Triple bidding in commercial production exists for a reason, and it's not the one most people think.
Most people assume it's about price. That's part of it, but it isn't the point. The real purpose is finding the right partner to bring the creative vision to life in the way that has the biggest impact for the client. Price is simply how you compare the options.
When an agency or brand is ready to produce a commercial, it typically asks three production companies, each with a director attached, to bid on the same job. Each company receives the same creative, the same requirements and the same information. Each comes back with its own creative approach and its own price.
The client then chooses one. That's the mechanics. The value is in what those three responses reveal.
A reel tells you what a director is capable of. But every spot on it was made against a different budget, for a different client, under different constraints. It isn't a preview of what they'll do with your spot.
That's what the treatment is for. It's the director's own creative vision for how they would bring this specific idea to life: the look, the casting approach, the tone and how each scene plays. The bid is priced against that vision.
Put the reel, the treatment and the bid together, and a client isn't just picking a price. They're picking a partner, with full visibility into how three different directors would actually make the spot, and what each approach costs.
Triple bidding protects the client's ability to see multiple real answers to the same creative problem, each one thought through and priced by partners who had to compete for it independently.
It's a familiar idea. Agencies pitch for brand business the same way: competing strategies and competing budgets, before anyone has committed to anything.
None of this is free for the companies bidding. Writing a treatment and building a real bid takes real time and money, with no guarantee of winning the job. That investment is exactly what makes the comparison meaningful.
The protection only works if the bids are truly independent.
In September 2026, Campaign reported that internal guidance at WPP Production encouraged staff to move clients away from traditional triple bidding and, when clients asked for options, to supply all three bids internally. WPP disputed the report, saying it selectively quoted a broader document and that its process remains fully transparent. (shots has a good summary of the industry's response.)
However that dispute resolves, the guidance as reported is a useful case study. When the party running the process and the party bidding on the work are the same entity, the check is gone. Three bids from one source aren't three independent answers. They're one answer, presented three ways.
I've sat on both sides of this. I've written the budgets, reviewed the bids and run a production operation at scale. The value of triple bidding was never the paperwork. It was three companies actually solving the same problem, independently, and competing for the work.
If you're a client, ask these before the process even begins:
None of these are hard questions. But they tell you whether you're actually choosing, or just watching a choice happen.
Triple bidding is when three production companies, each with a director attached, bid on the same commercial using the same creative and requirements. Each submits a creative approach, called a treatment, and a cost estimate, and the client chooses one.
No. Price is how the options are compared, but the main purpose is to see three independent creative approaches to the same idea and choose the partner most likely to make the strongest work.
A treatment is the director's written and visual plan for a specific commercial: the look, tone, casting approach and how each scene will play. The production bid is priced against that plan.
Independent bids give the client genuinely different solutions and honest price comparisons. If all the bids come from the same company, the client loses that check and sees one answer presented as several.
Ask whether it's a single or triple bid, whether there will be a pre-bid meeting so everyone gets the same information, and whether the bidding companies are independent of each other.