I was in a pitch today and digital was dominating the entire conversation.

Clients were engaged, the presented material was mind-blowing and the client was ready to allocate his entire budget to digital. After the pitch, this client’s plan was to move the digital investment from 15 percent to 40 percent and to drop investments in TV from 80 percent to 50 percent, and so on.

But wait! After the slide deck is finished and everyone seems very happy, the billion- dollar question comes along.

The client says: “Can you commit to improve my TV CPP vs incumbent?”

I would like to take this opportunity to draft a response to this and to all clients who have had or will have similar questions:

Dear client, would you ever go to your landlord and say, “Sir, I would like to renew my five-bedroom villa lease, but first I need you to upgrade my garden, my kitchen, bathrooms and the flooring please. But I need to pay you 30 percent less because I bought a new house back home and my earnings didn’t grow.”

I would love to see the expression on your landlord’s face and yours when you are looking for a two-bedroom apartment because you can no longer afford the villa.

So, client, let us be realistic: if you do not believe in advertising, like those clients who claim it failed miserably according to their sales figures, then please keep your budget and do not advertise.

But if you believe that there is a big ROI from advertising, I would suggest you increase your billings, move towards digital and technology, and give TV and other media their deserved value and budget allocation. This way, your ROI and rate improvement are guaranteed.

And please lose your smile when you say “more for less”, as this concept doesn’t exist in any dictionary. You do not get more if you invest less.

Maybe you and your agency should start using the phrase “more with less”. That would be more efficient for both of you.