This is not MAS
It's 22.30 now and I just arrived home. I have a nice studio with a lot of space and not a lot of belongings (which is fine because a house with not a lot in it is easy to keep clean). It's in the centre of Antwerpen and close to the Schelde-river. One of the advantages of having a job is that I can finally afford some housing on my own. Sometimes I feel good about that because it's nice and quiet, but sometimes I miss having good friends like Emilia and Salvatore around when I get home.
One of the disadvantages of having a job is that you must actually make money for the company. And to make money for the company you have to make a lot of work that 'has to be done'. In other words, work that is not creative. Yes, even in an agency like Duval you have to make decent advertising sometimes.
The worst is when a campaign starts off like a potential award winner and is slowly turned into a monster of compromises due to feedback from the client or advertising legislation. This week it even happened that one of my advertising campaigns, after weeks of work, isn't even going to made at all. It doesn't even surprise me anymore. In this case you just have to keep on working on other campaigns. And to prevent yourself from going crazy you always have to remember the following: if the client buys your campaign, anything can happen. If the campaign is produced, anything can happen. If the campaign is printed in a magazine and you see it with your own eyes, then...only then you know that it's made.
Oh well, it's not the Miami Ad School where you could easily change the headline if you think it's better. You could even change the client if it fits better with the campaign. Wouldn't that be great if you can switch clients in an agency? An account manager that's on the phone with his client and says: "I'm sorry mister client, but we've found another client that actually fits better with our campaign. Yes...I know you were expecting the campaign but we have to think about the award shows".
Well, I'm back in the real world now. With real clients, real briefings and a studio where I can have a good rest after work and drink a nice whisky cream while writing for my blog.
One of the disadvantages of having a job is that you must actually make money for the company. And to make money for the company you have to make a lot of work that 'has to be done'. In other words, work that is not creative. Yes, even in an agency like Duval you have to make decent advertising sometimes.
The worst is when a campaign starts off like a potential award winner and is slowly turned into a monster of compromises due to feedback from the client or advertising legislation. This week it even happened that one of my advertising campaigns, after weeks of work, isn't even going to made at all. It doesn't even surprise me anymore. In this case you just have to keep on working on other campaigns. And to prevent yourself from going crazy you always have to remember the following: if the client buys your campaign, anything can happen. If the campaign is produced, anything can happen. If the campaign is printed in a magazine and you see it with your own eyes, then...only then you know that it's made.
Oh well, it's not the Miami Ad School where you could easily change the headline if you think it's better. You could even change the client if it fits better with the campaign. Wouldn't that be great if you can switch clients in an agency? An account manager that's on the phone with his client and says: "I'm sorry mister client, but we've found another client that actually fits better with our campaign. Yes...I know you were expecting the campaign but we have to think about the award shows".
Well, I'm back in the real world now. With real clients, real briefings and a studio where I can have a good rest after work and drink a nice whisky cream while writing for my blog.
posted by Robin Stam at 10:24 pm
2 Comments:
But you can change clients, Robin. Just not for immediate result.
How often has something from your personal graveyard of turned-down ideas proved to be valuable in another, much later context, in another situation, for another client?
Ah yes, the re-animation of ideas. You're right about that, Camiel. It's something that every agency does, but none of them admits ;-)
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