It’s rare we get the opportunity to post spec work for businesses that agencies have not yet won. So, when Santa Rosa, CA-based shop The Engine is Red sent us their RFP response for the Lake Tahoe Marketing Cooperative, we were quite surprised to hear that the pitching process had not yet been completed. In fact, our contact at The Engine is Red told us, “We are set to here back from the client later this week about the results. There will be an additional round of pitching spec work if we make it past the first round.” Will sharing spec work with ad bloggers help The Engine is Red pass on through to round two, or is this just a way for the agency (who, judging by their somewhat incomplete website that SEO strategists will love, are brand new) to get what little work they have circulating online?
According to the above video, The Engine is Red decided to trek to Lake Tahoe in an attempt to show the potential client that they’re the right agency for the business. Set to “Young Blood” by The Naked and Famous, the agency’s employees visited as many of the Lake Tahoe area’s attractions as possible over the course of one day, including what must have been a frigid dip in the lake itself. The Engine is Red chronicled its adventure in real time on its Facebook Timeline, where you can see the bars, tattoo parlors, and fish statues that surround one of California’s famous vacation spots. View the entire RFP response here.