protection when we request substantial original work. Those resources have a purpose. They’re improving the competition, not simply keeping it moving.
We cannot guarantee the outcome of a pitch. We can change the conditions under which we compete. The problem isn’t the investment itself. It’s how we’ve allowed pitching to operate, kept feeding it, and stopped demanding that it make better use of everyone’s effort.
WE LOVE PITCHING
Let’s change the way we play the game.
Follow Claus on LinkedIn and Instagram.
WE LOVE PITCHING: Let’s change the way we play the game.
DISCLAIMER: All images are AI-generated. If it feels real, uncomfortable, or a little ridiculous, it’s intentional. Artificially made. Human crafted.
