Etisalat PR account: Pitch fee payment uncertain

The PR agencies that will fall by the wayside at the conclusion of the ongoing pitch for the multimillion naira public relations account for Etisalat telecommunication may not be expecting payment of pitch fee from the telecommunication company.

An official of one of the top PR agencies participating in the pitch process was not sure the telecom firm committed itself to payment of pitch fee in the brief but said that pitch fee is not their consideration for now. “I don’t think the PR agencies including the creative agencies have been receiving pitch fees”, he said.

This is as the agencies in the pitching process are edgy over the pitch as to who clinches the mouthwatering account.

Pitch fee is an international practice paid to media agencies taking part in pitching exercise due to their time, engagement of resources, non recoverable external costs and unquantifiable intellectual rights but Nigerian agencies have been short-weighed on this by clients.

The nonpayment of pitch fee in the Nigerian environment has many legs traceable to lack of coordination by agencies, earlier missed opportunities to maintain or stick to standards and the fear by any agency of  being touted or sidelined in the market by clients for  ‘over -ambition’

Recently, BusinesssDay reported that Etisalat, an innovative telecoms firm, has thrown open its public relations job, and top Nigerian public relations firms are said to have lined up for the multi-million naira account.

The agencies are Chain Reactions, XlR8, MediaCraft, The Quadrant Company and  C & F Potter Novelli. The sixth agency, Brooks and Blake as earlier reported may have withdrawn as MTN pr account is now in its bosom.

The eventual winner among the five agencies will perhaps manage not only the corporate but the consumer PR activities of the telco.

Daniel Obi