‘Ghosting’ haunts creative agencies as more & more brands disappear after calling pitches

After two years of subdued business, advertising agencies in India are now grappling with a fresh challenge- ‘ghosting’ by brands.

Brands are increasingly disappearing and going incommunicado for months after calling for pitches. Such is the pain that the ad agencies have started maintaining a blacklist of the brands that indulge in, what they refer to as, “unethical” and “humiliating” practices.

The phenomenon of ghosting is not new in the sector; brands in all categories have been indulging into such practices and every agency must have experienced it at some point in time. However, the extent and scale of ghosting have gone up over the past couple of years, say ad sector experts.

Amit Wadhwa, CEO of dentsu creative India, gives a glimpse of the ordeal creative agencies are going through.

“We have blacklisted a few brands, including a startup which made a fortune during the pandemic, due to their weird approach. They invited pitches, had lengthy discussions and then stopped communicating with us, only to reappear after months without any remorse,” he explains.

Wadhwa added, “The approach of some brands is outrightly unethical and frustrating. It is quite challenging for us to collate the human resources at the last minute and force them to deliver with a tight deadline. Hence we decided to not work with such brands ever.”

Zoo Media has also blacklisted many such brands, many of them are startups, for wasting the agency’s time and resources.

Pratik Gupta, Co-founder Zoo Media, tells e4m, “While ghosting may have been minimally prevalent in the earlier days too, there has been a mammoth and massive rise in ghosting techniques circa 2019. Our industry has witnessed a significant increase in such cases in the last three years.”

Ghosting affects an agency's resources on a tangible financial level. After all, creative personnel have to spend two-four weeks preparing a thorough pitch for any brand which calls for pitches on retainership basis, ad agency heads say.

Gupta explains, “Losing a deal is part and parcel of life, but if you are ghosted, you are hung by a stressful thread. From an administrative point of view, the team can’t even manage its talent pool efficiently since nobody knows when the client could come back out of nowhere.”

A few brands even end up setting their in-house agency for creative work after evaluating outsourcing options for a long time.

Advertising agencies are not paid for pitching which ensures that the brands have an upper hand. To make matters worse, if they ask for a pitch fee, their pitch gets rejected 90% of the time, Gupta said.

Ghosting is similar to what we have faced in one too many dates. You get stood up. In this case, by a potential client, quips Vikash Chemjong, CCO, Cheil India.

Chemjong explains, “These advertisers are usually the kind you don’t want to end up with, like in a relationship. What begins on a wrong note, ends up as a disaster. Brand building is about teamwork and most importantly, standing by each other, come rain or come shine. It’s about showing up, not being stood up.”

Ghosting incidents are on the rise today especially for smaller agencies, he added.

‘We are not just service providers’

Ghosting is thoroughly unethical and frustrating, rue industry experts who believe that they are being treated as just service providers by marketing heads of the brands.

“There is also visible unrest amongst the talent that worked on the pitch,” says Gupta.

Chemjong echoes the sentiments. “I think principles are of no value today except when you sell them! Maybe it’s the times we live in, the changing value system, the transience of all relationships, or the sheer number of options available to play the field (for both parties) that the consequences are being felt – be it in life or life in the times of advertising.”

‘Young CMOs ghost the most’

Agencies blame it on the young and inexperienced CMOs for their plight. Most of them are from startups, they say

“There has been a huge churn in the industry over the past two-three years and many brands have hired young professionals in their marketing departments. They are often clueless and ruthless both,” allege an ad agency leader.

No guidelines to nail the erring brands

Does the ad industry or any agency body have any guidelines in place to deal with erring brands who often ghost, disappear after pitching for months and then reappear?

Gupta says no. “Each one has to deal with the situation on its own.”