La sezione belga dell'ACC (Association of Communication Companies) ha promosso una settimana di 'sciopero virtuale' delle agenzie di advertising per protestare contro il comportamento dei loro clienti.

Allo sciopero hanno aderito 23 agenzie, alcune delle quali network internazionali come Saatchi & Saatchi e Ogilvy, mettendo fuori uso il proprio website e pubblicando sulla homepage una porzione di messaggio che, rimbalzando da un sito all'altro delle 23 agenzie, spiega i motivi dello sciopero. 

In Belgio, infatti, le agenzie in gara superano spesso il numero delle tre previste; problema cui va aggiunto quello della mancanza di rimborso spese: due punti in contrapposizione con le regole stabilite da ACC e UBA nel "Competition Charter" degli anni Novanta, un codice di condotta per le agenzie in gara.

Abbiamo ricostruito il messaggio partendo dalla prima pagina, sul sito di Famous.

"Dear visitor, as you can see,

we have replaced our regular website with this letter.It's going to stay up one week to express our discontent. Allow us to explain. In 1990's, the UBA and the ACC developed a charter. All the major place signed up to it, and it defined the rules of the game for agency pitches for over a decade. There's not much left of that charter now. For examples, one of things it states is that no more than 3 agencies (plus the incumbent) should ever be invited to pitch on any piece of business. But in recent competitons, we've sometimes seen throwing their names into the ring.

Why does that matter? Well. Pitching, like boxes, work in rounds. You get through one, and go onto the next. Last man standing wins. Unlike box, however, pitches rely on the partecipants punching themselves in the head. A big pitch can cost an agency upwards of 80000 euro. Just getting into the second round takes huge amounts of energy. And if you're lucky enough to get that far, you than have to invest even more resources just to have a chance of getting something out of it. And if 10 agencies are taking part, that's a 90% chance that you're taking bruising for nothing. If that were the end of it, who would care? Nobody's going to lose any sleep if there are a few advertising agencies in the world. But the thing is, it's not us who'll suffer: it's you we're worried about. Pitches use up energy. Energy an agency would normally use to provide its exsisting, paying customers with the best possible work. So the logical conclusion of the system as it now stands is that at some point you will become a victim of it yourself. The day will eventually come when your agency has to divert the creative and strategic energy you're paying it for into a pitch for someone else's business. Our idea of a same world is where you do your best work for the clients you do have. Not the ones you don't. So we think it's everyone's interests to get back to where we started: the charter. The charter that was put together by wise men not to protect themselves, but to protect their industry. The charter that makes sure a downturn doesn't turn into the demise of Belgian communications. The charter that ensures advertisers are matched with the agency they need. And that agencies are protected from their instinctive hunger not to miss out on opportunities. Besides, judging an agency isn't rocket science. Our work is on every street corner, and all over the internet every day. (Except today, of course). Our reputations, our beliefs and our individual visions aren't exactly trade secrets. And our awards... Well, ... if you haven't heard about them yet, you soon will. Talk to an agency and you'll know right away if they see things the same way you do. But don't delude yourself. Asking an agency to pitch is not the same as briefing one. In a pitch, the only target audience is you. The only question an agency can ask itself is, "What to we need to do to get the client?" But it's never too late to change. We recently confronted a major advertiser with how they were running their pitch. And they changed their speculative competition into a much more motivating and much lower-cost procedure. Great idea, great result. But we didn't think of it. It was just in the charter. So let's not all lose hope just yet. Thanks for listening. View the competition charter here."