Intro to the below (will be on opening accordian)
Will be called - Competitive Bidding Guidance
Bidding Alongside an In-House or Affiliated Production Company
Every bid requires an investment of time, resources and creative thinking. Before making that investment, it helps to understand how the process will work, who is participating and how your proposal will be evaluated and protected.
When an internal or affiliated production company bids, transparency matters most. Asking questions early can help you assess whether bidders have access to the same information and opportunities, and make informed decisions about the time and unpaid creative development you commit.
The AMA is not advising members how to price or whether to bid. The questions and considerations below are intended to help you approach each opportunity with greater clarity and protect the value of your artist’s work.
The Future of Competitive Bidding. What You Need to Know
On September 9, 2026 Campaign reported on internal guidance at WPP Production that encouraged staff to position WPP Production as the "default, trusted partner" for clients and to avoid traditional triple bidding where possible. According to the reporting, where a client or creative team still required three bids, the guidance suggested exploring whether all three could be supplied from within the WPP network. Campaign also reported a proposed option to assign productions under approximately EUR 500,000 directly to WPP Production, and, where a client insisted on outside bids, guidance to present WPP's own proposal before the outside companies were briefed.
WPP has disputed any suggestion that its practices undermine fair competition and says its process is transparent, client-led and compliant with client contracts and procurement requirements. We will continue to monitor how this plays out in practice.
Why this matters to you:
Integrated production has a legitimate role. There is work that it does well, and this is not an argument against it. The concern is a competitive process in which one participant decides who is invited, competes in the bid, may see outside pricing, presents the options to the client and benefits financially when its own division wins.
For artist representatives, the practical exposure is on every bid where an affiliated production company may be involved. When your artist shares fees, production costs, usage and a treatment, you are showing your hand, and if the affiliated bidder has already seen the brief and presented, you are not competing on equal footing. For producers, the integrity of the bidding process that independent production companies have built their businesses on is at stake.
What you can do on your next bid
The AMA is not advising members how to price or whether to bid. We are suggesting that you understand the process before you invest in it.
· Before committing to a treatment, consider asking: Is there an internal or affiliated bidder? Has its proposal already been presented? Were all bidders briefed at the same time with the same budget information? Who will see our pricing, and will the client see the bids directly?
· Consider adding language to your estimates stating that pricing is confidential and provided solely to evaluate your proposal, and to your treatments stating that the ideas in them are provided to evaluate your artist for this assignment.
· Calibrate how much unpaid creative development you commit to what you learn.
· Document any instance where you believe fair competitive bidding has been compromised, and share it with us at info@artistmanagementassociation.org. The more we hear from the community, the better we can advocate on your behalf.
· Share this alert with colleagues, artists and peers who may be affected.
What the AMA is doing:
We have issued a public statement on competitive bidding, attached here. We are raising this issue with our legislative committee and legal advisors to better understand the implications and explore what advocacy options are available to our community. We are also reaching out to peer trade associations to assess appetite for a collective response. Encouragingly, the industry is already beginning to respond. On the advertiser side, ISBA in the UK has called for transparency and independent due diligence when work is directed toward affiliated companies. The AICP, APA, and European Producers Association have issued a joint response defending open competition and arguing that an internal-only triple bid doesn’t provide clients with the same competitive marketplace.We will keep you informed as this develops. In the meantime, please don't hesitate to reach out with any questions or concerns.