After leaving/losing her post as Group CCO at MullenLowe in February, Nicky Bullard is back with a business idea that she hopes will be “the antidote to the UK industry’s pitch pain,” particularly around projects, which is demanding longer and longer pitches as it becomes more and more competitive.
The Elevator Pitch is an intermediary designed with creativity, budgets and sanity in mind. Based on a fast-track, six-week pitch process, Bullard promises no longlists and a gutsily transparent fee structure. Before MullenLowe, Bullard was chairwoman of MRM UK & Europe, so she has business experience as well as creative insight, which does set her apart from the many rival intermediaries who are competing over the shrinking number of creative pitches.
There will be no subscriptions or first year kickbacks – instead the pitch brief is based around a 10% model: the pitch brief represents 10% of the project, which means that on appointment the agency has already made 10% of the work, and the client has got 10% of the work, so Elevator will invoice the client the equivalent of 10% of the budget (capped).
Elevator plans to work with a list of agencies that’s been carefully curated by Bullard herself. Only recent work from three shortlisted agencies will be showcased to the clients.
Bullard says: “Elevator is here to shake things up and enable brands and agencies to pitch fast, appoint fast and make fast. Project pitches should not take 6 months! Elevator is the only UK pitch intermediary with both high-level creative and business leadership experience at its helm, which seems nuts when a creative agency appointment is both a business and creative agency decision.”
She adds: “I have always found it ridiculous that agencies are expected to present back the whole answer when they don’t have the whole picture. This is about everyone focusing on one element of the project; making it an even playing field, easier to critique, and easier to appoint.
“I love this industry. But to me, one part of it was glaringly broken. I have started Elevator to give fantastic brands, embarking on a time-challenged project, the current shit hot creative partners they deserve. And to give creative agencies the process they deserve.”
A whole class of senior women have recently been losing out to the perils of mergers, AI, cost-cutting etc, so it’s very good to see that Bullard is back with a business idea that will look like refreshing alternative to many agencies. It would be good to see some of her peers, including Vicki Maguire and Annette King (who this year left Havas and Accenture Song respectively) back in the spotlight soon.
