Re-reading Victoria Routledge's chick-lit debut Friends Like These, I found the most brilliant letter from the heroine PR exec to her client: Dear Miranda, I am delighted to enclose the proof of your Spring/Summer promo brochure. We are thrilled with the finished version and hope you will love it as much as we do. Everyone … Continue reading the letters we sometimes wish we could send
Tag: clients
Clients behaving badly
New Business is turning into a bit of a farce at the moment. A client I pitched for in November (who announced within 24 hours that we were down to the final two agencies) let us know today that they’d finally made the decision to appoint the other lot. That’s three months it took them … Continue reading Clients behaving badly
Are you *quite sure* Mr Client?
Email today from Mr Big Shot Client asking to move some of his groups from viewing to in-home as he would like to actually sit in on them. I can only assume that he’s never spent three hours crammed into a corner of a suburban living room, precariously perched on an ancient velvet pouffe while … Continue reading Are you *quite sure* Mr Client?
putting the advertising cart before the business strategy horse
Why can't some marketeers grasp that they need a business strategy in place before they start worrying about a marketing plan, or a comms plan, or an ad campaign? I keep coming across marketeers who will quite happily let you present insight driven concepts for creative work (as per their brief), before suddenly admitting that they … Continue reading putting the advertising cart before the business strategy horse
Know Your Client
A bit of a work in progress this one, but here’s the beginnings of a handy guide to sussing out your client’s management team based on their choice of offices: Cavernous statement building with glass lifts and human size models of brand mascots in reception We are actually run by head office in the States … Continue reading Know Your Client
Integration – your time has come (again)
I honestly think that big integrated agencies are coming round again (this obviously has absolutely nothing do with the fact that I work for one). Client's budgets and the size of their in-house teams are being squeezed and increasingly they're asking my lot to become an extension of the marketing team - even to the extent of … Continue reading Integration – your time has come (again)
promises, promises – a few suggestions for a better relationship
We, the clients, promise: not to call any agency contact before 9am or after 5.30pm unless it really is actually properly urgent to ask no more than five agencies to take part in any creative pitch and to make clear at the outset the number of pitch stages involved to provide hot/cold drinks and (preferably chocolate) … Continue reading promises, promises – a few suggestions for a better relationship
Can anyone top this?
Client at inter-agency client meeting: “Thank you all for coming today, but there are quite a lot of you and its crowded, so can we just have one person per company and the rest of you can leave”. Yes, it really happened. Can anyone top this?
If its January, we must be busy
I’ve had a theory for a while about when agencies (and in particular their Planning and New Business teams) are busiest. It follows the academic year. Think about it, clients get back from their Summer hols, up for it and ready to go, firing off briefs and pitches right, left and centre. They wind down … Continue reading If its January, we must be busy