It’s with great pleasure that I introduce this month’s guest writer, Jef Tan.

Jef is a dear friend of mine. Not only that, he was my colleague when we worked in Pounds and Jordan. On top of that, he has been my boss. After he left P&J to start his own agency, he invited me to head his account servicing department. Those were exciting days where adredalin was perpetually high as we kept clinching coveted accounts over the big boys. It was with regrets that I left his agency to join the client side. Jef went on to make it big in the creative scene and won 3 awards from Creative Circles. However, it will be a big mistake to see Jef simply as an outstanding designer. To me, Jef is no ordinary designer. He can write excellent ad copy effortlessly to match his creative idea. He will unreservedly contribute his opinion on marketing strategies and tactics during brainstorming sessions. He is an asset in any team.

I enjoy working with Jef. When I started Versa Creations a few years, he was the only one I could entrust with the design of my corporate logo. I had expected nothing short of good work, still, he surprised me with the originality of his idea. Until now, my ambigram logo remains one of the most talk about features on my business card. Recently, David Airey - the popular designer-blogger - short-listed Versa Creations’ logo in his Logo Design Love Award.

Jef Tan is currently freelancing as an art director in Melbourne and is working on his first book. In his own words, “thankfully not about the creative industry”.

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Clients are a funny lot of people aren’t they? They are the reason why businesses like ours exist. But for most of us with the odious task of coming up with design solutions or any kind of creative work (and by that I mean, a unique genre of service where human emotion is a deciding raw ingredient), clients can sometimes force us to evaluate why we were ever in the creative business in the first place. After having spent a decade and a half in this trade, I should like to say that I’ve seen them all: clients who can bring us to the moon and back and of course, the ones that send us to the psychiatrist’s chair.

I’d like to offer a quick categorisation of the various kinds of clients that creative folks have encountered at some point of their professional lives. These are all pigeon-hole categories of course, common sense could never draw distinct lines between them all. I do this in the hope that for the younger lot of us, it might serve as some sort of an umbrella, you know, for when shit hits the fan.

The Devil

Let’s start with the worst type of all and why not? The Devil is the type of client whom you’ve come to depend on for the most part of your balance sheet. The kind that might even possibly pay well and provides enough work to keep your younger colleagues away from Facebook. This client will most likely be the one whom you’d reschedule appointments at the drop of the hat. And get this: the Devil knows all this and the evil thing is the Devil will use it to his or her advantage each and every time. Sounds familiar? You know it’s the Devil when Read the rest of this entry »

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Those who know me would know that I believe in building wealth through smart marketing with limited budget. Even if you say you don’t have a single cent in your marketing war chest, I will still say you can market, advertise and promote yourself, your product and your services. Email marketing, viral marketing, referral marketing, word-of-mouth marketing are just some great methods that you can “DIY”. If you don’t know, there are plenty of websites offering good and free advice that works. “But you can’t do print advertisement!”

Print advertisement is easily the most expensive after TV and radio commercials in among traditional media. A quarter page full colour advert in the news section of The Straits Times (in Singapore) during the weekend is S$16,600 (or USD11,900). A full page, full colour right-hand page ad in the leading periodical, Her Word, is S$5300 (or USD3800). That’s a lot of money for small business owners. And that’s exactly why many of them give print advertising a miss.

Print advertising, comprising largely of press advertising and magazine advertising, are extremely important to create and shape, or even to change and correct the perceived values of your target audience. They are even more important if your products/services are targeted at a niche that sees internet and multimedia stuff as unreliable. Not incorporating print advertising within your marketing campaign will be a bad idea.

Barter trade is not big in Singapore and very, very rarely do we even hear from the grapevine that a publication is willing to barter advertising pages. Folks in the United States are more fortunate in the sense that they can actually bid for advertising space in print media. In other words, they don’t pay the standard rate card rates. They bid and if successful, can save as much as 90% off rate-card rates. This is something I wish we can have in Singapore. But I honestly don’t see how it can be feasible due to our small collection of local publications. USA is big and size does matters. Because the many media will be vying and fighting aggressively for a slice of the advertising pie. As an advertiser, you will stand to gain somehow. If you doubt what I have just shared, go visit this media paradise Read the rest of this entry »

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I was having dinner with my friend, Betty, and was chiding her for not contributing articles to a health blog where she is a writer.

“It’s not that I don’t want to write. The perfectionist in me wants to get everything nicely straightened out before I start writing”

This is “Ready, Aim, Fire.”

I handed her my laptop and got her writing on the spot.

In business, time is of the essence. Precisely because of this “Ready. Aim, Fire.” attitude, some of us miss the opportunities that come knocking at our doors. Not so much because we were too obtuse and didn’t quite realize that it is Midas that came calling. Neither was it because we were procrastinating. For most of us in the creative industry, our Achilles’ heel is our perfectionist mindset. Even I, as an account servicing person.

We must be fully prepared. We must be well rehearsed and only then will we present to our client - with a big bang.

Sometimes, I want to scream at our design head. The clock is ticking away but until each tiny crease has been smoothened and ironed out, he simply won’t let us have the creative draft to show the client. Even after he did give it up, he would lament that it could have looked better if only he were given just a little bit more time.

Our copy guy wasn’t any better, all the “i” and “t” must be nicely dotted and crossed and every bit of research must be checked and cross referenced before he feels he is covered. Until then, the copy sits on his desk and not ours, and definitely not the client’s.

On the one hand, I am deeply appreciative and take great pride that my team is so passionate about their work. On the other hand, they can be so fastidious that it is tough to refrain myself from wringing their necks.

Finally, we reach a consensus. Get the client to give a nod on the “big picture” concept first and thereafter, they can go tweak, fix and oil everything until perfection.

If the hunter waits until the ducks fly in a single file before he “ready, aim and fire”, he probably has to wait for a long spell. The point is birds don’t ever fly in a straight line! Never.

Being prepared is crucial. Calculating the risk involved is critical. Going through each stage to ensure nothing is amiss is admirable. However, a million multiple by zero is still zero.

I like to tell you a story that happened some 15 years ago. Read the rest of this entry »

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Budweiser has a slogan called “The King of Beers” but somehow beer lovers remember “When you say Budweiser, you’ve said it all” much better. Most probably because of the jingles.

The Budweiser jingle, “When You Say ‘Bud’”, was written by Steve Karmen and it made its debut in 1970.

Part of its lyric inspired “Here Comes the King” (as featured in the above YouTube video) in 1976. The song can be heard on the CD Tee Vee Toons: The Commercials. Its style resembles the famous Coca-Cola jingle “I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing” (also heard on that CD) in that it begins with a lone voice, joined by another singer, and eventually a choral group. The underlying instrumental is imitative of a stereotypical German band. Many of the lines are punctuated at the end by a double drumbeat. Sample:

When you say “Bud”
You’ve said a lot of things nobody else can say
…
There is no other one
There’s only something less
Because the King of Beers
Is leading all the rest
When you say “Budweiser”
You’ve said it all

Interestingly this commercial was featured in the 1977 Steven Spielberg’s blockbuster, “Close Encounter of the Third Kind”, at the part where the sculptor was making a dirt mountain in his kitchen.

What does this slogan tells us?

Personally, I prefer “When you say Budweiser, you’ve said it all” to the other Budweiser slogans. Having that said, the “WASSSSSUP?!” slogan and campaign is wondrously successful too.

Check out more such slogans filed under “Famous Business Slogans” category. Learn from these world renowned establishments and see how you can create your own personal or corporate persona. Alternatively, I’m just an email away.

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Here_Comes_the_King

Read Related Post

7 Famous Business Slogans of 20th century

Technorati Tags: slogan, business slogan, company slogan, corporate slogan, famous slogan, popular slogan, advertising slogan, brand value, branding, brand, eBay’s slogan, “Budweiser”

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This is the final part of the “Rush Fees” series … …

Part 1 highlighted that some agencies actually don’t charge rush fees as they believe that when they support a client in need, they will strengthen the relationship.

Part 2 suggested that agencies can offer creative payment terms if they do need to charge a rush fee.

Part 3 recommended that agencies can leverage on each other to meet a rush deadline.

In this final chapter, we are going to explore:

Part 4 should you walk away because you hate doing rush work?

Admittedly, I don’t like the stress of having to toil and sweat over a rush job. It’s absurd to want to lose my beauty sleep, add unwanted lines to my forehead and encourage white hair to grow prematurely. However, to reject the job simply because “I don’t like it” is not a good enough reason as far as I am concerned.

This is something that Versa Creations will simply not do. Just because I don’t like the stress of doing a rush job, it’s not a good enough reason to reject one.

In business, there will always be emergencies. Last minute projects that need to be done, important information that was missed. These need to be corrected. And who better than the agency that did most of the initial work, or is currently completing the project?

I would suggest that the decision to accept or reject a rush job from a client should rest on several objective criteria. Now, these are just my thoughts, so, you might have your own versions, and I hope you will share.

• Internal capacity - can we do the job?
• Internal capability - can we do the job?
• Internal priorities - can we do the job?
• Internal costs - can we afford to do the job?

If we can, we should. Whether or not we charge a hefty premium because our Creative Head had to be flown back from his vacation in the Bahamas, that is a separate discussion.

We follow this because we believe in these 2 ideas Read the rest of this entry »

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In part 1, supporting clients who have urgent jobs at the usual price - especially when there is no financial loss - is suggested.

In part 2, offering creative payment terms were recommended.

Here, in part 3, let’s talk about when and if an ad agency should seriously consider dropping a rush job if it jeopardizes existing jobs.

It may surprise you, if you are from the client’s side, that ad agencies would do just that when we have to. I cannot think of a better analogy than “A bird in hand is better than two in the bush.” An industry peer had such a sad encounter.

A while ago, a client notified this agency’s Head that there was an ad hoc project worth $200,000 coming up. As that was an unplanned, un-budgeted project, the incumbent agency was given the first rights to accept or reject. It will be opened to suitable candidates for pitching if the incumbent declined. To any small to medium agency, a $200,000 project is a sweet deal. The catch was the OOH (out-of-home) creative, media and production presentation must be made within 8 days. He had the weekend to consider, and he finally turned down the job on Monday morning.

I understood that he was busy preparing for several Christmas projects (last October) and all his manpower was tied. He didn’t have people to recce the various OOH sites, couldn’t get any independent designer at such short notice to render 3D designs and worse, production houses were simply too busy to discuss unconfirmed jobs. He wasn’t prepared to jeopardize his existing projects by swamping his own team with such a rush job.

“I could end up in a lose-lose situation. There was a penalty clause in one of my Christmas projects.”

I cannot say that it is not a wise decision. We do have a responsibility to deliver a decent job punctually, regardless of whether it is the peak or off-peak season. Still, I couldn’t help wondering if he had truly exhausted his options. Read the rest of this entry »

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A reader, Ed Klein, asked “How do you best go about copywriting a slogan?” in my earlier post, 7 Famous Slogans of 20th Century.

I offered the “standard” answers that we all look at
1. brand promise (what is my promise to you, the customer),
2. brand deliverable (what can my product do to solve your problem?) and
3. brand philosophy (what is the overall belief system of the company).

Actually, there’s more than that.

When I was asked by Laura Spencer to guest write on her excellent writing blog, Writing Thoughts, I decided to discuss a little more on slogan writing. There’s some misconception that writing a headline and writing a slogan is the same. Seeming so because both are supposed to be short copy, however, conceptualizing and writing the two will take 2 different routes.

Writing a slogan is not about creating a brand image or corporate identity. The company must BE it (what the slogan represents) before the slogan itself can be created. It’s a “Be. Do. Have”. The company must do what it takes to add value but while the “doing” part is critical, “being” comes first. If the company is not what it claims to be, whatever it does will not be congruent to the crafted slogan. If your client can call your bluff, the company can forget about having loyalty, sales and revenues. From the slogan, the client can tell a thing or two about the company’s personality, business, and even ethics; blueprint.

Please follow the link and read more about the differences between headlines and slogans at Laura Spencer’s WritingThoughts now. You may want to explore Laura’s blog a little further while you are there. She has a wealth of knowledge and experience on writing and her blog is a constant source of information and inspiration for me.

Technorati Tags: slogan writing, copywriting

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In part 1 of this 4-part series, I have suggested that agencies should consider accepting rush jobs and charge the usual price, especially under these circumstances:

• This is a long standing client who has been really nice and supportive all these years.
• This is an isolated incident.
• There is no financial loss.
• This is a good opportunity to practice CRM and PR

What if the agency cannot offer the usual price because the cost involved is way too high for it to absorb?

The answer is simple: Charge.

Part 2 will discuss how can you charge creatively.

Should you still charge usual price or impose a rush fee? The purpose of a business is to solve problems for people at a profit. First and foremost, you deserve to be paid. Secondly, if you intend to help a good client, you should do so in such a way that you do not bring his/her burden onto yourself. Anyway, it’s highly unlikely your client will believe you if you tell him/her, “I lost $12,000 for this job because I didn’t charge you for all the extra effort”.

“But they said they can’t pay”
“But they said they won’t pay a dime more”
“But I’m afraid of losing the client”

Trust me, I feel bad too. But I did not create the situation they are in now, however, I will do whatever it takes to make the rough ride smoother for them. However, I cannot do it at the expense of my teammates and my other clients. That will not be fair to them either.

Life is sometime tough. We will all experience set backs, disappointments and events for which there is no “reason”, and no one to blame (not that I recommend blaming people or circumstances). How would I deal with it? Read the rest of this entry »

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