There is competitive intensity in the ad business. The commissions too are shrinking. That prompts ad agencies to solicit new business aggresively. They do so by pitching which has gone up significantly.

Clients call agencies for pitch presentation. Ideas and strategies are exchanged during these meetings. However, that may not result into the award of business to the agency. In such a situation, what happens to the ideas? They might find way into ad campaigns by some other agency. This is unacceptable.

There are charges of copying and plagiarism. However, there is no copy right over the ideas. There could be an agreement at the time of creative pitching that a stiff fee would be charged to the client before they part with the ideas. Pitch fees could be a deterrent to clients seeking ideas through presentations. Another way out is to boycott pitching by the top 10 ad agencies. But such collective action is not practical.

The recent Vivo ad featuring Amir Khan has involved a dispute between Vivo and Ogilvy. Here surprisingly the client has been drawn in the dispute for the first time. The matter is subjudice.