AGENDA

Running a media pitch during challenging organisational times strips away the luxury of textbook processes. Budget changes, decision makers leaving before the end, restructures removing your SMEs and the press publishing negative nonsense about you on the daily. None of these pause for your carefully planned timeline.

This session combines best practice frameworks with hard won lessons about what actually keeps a pitch on track when circumstances conspire against you. We’ll share the playbook we’d use if we ran our pitch again- grounded in procurement best practice but adapted for 2026 commercial reality.

Key considerations:

∙ Define a tangible and senior aligned primary reason for the pitch - and route success criteria in this North Star.

∙ Design commercial structures that reward partnership and adaptability, not just competitive pricing you need agencies who’ll problem solve with you when things go sideways (Luckily Asda do)

∙ Replace the 100 page RFP with targeted briefs and actual conversations that reveal how agencies think, not just how well they follow templates

∙ Create honest communication channels with agencies about real constraints and uncertainties rather than maintaining a façade of control you don’t have

∙ Build contingency into everything- timelines, decision making protocols, commercial terms- because assuming things will go to plan is a sure fire way to lose.