11. “A Hummer limo is only a little more than a taxi”
10. “We’ll fix it in post”
9. “Pebble Beach has an opening”
8. “Think Super Bowl”
7. “Have you seen that OK Go video?”
6. “Pushing the envelope here is mission critical and we need everyone on board”
5. “We have a synergistic relationship with a digital frontier collective”
4. “Grant Achatz caters, right?”
3. “We need a director with pyrotechnic experience”
2. “I’m not sure…but that’s what focus groups are for”

#1

“LADY GAGA WOULD BE PERFECT FOR THIS!”

Apparently, talk isn’t so cheap after all. But then, what is these days? That’s what makes your budget more precious than ever. So, yeah – we’d LOVE to shoot your next “helicopter explosion” commercial, but we understand it may not be the most effective use of your advertising dollars.

It’s actually quite amazing how far some budgets can go when they aren’t tied up in traditional retainer-based relationships…when you have to earn every assignment on the merit of performance. It’s called a value-based relationship, and it’s been our thinking ever since way back when – when the economy was still on the upswing. Remember those days? Even then it didn’t make sense to us to blow budgets on the frivolous and fashionable – but to each their own.

It’s a relatively short window, to be sure, but fast forward ten years and you could say we were a little ahead of our time. Seems everybody’s trying to figure out how to do more with less now…something we’ve been doing all along.

When your ad agency is forced to earn its next assignment by over-delivering on the last, you tend to get more out of both your budget and your agency. The advantage becomes obvious when the creative work blows your mind, and not your budget.