Hi, it’s me again. Glad to see you again. Today I want to share an experience I had when I was an intern at a small digital marketing firm that was a bit of a project shop. What they called branding was really logo design and corporate identity.
So, there they were, a group of very talented designers, looking for their big break, when a connection brought them into a global product launch for a massive international telco.
To call it potentially life-changing would have been an understatement. The project was so global the prospects and the client’s marketing team were located on every major continent in the world except Antarctica. Even Singapore. To put it in perspective, our client contact, the closest member of the team, was 650 miles away. At least he was in the Eastern Time Zone.
This gig was so important, we put our top people on it. The art director was one of the firm’s partners, and we brought in one of the best writers in town to work with him. It would involve website development, video and direct mail. Real direct mail. The kind that people actually read but hardly anyone ever gets to do any more.
It was a project agencies lust for – a major global high-tech power launching a game-changing service to a whole new market. No baggage. No pre-existing conceptions. A clean slate. Who could want more?
Well, how about a strategy for starters?
Working with our American client, our creative team worked for weeks developing some kick-ass concepts. I, a lowly intern, was duly impressed. So was our client, who presented several to his boss in London.
Days passed. Bad sign. His boss rejected everything. She said the messaging was all wrong and ordered us to start all over again. I won’t tell you what else she said. It wasn’t pretty.
But if we felt bad, think how our client felt – he was paying us by the hour. Ka-ching. Ka-boom.
Our creative team then refused to spend another minute of the client’s money until he supplied us with what he should have given us in the first place – a strategy approved by everyone on his team, especially his boss, based on what they were offering and why. This took guts because the launch deadline was looming.
Luckily, money talks. Our client had to pull a few teeth, but he got us what we wanted – everybody on his team, all over the globe, synced behind the what and the why of the project.
Armed with a strategy, our creative geniuses went back to work and in less than a week had a groundbreaking new campaign concept. Better than anything from the first round!
Our client re-presented it to the marketing director in London. She loved it! Then we all got on a global call as he presented to the other team members around the globe. Since they had all approved the strategy and given input, they loved it too.
We quickly produced the whole campaign – a website, video and dimensional mailer containing a talking computer chip. No one on the client side had second thoughts. With everyone synced, our creative team knew what to do and everybody else knew what to expect. Three years later, the website is unchanged except for minor updates.
Simple fact: taking the time up front to get synced behind a clear message and strategy saves time and money and leads to a better creative product.
Of course, they could have spared themselves the misery if they had done all of that in the first place. Some people call this branding. We call it BizSynced. It’s a streamlined process that pulls together every aspect of your marketing so you can sync people inside and outside your company behind your what and your why – no matter what continent or planet they’re on.
We’re just a little suburban Atlanta marketing firm. But if you get involved with us, you’ll be so impressed with BizSynced you might almost think you’re at some swanky firm on Madison Avenue – minus the swank. But as I’ve told you before, I’m just a lowly junior account executive. So, lest you think I’m exaggerating, please check out BizSynced.
Cheers,
Buzz
I’m a junior account executive with an MBA from a school you may have actually heard of. I plan to continue sharing my views on what works and what doesn’t in the world of branding and marketing as long as I have even one reader. I welcome all comments. If you have a particular topic you’d like me to expound on, email me at BuzzTalksBiz@gmail.com.
