Tips for (middle management) clients

Before you dismiss a concept because it doesn’t appeal to you, try and consider how your target market might respond to it.

If you can’t decide between two concepts, the solution isn’t taking pieces from both to create a new one.

Your brand is not your logo.

An idea makes an ad. 20% off is not an idea in itself.

Purchasing a rights-managed stock shot doesn’t mean you own it. Yes, we have the high resolution version, but no, you can’t use it again without paying.

Before you ask to increase the font size of the heading, make it all caps, and put it in bold, please refer to your corporate style guide – you’ll see the answer is NO, and won’t have to waste the Agency’s time. What’s more, you’ll also save yourself the embarrassment of admitting you don’t know your own corporate standards.

Same applies with your colour palette.

Don’t write notes or cross things out on a copy deck as it’s being read to you – it’s simply rude.

If you like something you see, praise the Agency – they won’t think you’re as big a cunt as they previously thought.

If you have to use jargon, use it sparingly.

Gather all your changes together at once, and then send them through to the Agency. Don’t dribble them through. It pisses everyone off, takes more time (opening files, resaving, getting internal sign-offs, etc) and costs you more money.

If you send an email asking for something to be done immediately, you’ve made two mistakes:

1. We are not sitting at our desks waiting for you to send an email that instructs us as to our next move. We might receive your urgent email 8 hours later when we are back at our desks.

2. If it’s urgent, call through the change. You won’t look like a prick from sending that demanding, unrealistic turn-around-time email, and you can make sure your request is received. You can even take the opportunity to thank the Agency for turning it around for you.

If you want to use your own printer. Fine. When it fucks up, you’ll wish you’d paid a slight mark-up for someone else to wear the problem.

Don’t mention other Agencies you may have worked with in the past. It’s a small industry, and you can bet someone knows someone who dealt with you in the past. And you can bet there’s some stories you probably don’t want us to know.