Protecting Your Pitch

According to Campaign, the average cost of pitching in 2023 was £50,057 with some agencies reporting costs as high as £175,0001. Those figures will only be even higher today.  

It’s therefore more important than ever to protect your pitches and ensure that you are not giving away any valuable information to potential or existing clients for free. 

Many people confuse intellectual property rights, such as copyright, with ideas and concepts. Copyright will automatically exist in all literary, artistic, musical and dramatic works. For example, any original designs, drawings and illustrations you present on a pitch will be protected by copyright.  

However, copyright does not protect ideas or concepts, nor generally, short phrases or  strap lines. You will therefore need to protect these as your agency’s confidential information.  

Take these 4 simple steps to help protect your agency's work. 

Step 1 - NDA 

Enter into a  Pre-pitch NDA with the client. This is one of the best steps an agency can take to legally protect its pitch materials. 

It’s a mutual agreement where both parties agree not to disclose any of the other’s confidential information. Importantly, it makes it clear that the agency’s pitch materials are confidential, belong to the agency and cannot be used unless the agency wins the pitch and enters into a future services agreement with the client. 

Download the IPA’s short form and long form pre-pitch NDAs.

Step 2 - Records 

Date all material produced for the pitch and keep a record of who produced it. Conserve all working drafts too. 

Step 3 – Notice

Include a clear notice on all your agency work, including pitches, such as: 

“This document and its contents, including all concepts and ideas, are owned by [Agency Name] and are confidential. They may not be used, copied, disclosed or implemented, in whole or in part, without our prior written consent. © [Agency Name] [Year]. All rights reserved.” 

Step 4 – IPA Pitch Record Scheme

Consider recording your pitch work online with the IPA Pitch Record Scheme. This provides evidence of when your pitch materials were created and recorded with us, which can be useful if a dispute arises with a potential client. 

Please note that recording your pitch with the IPA does not give your agency any additional intellectual property rights. It is an evidential record rather than a legal registration of ownership. 

If you would like to submit your work to us, please review our submission guidelines and FAQs.  

You can then submit your upload your pitch materials.  

All pitches recorded via the IPA Pitch Record Scheme receive a confirmation certificate which can be attached to your agency’s work when the pitch is shared with your client.