Creative Streak

Can I Have That Idea For Less?

This is a group of responses based on one of the most popular posts I've written in the three years since Creative Streak began. How To Make A Creative Director Cry outlines the ten most common responses I've heard as a creative director, with links to each subsequent post giving more thoughts and suggestions to address each statement. This is statement #10: "Great idea. Can I have it for half the cost?"

Experience has taught me to respond to this question in two ways.

1. Is the client asking the question because they simply want to negotiate?

2. Is the client asking the question because we didn’t explain the idea properly?

Negotiating or Haggling

It’s almost human nature to want something of value for less. If it ever went out of style, a recent article in the Washington Post suggests there’s a resurgence in haggling because of the recent recession.

For some people, negotiating is a game (me included, especially if it's an antique). It’s actually invigorating to bargain, especially when you get a concession, however small. For other people, a price or an estimate is nothing more than a suggestion, a perceived indication of an item’s value. Negotiating is a way to find the balance between want and need. For others, negotiating is a fundamental part of their philosophy or values. My first assignment at my first job was to get estimates from vendors. Before I began, the managing director sat me down and gave me her two cardinal rules: 1. Negotiating is good business. Therefore, never accept the first quote. 2. Because it’s business, don’t make it personal.

Brainstorming in a Digital World, Part 2

Part #1 is here.

When I began leading brainstorms as a full-time activity, one of the first strange experiences was running an ideation session with a group of people who weren't even in the same room. Or continent. It was me on a bad squawk box in Chicago. Two people arguing in New York. A woman in Miami with a radio playing in the background, and a half-asleep person listening in Beijing.

Despite its revolutionary brillaance, the Digital World still needs the human brain to come up with ideas. The key is finding ways to use its tools to bring disparate people - by space, by geography, by ideology - together mentally to facilitate their creative skills. The good news is that the tools improve every day, and will only get better.

I have my own preferences: love some, hate others. If we compared our lists, I'm sure we'd clash. Here's where we should agree: the ground-rules of remote brainstorming, whichever tools you choose to use.

New Business: 3 Questions To Ask

If there's one driver common among all agencies, it's the desire to keep winning new business. But it's also a difficult balancing act. How do you keep your existing accounts happy, but at the same time, re-assign resources to write a presentation that - in the end - might not win the business?

I worked with a woman in Chicago who I still think was the master of new business development, and she had three basic questions to follow.  I've added and adapted them slightly over the years, but Marilyn's original questions are tough to improve.