- 9 → 1
- Agencies assessed to one confident, defensible choice
- 8
- Weighted evaluation dimensions, scored independently by two senior consultants
- 100%
- NDA completion across the longlist, full competitive tension held
A global consumer retailer re-pitching its media account
- Sector
- RETAIL · MEDIA & MARKETING
- Capability
- Media & marketing
Challenge
The retailer had outgrown its incumbent media partner.
Performance had plateaued with a technology partner that brought limited strategic thinking and leaned on black-box automated buying, with no path to step-change growth. The in-house paid media team was absorbed by executional admin, leaving no capacity for innovation, learning agendas or meaningful media governance. With no competitive market intelligence, the business was negotiating fees in a vacuum and held no leverage.
Solution
We ran a structured, senior-led pitch end to end, in five stages: ambitions, KPIs and stakeholder alignment; market mapping, longlisting and NDAs; an RFI and chemistry round scored down to a four-agency shortlist; a full RFP with a commercial framework; then selection, negotiation and onboarding.
Nine agencies across global networks, independents and technology specialists were scored independently by two senior consultants against eight weighted dimensions, then moderated into a single ranked heatmap. Four went through to chemistry sessions and three reached the RFP. A like-for-like commercial framework put every finalist on the same footing, with performance-related fees and buying guarantees modelled side by side. The client selected its new partner from a position of genuine leverage, with bias removed, growth commitments quantified, a negotiated transition plan through to go-live and governance agreed for the first 90 days.
