WPP Production, Hogarth as was and a central plank of Cindy Rose’s reorganisation of the business, now wants its staff to “actively convince” clients to use WPP production facilities, even when they ask for three competing quotes – so-called triple bidding – as is the norm for bigger projects, according to a story in Campaign.
If a client wants three quotes they might well get them all from WPP according to an internal document: “Our goal is to avoid traditional commercial triple bidding by proving the value of a centralised partnership by positioning WPP Production as the default, trusted partner.
“If a client or creative team requires triple bidding to assess different options, we should evaluate if WPP Production can provide all three bids internally from the same or different markets. We can satisfy this need by offering three different production approaches, locations, and director treatments from within the same country or within the region – keeping the work entirely within WPP Production.”
Agencies have always envied the historically quite large amounts of money funnelled into production companies although, back in the day, that didn’t stop them billing cllents 15% of the total in commission, sometimes with a mysterious extra 15% added for good measure.
WPP now says: “Any suggestion that WPP Production undermines fair competition is fundamentally wrong. Selectively quoting from a comprehensive document doesn’t fairly reflect what is a completely transparent process.
“We respect competitive bidding and work with independent production companies always adhering to client contracts and procurement requirements. We make decisions with clients helping them to find the right solution for each brief considering WPP capabilities alongside specialist partners.”
Production companies may demur. It was only a matter of time before WPP, battling a turndown in business and high fixed costs, showed its teeth. Some offices, part of its much-trumpeted “campus”programme are already destined to go along with more jobs.
