India's PR pitch season is broken — Nucleus PR's Tarunjeet Rattan on what needs to change

Ah, March. The air is lighter, the inbox is heavier, and suddenly every brand seems to have discovered the urgent need for a “fresh PR perspective.”

Translation: it’s open season for proposal requests and a crazy circus is unfolding in front of you.

This is the month when your calender is probably packed with 5 meetings a day, 2 calls and 3 other emails asking to meet with you urgently because they are looking at hiring a PR agency asap.

And just like that you become a part of the circus without even realising it.

On another note, don’t even get me started on those LinkedIn posts on open call for agencies that drive more visibility for the individual than the brand. I have never known anyone decent who actually got hired from a post like that. So, let’s go back to the proposal decks that need to be spun out at impressive speed.

On the surface, it looks like opportunity. Underneath, it often feels like a high-stakes game of guesswork where the rules are conveniently undisclosed. 

Because when brands won’t share budgets, ask you to guess the ‘challenge’, hide incumbent details, and stretch “chemistry meetings” into a multi-episode series, it’s not a brief. I would say this is more of an obstacle course or ‘let’s just check what’s out there’ or just plain ol’ idea fishing. Take your pick. And this happens more than we like to admit.

From Relationship-Building to Relentless Pitching

There was a time - yes, gather around, that PR was built on relationships, credibility, and long-term thinking. Pitches were fewer, conversations were deeper, and retainers were earned through trust, not theatrics. This has given way to a more transactional relationship, driven by procurement processes that treat communication strategy like a line item rather than a leadership function.

I am glad that there is more opportunity for PR to make its way into a brand conversation, but while the brand leadership has become wise, I cannot tell you the amount of time I have spent talking to legal, accounts and procurement departments explaining to them that our contracts cannot be same as their building AMC contractor.

By the time you get around to the start of the relationship, you are already exhausted by battling your way through the clutter of non-PR teams trying to fit you into a matrix. So, lest you lose a few of these promising prospect sips between the cup and the lip, you enter the circus to take part in the “multi-agency pitch.” Five agencies. Three rounds. Endless “quick syncs.” And somewhere along the way, an inherent expectation that each agency will lay out its best thinking gratis in the circus disguised as a ‘competitive pitch’.

The Rise of the ‘Free Strategy’ Economy

Let’s call it what it is: unpaid intellectual labour dressed up as due diligence.

Agencies are asked to deep-dive into brand challenges, map stakeholder narratives, outline media strategies, and sometimes even draft campaign idea. All before a contract is signed or, in many cases, before a contract is even seriously considered.

As a result, strategy becomes commoditised and thinking becomes transactional as PR agencies, ironically the custodians of value creation end up undervaluing their own currency. 

Somewhere between “just one more deck” and complete radio silence, the industry has normalised doing homework for clients who may not even attend the class.

The Disappearing Act No One Talks About

Of all the trends that have crept in and has been normalised, this one deserves a special mention.

The ghosting. After weeks of conversations, multiple iterations, and generous doses of intellectual generosity, the brand simply… vanishes. No feedback. No closure. Not even a polite “we’ve decided to go another way.” In any other professional setting, this would be unacceptable. In PR it’s shrugged off as part of the process and every time we accept this behaviour without question, we reinforce it.

Why We Continue to Keep Playing the Game

Because growth targets don’t meet themselves. Because the fear of missing out on a “big account” is very real. Because saying no feels riskier than overcommitting. And because, as an industry, we’ve become remarkably good at adapting, even when the terms aren’t in our favour. But adaptability without boundaries quickly turns into acquiescence.

And much as we dislike it, when you have made it to the ‘top three’ the competitive spirit gets the better of us where we want to jump through just one more hoop to see if we can win it without realising the prize was never there.

Raising the Bar: From Participation to Partnership

The shift we need does not have to be dramatic but more deliberate. It starts with asking better questions and insisting on better answers. Budget clarity is not a luxury, it’s foundational. Transparency about incumbents isn’t intrusive; it’s respectful. And timelines that stretch indefinitely are a red flag, not a rite of passage.

More importantly, agencies need to get comfortable with selective participation. Not every pitch deserves a proposal. Not every opportunity is worth the investment of time, talent, and thinking.

Saying “no, thank you” isn’t arrogance. It’s alignment.

I found my line in the sand through pure exhaustion and some tough punches of mentorship.

For brands serious about building reputation capital, this shift is equally important. Because the quality of thinking and respect you attract is directly proportional to the respect you demonstrate for it and the people that work in the reputation industry.

A Practical Playbook (For When You’re Done Being the Guinea Pig) :

While the industry figures out its collective consensus on the issue, there are ways to protect your sanity without burning bridges.

• Start with the basics: ask for the budget and the incumbent agency. If that information is treated like classified intelligence, take the hint. Transparency isn’t a favour; it’s the starting point of any serious engagement.

• Next, qualify the intent. How did they find you? Who referred you? “We found you on Google” is not insight… it’s pure laziness. If they can’t articulate why you’re in the room, you probably shouldn’t be.

• Streamline your effort. A sharp credentials deck with relevant case studies and a clear scope of work aligned to indicative budgets, should do the heavy lifting in the early stages. It’s efficient, it’s professional, and doesn’t drain your best thinking upfront. If that sparks interest, then you show up for a ‘chemistry’ meeting. Not before.

• In that meeting, resist the urge to over-deliver. Deliver high-level thinking and demonstrate how you approach problems, how you build narratives, how you see the brand. But the “how exactly will you do this” belongs firmly behind a signed mandate, not in a speculative PowerPoint. We have all been guilty of this.

• Here’s where it gets non-negotiable: a second round should only happen when there’s serious intent, ideally with commercials on the table or at least an MOU in discussion. Anything else is just extended window shopping.

• If the process drifts into silence after a reasonable timeline, ask for closure. A simple email with feedback. If they respond, you learn. If they don’t, well … every industry needs its cautionary tales, and another sarcastically fun LinkedIn post.

Because at some point, the goal isn’t to win every pitch. It’s to stop auditioning for ones that were never real to begin with.

An Industry Reset (Because This Isn’t Just an Agency Problem)

This isn’t a one-sided issue. The pitch circus thrives because the ecosystem enables it. Brands optimise for optionality, agencies overextend for opportunity, and somewhere in between, the value of strategic thinking quietly erodes.

Fixing this needs a collective reset.

Brands need to move beyond procurement-led decision-making when it comes to communications. PR is not a vendor function; it’s a reputation lever. And you don’t build reputation by crowdsourcing strategy from five agencies and choosing the cheapest interpretation of it. If you believe in the agency and their pitch, then you have to see them through the procurement moat.

Agencies, on their part, need to stop mistaking over-servicing for competitiveness. Discipline is not the enemy of growth but the foundation of it. The ability to walk away from ill-defined, non-transparent pitches isn’t arrogance; it’s business maturity.

And then there are the classrooms of mass communication programmes and business schools quietly shaping the next generation of brand custodians. If future marketers and brand managers are not being taught the value of intellectual property, agency partnerships, and ethical engagement models, we’re simply recycling the same broken playbook with fresher faces. I am still appalled when I walk into guest lectures with post graduate students in this space and see their blank expressions on questions on how PR works.

Because the way we pitch today is the way the industry will value thinking tomorrow and if we don’t recalibrate collectively, we’ll keep producing brilliant strategies… that never see the light of day, except in someone else’s deck. Yup! True Story.

A Thought Before the Next Deck

Perhaps it’s time we collectively moved from pitching for business to qualifying it because PR was never meant to be a guessing game. It’s a strategic function, one that thrives on clarity, collaboration, and mutual respect. Until then, March will continue to bloom. And somewhere, a PR team will be on version 7 of a deck, wondering if this is strategy… or a blindman’s bluff.

Tarunjeet Rattan, is managing partner, Nucleus PR