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It used to take days to craft the perfect RFI response—the first of several steps agencies take when competing in notoriously arduous pitch processes. Now, planners at Stagwell agency Gale can do it in 90 minutes, with help from an AI bot that thinks like Brad Simms, the agency’s chief executive. The bot is also named BRAD, short for “Business Resource Access Data-Bot.”
The new crown jewel in Gale’s technology stack, BRAD is part of its proprietary Alchemy.AI enterprise cloud platform, which software media planners engage to uncover audience insights and segments. It’s Gale’s most significant product update to Alchemy.AI, according to Simms.
So far, BRAD’s contributed to Gale’s more than 10 account wins in this year’s first quarter, including Fogo de Chão, Athenahealth and Chili’s. That’s $20 million in net new billings that converted at a 75% rate for Gale. Despite the new billings, an RFI surge can overwhelm growth-stage shops and make it harder for them to scale.
Agencies of varying sizes are pioneering innovative, AI-centric new-business strategies that flip rote research and data entry on their heads. Now, they not only complete RFIs faster but they also tackle them more strategically. ADWEEK spoke with agencies that overwhelmingly agreed: It’s making a difference—primarily because it saves time. Tim Rodgers, founder and chairman of digital transformation firm Rehab Agency, works with large agencies, media platforms and brands to construct AI tools that analyze audience data and develop better target personas in a fraction of the time it used to take.
“There’s definitely a big demand, among agencies in particular, for using AI in the new-business process,” said Paul Aaron, CEO of Addition, an AI design and technology studio that develops AI for agencies and brands alike.
‘Speed helps move a sale’
To improve its RFI response times, independent creative agency Unconquered uses AI to develop standard pitch materials like capabilities decks. The agency feeds content—from case studies to creative process documentation—into ChatGPT competitor Claude, which returns outputs.
“Any new businessperson will tell you that speed helps move a sale,” said Unconquered co-founder Brian Schneider. “If we are slowing down our response because we can’t get what we need, it puts the sale potentially in jeopardy.”
Another independent creative shop, Archer, uses free AI tools for prospecting. Matt Musick, a senior creative strategist at Archer, used the tool to hone a creative concept that it pitched to a prospective client. Musick received an enthusiastic email from the prospect about 8 minutes later.
“The AI tools didn’t come up with the idea. The AI tools helped us bring it to life in a really effective and efficient manner,” said Meredith Cuevas, Archer’s chief growth officer. “We have a goal of doing at least one of these, or more, per quarter,” she added.
Pitch consultants’ recommendation? Tie it to outcomes
Agencies must avoid incorporating AI into pitches simply for the sake of appearance, said Dan Jeffries, founder of pitch consultancy Jeffries Consulting. The consultant is skeptical of agencies that say they use AI, and he hasn’t seen any use AI to net new business.
Jeffries explained how the tactic backfired for one agency, which in a recent pitch cited its AI tools and then could not explain how the tools would impact processes.
That instance shows, according to Jeffries, how crucial it is that agencies tie their AI use to outcomes and arrive at the pitch ready to cite them.
Gale quantified AI’s material impact by redoing recent projects using Alchemy.AI and comparing those project durations to how long tasks took to complete without the AI tool. The agency found Alchemy.AI capable of making some tasks—like learning platforms, briefing dedicated research teams and receiving outputs like reports or analysis—80% more efficient.
It also yields better audience insights, allowing staff to query tens of thousands of variables to find information fast. Because Alchemy.AI also recommends channel mix and activation strategies to planners, Gale estimates it will speed up media plan creation by 20%.
Like Gale, creative agency Fig has demonstrated positive outcomes with its new business AI tool, Story Data. The tool’s led to unprecedented success for Fig passing RFI vetting processes. The agency’s partner and CEO, Judith Carr-Rodriguez, attributes its 95% RFI success rate to the technology.
“Normally in an RFI, what you’re doing is actually providing information about your agency. You’re not necessarily saying to a client, ‘This is what I think your problem is, or your opportunity.’ We can do that now in every single one of our RFIs,” said Carr-Rodriguez.
This story first appeared in the April 2, 2024, issue of Adweek magazine. Click here to subscribe.
