Just so you know, we don’t do time sheets. We won’t. Don’t even ask. With decades of experience, we believe the “hour of work” is the thing that gets in the way of everything that can be good about the work, the relationship and an individual’s sense of worth. We just agree to do it right, regardless of how much time it takes, within the boundaries of sanity. We’ve all been in the business long enough to know what something is valued, and how long it takes to do it. There have been times when the hours required to finish an assignment ballooned, because situations changed or scope changed. In those cases, the client offered more money, because it was the right thing to do. There have also been cases where we said, “Ah, this really didn’t take much” and charged less. Crazy, heh? Honesty and fairness, what a concept.
CREATIVE BRIEF
Briefs should be brief. Yes. Sure. Attention deficit disorder as it correlates with creative people and CEOs and all, and creative folks’ preference to say one thing. OK, but perhaps you don’t know what you don’t know… Consider this irony: The volume of information that the brief writer must wade through requires the ability to prioritize landfill based on prospect motivation, neuromarketing, cultural influence and whether something can be efficiently expressed creatively or not. Briefs are not made for engineers, for organizational politics or to cover one’s ass. Briefs are not published online, printed in magazines or made into press releases. Briefs are made to direct and inspire conceptual thinking. Briefs remind writers, art directors, videographers, media strategists, content specialists and anyone whose job it is to aid and abet communications that their job is actually persuasion. Briefs, when done well, aren’t just about insights. Nor are they a listing of features and benefits. They are magic spells. Their purpose is to conjure greatness; they are alchemy that can alter the very notion of truth in the collective. They require time and presentation, due diligence and divination. If you think briefs are just a piece of paper with facts, well, then move along. Nothing to see here…