Every year, Strategy– the industry’s largest trade publication in Canada – hosts an Agency of the Year gala. Shortlisted shops are asked to produce a short video to debut on the night to a captive audience of senior members across the industry. In 2015, we created the #SayNoToSpec film that famously went viral and ignited a global conversation about creative spec work in new business pitches, and how things needed to change.

With this year’s video, we wanted to take #SayNoToSpec a step further to find an entertaining and insightful way to shine a light on the entire RFP process for new business pitches. Rather than simply portraying the absurdity of the RFP process, we wanted to put forward constructive solutions that could make real impact and help to make the RFP process better for both clients and agencies.

Inspired by post-game media scrums in pro sports, World’s Worst RFP is a short film that skewers all the wrong ways to run an agency pitch—from spec creative to how people behave during presentations.The film opens with the client and both of the winning and losing agencies at a press conference. As it continues, reporters hurl questions at the agencies with heavy emotional responses and drama captured in their very honest answers. The film comically depicts the absurdity of the RFP process and escalates with a series of stereotypical but hilariously relatable ‘truths’ that are revealed between agencies and client.

Coupled with the video, we consolidated our observations and learnings about the pitch process and created a thought-leadership piece at SmarterPitch.com, which is referenced at the end of the film.