Compromise - It’s A Killer
We’re all aware that this is a difficult time for the ad industry right now. Most of us are suffering from client cutbacks in one shape or another- and it doesn’t look like the light at the end of the tunnel is guiding our way out of the financial darkness just yet.
So now would be a silly time to turn down business, right? We’ve got staff to feed, bills to pay, lifestyles to lead, and any money that goes towards cat kibble or replacing those dud light-bulbs in the agency foyer is money well earned. After all, that Cup-A-Soup dispenser doesn’t replenish itself. And there’s a new kit needed for the agency football team. Right?
Seems to me, it’s a question of compromise. Of walking a safe route between financial collapse on the one hand and a damaged or mismanaged reputation on the other (which could well lead to financial collapse in the longer term anyway). This giddy tightrope walk can feel as precarious a journey as that performed between the Twin Towers by Philippe Petit in ‘Man On Wire’: one false step and there’s no net to catch you should you fall. And everybody’s watching.
Compromise - it’s a killer.
Let’s say a current client wants you to work on a new project. Okay, it may not be stellar, or creatively challenging, or potentially award-winning, or play to your strengths even, but you are inclined to accept. You have a relationship with this client and the business acquisition involved was minimal. Ker-ching, money in the bank. But what happens when a potential new client, perhaps one you aren’t that excited about, offers you the chance to pitch for a piece of business? A project which will take up precious resources during the pitch process and do nothing to progress your creative output. Or stimulate the team. Or, let’s be honest, provide so very much bang for buck.
Turning down business in this ‘beggars can’t be choosers’ market- refusing to accept any job at any price - can require supreme confidence and the courage of your convictions. Holding out for those clients, or projects, which will further your business and develop your team involves a quality control mechanism which goes a long way to managing your reputation. And let’s be honest: not every agency has an in-built shock-proof shit detector. A creatively-led company? Too much ‘vanilla’ advertising and people start to notice - not least your staff. You can’t sit on your laurels forever.
Of course, accepting new business wherever if falls from the tree means, generally speaking, better financial security- a stocking up of the food larder against even more frugal times. No one wants to let staff go. Or cancel the Friday biscuits in a cost-cutting exercise. But consider the signals you are sending out, both internally and externally. How does an agency maintain its reputation for premium work if it is perceived to be spreading its reputation thin on inferior projects?
I suggest you develop nerves of steel, the balance of an acrobat on the high wire, and an expression a Las Vegas card shark would be proud of. I’m off to practice my Poker face.