Brands have ceased to be seen as strictly visual elements and have become strategic assets capable of generating economic, social, and cultural value. But while companies understand the value of brands (reputation, recognition and differentiation), the branding hub AEBRAND warns that there is still a contradiction between the importance of branding and the way in which these services are contracted.
The hidden costs of traditional brand-design bidding:
Some entities continue to use outdated models that require complete strategic and creative proposals before the contract is formalized.
But this clashes with the real value of the sector:
- Proposals prior to signing a contract: a large part of creative development prior to contract formalization does not receive remuneration
- Demand for high specialization: complex branding and visual identity tasks require hours of technical and qualified work without guaranteed remuneration.
- Lack of financial compensation: many agencies make an effort and invest time, talent and financial resources into presenting proposals that ultimately do not receive payment.
This damages the industry, devalues the profession, and directly affects the success of the project. When selection processes are based on free ideas, deep analysis is limited and brand value is weakened. Therefore, the sector demands a solution, which becomes a high-value consultancy and not a low-cost design auction, depreciating the working time and resources invested by the agencies.
Beyond talking about a specific case, the discussion opens the door to reflection on how strategies are given away by not guaranteeing hiring.
By providing limited information in a “bidding war.” the agency can only propose superficial solutions based on assumptions. You assume the cost of working hours and senior profiles to compete in processes of high complexity, with the possibility of rejection.
Finally, the lack of time and access to a company’s reality pushes teams to recycle ideas and reduce them to visual clichés. As a result, both the entities and agencies end up immersed in inefficient processes that denigrate strategic and creative work, and that result in wasted resources, time, and opportunities.
Source: AEBRAND
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