Free Design Pitching – Good or Bad?

Most design agencies will have taken part in free design pitching at some point. Where based on a brief by the client a number of design companies are asked to put forward initial design work and the best work (in theory anyway) wins. So what do you think? Is this fair? Would you ask for a couple of plasterers to come around to your house and plaster a wall each for free, then choose who you want to complete the work? I suspect they might tell you where to go!

We have taken part in a small amount of free pitching with some won/lost. But as a small design company it’s difficult to do this very often. To quote the Design Council ‘Winning Business’ report on their website they say that in the last 12 months…
“Consultancies with more than five employees win 66% of their pitches, while those with fewer than five staff win only 33%”
So this suggests that smaller design companies stand a much slimmer chance of winning design work than larger ones.
So what is your experience and opinon of free design pitching? I’d be interested in your thoughts.