Ignited Burns Self

The article about Ignited zapping Zappos was one of the first things I read this morning. I was annoyed then and I’m still annoyed.

If you’re not familiar with the story, here’s the background:

1. Zappos put out an RFP for an agency and a $7MM marketing effort.
2. Zappos originally gave it to 16 agencies. But, when Adweek published the RFP, they opened it to any. While I don’t quite agree with this, the thought behind it fits into their core values.
3. Zappos got a total of 104 submissions.
4. Ignited, one of the agencies that submitted is pissed.
5. Through Google Analytics, Ignitied determined that the Zappos team spent about a minute on reviewing their proposal and only looked at 1/5th of the pages in the deck.

Here’s why I will never work with Ignited:

1. OMG. What babies. I get they spent a lot of time putting together a deck. But, it obviously sucked, the first five pages were NOT compelling enough to keep people turning or they weren’t on point with the brand.
2. They cried and criticized in public. Did Ignited even bother to have a follow up call with Zappos to understand why they weren’t chosen?
3. Kinda of 2.1… Zappos hand selected 16 agencies to send the RFP to. Did the 88 other agencies really think they had a good shot?
4. In their ranting blog post, they “threaten” to let future potential clients know they’ll be measuring time spent reviewing their submission. EWWW. Are they F*’ing kidding?! Yes, this is a great statement / mindset to kick off a new relationship with a partner.
5. In full disclosure, I’m friends with the person at Zappos who made the final decisions. Like me, she spent WAY more time pouring over the hard copies of the submissions than the digital versions. Yea… Ignited didn’t mention that they submitted hard copies in their rant.
6. Vegas is a small, close-knit town. You screw one of us, you screw us all. For that reason alone, I won’t work with Ignited. I think all of my counterparts would take the same stance.

Sure, I get that agencies work hard at a deck. But, think of it like sending an email to your CEO. How many times have you realized they didn’t read it and/or that they’re inundated with emails. With that in mind, how do you make your email stand out? The same theory should apply to mass RFP submissions – WOW ’em on page one, make page two interesting enough to continue reading and keep the rest relevant, to the point and light on text.

Ignited – with your silly, bitter blog post and PR stunt, I think you lost more business than you’ll gain.