How to deal with a client - For freelancers

Well it's been a quiet month for me, summers now arrived and a lot of clients are on holiday.

So that gives me time to write a bit about dealing with clients direct if you're freelancing.

As some of you are freelancing I am guessing from time to time you'll get clients approaching you directly. Well the usual courteous mannerisms are required, try to be very formal remember you're not on ground in which you can start making jokes that's not to say you shouldn't reciprocate if he does.

Insist on meeting, it's very important to put a face to the phone call for both yourself and the client, this will give the client more confidence that he's not dealing with a cowboy and also clients like to be serviced.

You should use the meeting to ask as many questions as you can about the brief or take the brief. A lot of things aren't done very well over the phone; briefing is one of them (probably a creative thing only).

Don't act like a poor man, offer your knowledge to your client, remember you're dealing with the client direct now and as such you need to need to be on side and offer him advice even if it's a 30 minute phone call. Chances are that if he likes your advice he'll give you the job any way.

Don't be optimistic with time lines, this is a big mistake I once made with the client. Dealing with the client is very different than dealing with agencies, agencies have people that are in charge of dealing with time lines clients and budgets. If you're new to the game give yourself as much time to do the work as possible, try and factor in at least a couple of days buffer just incase the client throws a curve ball at you and if you deliver a day early then the client will love you for it.

That's it for now, your next instalment on this will be either new business or servicing the client. It really depends on how I feel unless somebody comments on how they really wants to read a particular title of course.

Are we being to over protected?

How many of you feel you are overly protected by your agency?

Examples are:

• No client contact without the accounts team
  
• No taking a brief without a project manager
• No conference calls with out a "suit" present

Not that I think these are bad things but it does feel like I have a baby sitter looking after me all the while.

What do you guys think about this, do you have an opinion or does your company do things differently?

It's time for an edition or good idea, bought idea

As you've all gathered this post is about ideas, who does what, who says what and who sells what

So what are good ideas?

Are good ideas the ones the creative thinks best serve the purpose or is it the accounts team.

Then after this argument who's in the right? The agency, the client? We all know he saying the customer is always right but how true is that. Is it the agencies job to lead the way on ideas or the clients seeing as he's paying?

People in the industry will have witnessed some howlers of advertising suicide with shoddy campaigns etc. and I'm sure in the process heads have rolled in the passed but who is essentially responsible? You? Me? The client?

And how do we make sure that the good ideas run. I suppose what it boils down to is; are we working for good ideas, or ideas that can be bought.

We also need to bear in mind that we can be too precious about work, David Ogilvy said "You can't critique your own work" this isn't to say what we come up with will be wrong but just be prepared to face tough criticism to meet a greater good.

So have a think about it next time you are cursing the client, account team, creative and let know what you come up with.

The strategy for "push the brief 2008"

So as promised before, here is our solution to our "push the brief 2008" arrange by Ashley Brown.

Background:
The brief was to try and get more 16-25 year olds to volunteer to:

• Reduce obesity
  
• Reduce crime
• Engaged conversation with older people

Solution:

Core Theme: Connect Nationally, Impact Locally

Insight: There are numerous hurdles preventing 16-25yr olds from volunteering. One is a perception that volunteering doesn’t connect with the issues that are keenly important to the individual. It doesn’t impact their immediate peer group, family or, most importantly, the area in which they live. Creating the opportunity to visibly contribute to their neighbourhood is paramount. Additionally if their efforts can be recognised and even rewarded, volunteering inertia and apprehension will diminish. Additionally, by attaching no value judgement to the degree of volunteering, youths can understand that even their smallest efforts are as valuable and beneficial as the grandest ones. There really is no such thing as “bad” volunteering.

Strategy: Drive volunteer sign-up and ongoing participation through a two-pronged approach of

1. Contribution
2. Recognition

Tactics – Contribution
An online forum that allows youths to;

• Enter their profile stating postal code or neighbourhood in which they live and additionally set profile filters like : hours I can contribute, issues that mean the most to me, I am willing to: network/mentor/lead/just participate. In essence, the profile allows youth to define the areas they are most engaged with and to set their own parameters. This could use the basic structure of networking sites like LinkedIn’s Q&A section.

• The forum should also aggregate information from like-minded groups and provide tools & tips to maximize these efforts: For example, tips from the police on dealing with explosive situations/race relations, from church groups on mobilizing communities and, most importantly, from peer groups in similar neighbourhoods who the volunteers may be more attuned to.

• Leveraging REAL police statistics by neighborhood also addresses a core principle which is this campaign should be about dispelling media hype and being firmly ground in the truth - truth in the numbers, truth in the realities of the neighborhoods the volunteers live in and truth about the effects they are having.

• Using common Facebook apps to create a multiplier effect for example; allowing volunteers to post anecdotes, share volunteering experiences via photos or videos, attract friends and peers through invitations to participate or to attend an event.

• Maximize efforts by providing realistic goals and providing hints. Taking a leaf from the New York “broken windows” philosophy about focusing volunteering efforts on initiatives that have a disproportionate effort-to-reward. For example, clearing out derelict cars and garbage might heighten the neighbourhood perception of making a difference than the (harder) initiative to end knife crime. Also might decrease the (understandable) perception that some issues are too big for one person to make a difference. Realistic goals, which could be aided by the aggregated info section, could definitely address this.

• Maximum local impact is a core credo so galvanize that by allowing volunteers or the public to upload requests for assistance to the site. Example upload a pic from your mobile phone that shows the local issue you’d most like to deal with – the broken windows in #17 or the graffiti at the local Tube stop. This allows the neighborhood to set the priorities and biggest peeves that volunteers could address. Then use the multiplier effect to hone the efforts of the neighbor clique of volunteers. Volunteers could also be encouraged to become roving reporters feeding v-blogs to the site with anecdotes and success stories. Increase the community feeling by getting the v-bloggers to interview other members of the community - the nanna in #25, the store owner of the corner shop...give those other community members a chance to contribute their emotions, pet peeves, successes...let the volunteers become a visible/rewarded force for change.

Tactics – Recognition
These tactics involve both digital and off-line components. The existing infrastructure outlined in the brief suggests that co-op and contra media deals are feasible (depending on merit) so media costs are assumed to fall under a contra or partner arrangement.

• Forum recognition on the same site where volunteers sign-up and contribute. This could involve simple mechanics like tagging before&after photos ala Facebook with the names and profiles of volunteers who contributed.
• Peer recognition based on a simple voting mechanism. Issues/anecdotes/success stories could be posted and the community could vote on the "impact" of that initiative. Initiatives that are successfully completed could have those votes added to their profile. This may run counter to "even the smallest contribution is valuable" but the community voting does allow the most deserving volunteers rise to the top.
• Use digital media to highlight success made in the neighbourhood. Signage on car parks could read "last year 250 cars were stolen from here, this year we've reduced that by 50%" Celebrate these wins. Use the digital signs as a means of driving Contribution - "To play your part Txt 123456 or join at ImpactLocal.co.uk"
• Use OOH in the same fashion with standard boards that are hyper-local...placed on school playgrounds, previously desolate houses...anywhere in the community where volunteer efforts have paid off. Use the creative to tell the story of the issue or to celebrate the local volunteers who addressed it. Hyper-local placement is paramount to this tactic paying off.
• Videoblogs and the before&after photos could be seeded in local media to highlight real efforts being made in the community by local volunteers.
• On a grander scale, the BBC could run a series of "Neighbourhoods in Transition" over the course of the year. The roving volunteer reporters (who are also contributors remember) could be recognized and their content re-used on the BBC. By the same token any youth channels could be seeded with this available content with "minimal" repurposing - MTV, NickKids etc, etc.

Tone and Feel
We are adamant that this campaign should never stray from two basic tenants;

1. This should be about Honesty & Truth - not media hype, marketing and hyperbole. Facts are more authentic
   
2. It should be written in the language of the audience and feel that it is "by volunteers for volunteers"

So this is the solution, many thanks to Hilton Barbour that did the write up and we look forward to the next Push the brief event.

Push the brief 2008

A few of us attended this event last night and we all thoroughly enjoyed it.

We ended up coming second place but it didn't really matter as we had such a good time.

I thought the format was very good and I will be on the look out for the next one.

Anyway here are some pictures, enjoy.

Presentation time


The inspiration


Simon and Hilton (Silly)


Simon and Chee


What were we up to?