An Honest Conversation About Speculative Work
We get asked regularly. “Can you put something together so we can see what you’d do?” The answer is always no. And here’s why that’s in your best interest.
What Spec Work Actually Is
Speculative work is when a client asks a creative agency to produce concepts before any paid engagement. It sounds reasonable. But it’s fundamentally broken as an evaluation method.
Why Spec Work Produces Bad Creative
Good creative requires deep understanding of your business, audience, and objectives. Spec work skips all of this. The creative that wins a spec pitch is rarely the creative that would have worked best for your business — it’s the creative that looked best in a 30-minute meeting.
What to Do Instead
Look at their portfolio for evidence of strategic thinking. Talk to their clients. Meet the team who’ll actually work on your project. Ask about their process. And if you need to see creative thinking, commission a paid strategy session.
Respecting the Craft
When creative professionals are properly briefed, resourced, and compensated, they produce work that transforms businesses. When asked to guess for free, everyone gets less than they deserve.
Book a free consultation — the conversation is free, and it’ll tell you more about us than any spec pitch ever could.
