MHP, together with Vandog and with the support of the All-Ukrainian Advertising Coalition, presented updates to the rules for creative and production tenders

In Kyiv, updates to the rules of creative and production tenders, as well as developments in contractual and legal documents, developed on the initiative of MHP and Vandog with the support of the All-Ukrainian Advertising Coalition (VRK), were presented.

Work on the updates lasted almost 6 months. The initiators held open meetings and discussions with representatives of the creative industry and formed working groups that developed solutions in three key areas. These are:

• updating the rules for creative tenders
• development of recommendations for production tenders
• improvement of legal documents.

All developments are the result of joint work of MHP, creative agencies, production companies and other involved experts with the support of VRK. The aim of the initiative is to make the rules of creative and production tenders more transparent, strengthen partnership and fix the value of intellectual work.

Maksym Lazebnyk, CEO of VRK, emphasized: "Markets need not state regulation, but industrial standards. We have become a modern guild - and our common goal is to restore the importance of rules based on trust and transparency."

According to Valeriy Bondar, Deputy Chairman of the Board of MHP for Strategic Marketing Communications and Projects, the impact of marketing and creativity on business is enormous: "The entire contribution of the company to the project, for example, the release of a new product involving thousands of people, may suffer due to untimely or ill-conceived advertising campaign. Creativity is not an add-on, but part of the business process. And we - both customers and people who create and implement ideas - must treat it responsibly."

Updates in creative tenders

The first recommendations regarding creative tenders were developed at the end of last year. During their presentation to the market, a number of issues arose that required further clarification. These include opening information about the number and names of participants at the beginning of tenders, publishing scoring cards in the feedback, and introducing a success fee. The working group, which included specialists from MHP, VRK, the founder of Vandog Agency Iryna Metnyova, as well as representatives of Publicis Groupe and McCann, formulated a number of recommendations on these issues.

For example, regarding the opening of information on the number of participants and the names of agencies, the working group recommends testing the approach to opening the names of agencies that have made it to the shortlist in the nearest creative tender. After that, analyze the number of refusals and possible comments, assess this impact and, based on this, make decisions about opening names in subsequent tenders.

"We have come to a common understanding: the market is ripe for transparency, and we are ready to test an open model in the Ukrainian market. This is an important step towards trust," said Anastasia Livenets, head of MHP's marketing communications center.

In terms of the timing of the tender, experts propose to fix the full timeline of the tender at the stage of agreeing on the terms, taking into account all internal and external stages, and in case of force majeure, be sure to inform the participants about the changes in advance. And as for the composition of the customer's team, the decision is as follows: to involve decision-makers who have the authority to finally approve or reject the idea from the very beginning. The composition of the team should remain unchanged for the entire period of the agency's work on the project.

"The presentation of the idea from the agency should be seen not only by the delegate, but by the people who make the decision about its approval or rejection. Otherwise, there is a "broken telephone" effect. The team from the customer's side must not only be present, but also professional," added Anastasia Livenets.

More details on the recommendations for holding tenders for creative ideas are available at the link.

Legal framework that works for trust

Olena Andriienko, member of the Supervisory Board of VRK, Deputy Director for Legal Affairs of Publicis Groupe Ukraine, presented the developments of the working group on legal issues, which, in particular, developed contractual and legal documents. These are four basic documents that can be a starting point for regulating interaction in creative tenders: a non-disclosure agreement (NDA), an agreement on the provision of services for the development of advertising materials, an agreement on the creation and use of a work, and an agreement on the transfer (disposal) of property rights to a work.

"It is impossible to work in the creative industry, relying on the fact that all issues will be resolved exclusively at the level of the law, and compliance with the rules will be controlled only by state authorities. We see how the market is maturing - recommendations and practices are emerging that are not fixed by law, but are becoming part of the market's rules of the game. This is the so-called soft law, the functioning of which is ensured by the responsible attitude of market participants, and not by state sanctions. In this context, self-regulation is especially important - not when someone from above says what is right, but when the market participants themselves set ethical guidelines for doing business and adhere to them, valuing their own reputation. I am glad that our industry is coming to this stage," said Olena Andriienko.

You can find the legal documents on the website.

Developments in production tenders

The need to update the rules of interaction not only in tenders for creative ideas, but also for the selection of production companies arose at the first discussion on the rules. It turned out to be relevant for a number of market players, so the third working group worked on updating the rules for production tenders. It included representatives of MHP, VRK, Adje, Tomin Film and the.eyes.views. Experts worked out the entire process of such tenders - from request to project implementation - and identified the biggest pain points of customers and production companies.

"We are seeing more and more customers ready for direct contact with studios. This is the right step towards partnership instead of isolation. At the same time, there are typical problems that we worked on together with MHP and other market participants. We have developed recommendations that allow you to turn the tender not only into a competition, but also into a platform for ideas and the search for partners who value transparency, respect for creativity and healthy competition," said Mykyta Kukoba, co-owner and executive producer of Adje.

For production tenders, the working group has formulated recommendations that relate to:

- confidentiality and security of tender materials and communication within the process

- the winner's refusal of the stated conditions or the conclusion of the contract

- changes to the production team

- closed information about the number and list of participants, as well as a closed list of directors from studios

- ideas that are not synchronized with the budget and timing

- quality of feedback and lack of justification for the results of the tender

- terms of payment and document flow

MHP has already implemented a new approach to production tenders. In particular, it provides for a new, step-by-step system for selecting partners in several stages - transparent and understandable for both the customer and the tender participants. "Yes, it's more work on the customer's side, but only at the beginning. For me, as the head of procurement of services, it is important not just to "purchase", but to build a system of cooperation where everyone understands the rules of the game - and respects them," said Iryna Honcharenko, head of the procurement of services department at MHP.

Detailed recommendations on production tenders are available at the link.

The speakers of the presentation agreed on one thing: the Ukrainian creative market has taken an important step towards self-regulation, where values are not declarations, but tools for work. New approaches will help form the basis of partnership between representatives of the marketing and creative industry, businesses and industry associations. VRK, MHP and Vandog offer other market players to use these recommendations if they wish and together form new practices of effective cooperation in the creative market of Ukraine.