I don’t just dabble. I play with fire.

(insights from a BURN intern: By Paige Weber)

As the newest BURN victim in the agency’s much desired summer internship program, I have gladly taken on the role of Fire Starter, literally. (I won’t bore you with the story of how I tried to set the studio on fire while burning business cards.) Pyromania aside, I am ready to light a fire under our clients’ brands. And, yes, I do come with a warning label indicating incredible productivity, proactive attitude and fun personality.

While it was initially a challenge to assimilate to my new schedule of traditional office hours from my normal class schedule that allows me to sleep in and wear whatever I want to class, I did find it a breeze to love who I work with. I now completely understand when people say you will like your job even more when you like the people you work with. My bosses, Sarah and Jeff, have been great professional role models as they teach me the real world ins and outs of the advertising industry. They are fun creative individuals with a passion for their work. And while I know I am but a lowly intern, I am never treated like one. They make me feel like a vital part of their tight knit, talented team. (I don’t get paid more for writing this, by the way.)

Of course I didn’t come as a complete blank slate for them to work with; I have been crafting my skills through various classes, activities and volunteer work while in college. I like to think as a communications major that I have exceptional communication skills. I am a passionate and hard worker who strives to anticipate my boss’ needs. I try to creatively think of new ways to approach the situations the head brand evangelists here at BURN face each day for their clients, whether it is targeting a market a certain way or a simple organization process. And they give me the freedom to explore my ideas!

I am still getting use to the coffee boost needed at times to “put a pep in my step”, but I am loving what I do. And, fire hazard aside, I must say the red, hand-burned business cards done by yours truly, look really good sliding into my red wallet. I may not be getting a summer tan every day, but this summer is definitely pretty hot.

How much will it cost? What’s your budget?

“How much will it cost?”

“What’s your budget?”

At first glance, this typical exchange between an advertising agency (or any creative professional) and its client seems kind of ridiculous and a little questionable.

Wanting to know how much a project will cost is not an unreasonable request. Answering any question with a question is, in itself, questionable. It’s what people do when they don’t have an answer, or when they’re stalling for time. And answering a question about cost with a question about budget seems like you’re trying to make sure your profits are maximized, which isn’t necessarily in your client’s best interest.

But here’s why I think this entire scenario is silly. Yes, a client has a right to know how much money they’re going to spend. They are responsible for their company’s budget. They want (and need) to know that they’re spending that money responsibly. Often, they’re accountable to someone else at their company and must be able to defend their spending decisions.

Advertising is a professional service, so let’s look at another professional service—lawyers. I know, I know, nobody likes to talk to or about lawyers, especially when the discussion is money. But when you need a lawyer, do you choose one based on the lowest cost? Not if you want to avoid a judgment against you. Do you choose based on a promise of a win? Not if you’re smart enough to know this is a guarantee even the best lawyer can’t make.

You most likely make your choice by experience and personality. Cost might be a factor, but it’s never the only (or primary) reason. And, yet, when it comes to advertising, we are far too willing to go with the lowest bidder. Is it any wonder so much of the ads we’re subjected to suck?

And what about the question of the budget? Do we as advertising professionals ask this just so we know how much we can squeeze from a particular client?

Sure, some unscrupulous players out there operate this way, but they don’t stay in business long. If you don’t deliver results in this business, you are easily replaced (even if the lack of results is beyond your control).

No, the question is designed to make clients think. Too many of them come to an agency wanting the moon but have no idea how much they’re willing to spend. They want to do everything their competitors are doing (no, they want to out advertising them), but they don’t necessarily want to outspend them.

The budget question also separates the real clients from those companies that are just looking for free ideas (you’d be surprised how often this happens). As an agency, your ideas are your products. If you give them away, how can you blame clients for expecting them for nothing?

And, finally, the budget question let’s your agency gauge how realistic your goals are. If you can’t afford to support your marketing goals, they might need to narrow them or create a phased-in marketing approach. We won’t know that unless we know your goals AND your budget. Without the budget, we might present a perfect solution that the client can’t afford. And when that happens, clients get discouraged and go elsewhere (often to another agency willing to take the first agency’s idea and run with it for less—after all, they don’t have to spend the time and resources to come up with the idea. That work was done already, for free).

So what’s the solution to this budgetary back and forth? Trust and communication.

If you take the time to get to know your potential agency, you will be able to sense if you can trust them. Listen to your gut. If what the agency is telling you sounds too good to be true, walk away. But if they have a passion for what they do and are genuinely interested in what you do, well you just might have found a strategic partner (hmm, ad agency as partner and not vendor; interesting concept). And make sure you tell them exactly what you hope to accomplish. If you hold back, they can’t give you an adequate cost estimate. That will just cause headaches for both parties later. And, of course, know what you are willing and able to spend before you even come to the table.

Trust and communication? Sound like a relationship? Precisely.

We’re all doomed!

BURN’s Jeff Berney recently presented a pep talk to his fellow AAF-KC members on the many wondrous things that are destroying the advertising industry. While mostly tongue-in-cheek, you can tell by the nervous audience laughter that some of his points hit a little too close to home. Enjoy!

Let us know what you think of the presentation. Do you agree? Anything else you’d add to the list?

Who has two thumbs and loves paper? This intern!

(insights from a BURN intern: By Kathleen Euston)

If you read my last entry, you know I quickly discovered that agency interns are often asked to do things slightly outside of their comfort zones, i.e. role playing an astronaut or running down Oak Street chasing the ice cream man (Jeff has a hankering for bomb pops, though it makes his lips awkwardly red the rest of the day).

Last Wednesday, however, I was given the opportunity to do something right up my alley (or so I thought). I got to visit xpedex, the Kansas equivalent of the Dunder Mifflin Paper Company.

Fact: Paper companies are not all alike. (Neither are bears. And, of course, brown bears are best.)

Xpedx specializes in literally THOUSANDS of varieties of paper. I never thought paper was so important to the execution of marketing concepts. When the big shots at BURN sit down to dream up a mailer, brochure or business card for a client, they have literally millions of options, capabilities and decisions to consider. They must decide what best fits the clients needs. Who would have thought you actually have to think in this business?!

Question: should you use a smooth, uncoated piece of paper or an earthy fiber-based paper? Should the piece be printed on a linen surface or a cast coated paper? And what sort of printer and ink should be used with what paper? Did you know the opacity and transparency of the paper determines the weight of the ink added? These are some of the many questions you must consider. (And they are, in fact, the only questions I memorized in an attempt to convince Sarah that I paid attention in paper class.)

Before attending Paper 101, I thought all paper was the same. During the five-hour seminar, I was given an insider’s look into the complexities of papermaking, properties, categories, printing and even how the papers are bonded to one another.

I’m so glad I attended this seminar, because now I have a deeper appreciation for everything that happens on “The Office.” Michael Scott and his compadres at Dunder Mifflin are literally geniuses!

I wonder what kind of paper Schrute Bucks are printed on?

To infinity and beyond.

(insights from a BURN intern: By Kathleen Euston)

Being an intern is a lot like being stuck in an anti-gravity chamber, you always have to be up for anything.

For instance, I showed up one morning to find out we were filming viral videos. I was ecstatic! This was a chance for me to tap my creative juices, get politically incorrect, make funny suggestions and prove I am creative.

I thought perhaps one day I’d show these videos to Conan O’Brien or Chelsea Handler. They’d be stunned by my producer talents and my ability to coax funnier actions from our actors. I would naturally be hired on the spot. I could just see myself squatting right next to Chuy. Chelsea would probably start the show something like this, “Say hello to my wonder bra Chuy and life partner Kathleen.”

Lights were flashing, and I was going places.

The poor actors would be wearing full astronaut costumes, the ones made to look and weigh like real astronaut suits. Basically, it was going to be a hot mess for these poor victims while I watched and added my creative input. This was going to be good.

That’s when I was informed that I would be the astronaut. My stomach squirmed as I quickly saw my dreams of being Chuy’s wingman fading fast.

I’d be lying if I said this wasn’t one of my favorite days at BURN. This is what I meant about being up for anything. Every day brings a new experience, challenge or life lesson. One day we might visit a client or brainstorm new ad ideas, and the next I might be dressed as an astronaut running back and forth on Oak Street, pausing for photos from astonished passersby.

Who knows what tomorrow will bring. I do know one thing. I can guarantee I won’t be brewing coffee or making copies. And, hopefully, I won’t have to wear another costume. This week.

Nobody cares.

I don’t care who you are. You don’t care who I am. It’s just a fact of life. When you first meet someone in a business setting you think one of two things: “Is this person going to try to sell me something?” or “How can I sell this person something?”

In business, relationships begin because one or both parties can do something for the other party. So why is it that when ad agencies get a shot at pitching a potential client, a vast majority of them drone on and on about themselves and not about the client?

Honestly, I think it’s because that’s the easy thing to do. It takes very little rehearsal to talk about yourself. It certainly takes less time and effort to do so than it would to research the potential client, the marketplace, the competitive landscape. And it’s definitely less risky than actually taking a stand and suggesting a course of action that may be rejected.

Yep. It’s so much safer to show slide after slide of “work that works” and “award-winning creative.” It feels so much more comfortable to show your smiling agency personnel and talk about how fun you are and how much you love what you do and blah, blah, blah.

Think of it this way, at a cocktail party, everyone dreads being cornered by that one guy who wants to spend the entire night reliving his past accomplishments. Do we really believe he made that last second shot to win the big championship? That the president called him personally to congratulate him?

His stories mean nothing to us. We’d much rather spend the party talking, laughing and enjoying ourselves with the guy who asks us about ourselves and regales us with intriguing stories we can relate to. He listens. He wants to know more about us. He entertains. He doesn’t monopolize the conversation. He makes us think.

That’s how it should be when you meet with a new agency. There should be chemistry. You should feel like they truly care about your brand, your future, your interests and input.

Their history before you should mean less than your potential future together.

Sure you want to know they can do great work. Sure you want to know how much they charge. But every agency has writers, artists, media buyers and account people. More importantly, you want to know that they are going to be just as passionate about your business as you are. That they are going to listen, do their homework and create ads that catapult you past your competition.

If an agency spends more time talking about itself when you first meet, chances are it’ll spend more time thinking about its own bottom line once you’re a client.

Choosing an ad agency is like falling in love.

I’ve been working on a lot of new business proposals lately and it has occurred to me that perhaps not every marketing manager knows what to expect from an ad agency pitch.

I’ll tell you what not to expect. You should never expect the perfect solution to your marketing needs to just walk into the room. No matter how much homework they do, an ad agency simply won’t know you, your business or your customers well enough to create the perfect campaign during a new business pitch.

Pitches are about style over substance. In fact, they’re the only time in your relationship with your ad agency when this should be the case.

You should think of a new business pitch like a first date. It’s a chance to get to know each other and to find out if the relationship is worth pursuing. As with most real relationships, one side generally wants it to work more than the other—at least in the beginning.

When we’re pitching a new client, I always like to push their comfort zone by presenting ideas that are perhaps a little crazy but still based on what I feel is a valid strategy. It’s a chance to show how we think, to express our creativity and to demonstrate what it would be like to work with us.

From our point of view, we look for potential clients who are willing to entertain new ideas; clients that don’t want to simply do what has already been done.

That’s right. A new business pitch is an audition for the client as well as the agency. There have been cases when we have won but have turned the assignment down because something we learned during the pitch made us feel the relationship wasn’t right for us.

During an initial pitch, you should never fault an agency for showing you work that you don’t think is right or for pursuing a strategy that doesn’t fit with what has been done for your brand before. It’s much more important to get a feel for how the agency works, how the key players interact and how you get along with each.

If I were a client sitting through a new business pitch (or more likely, sitting through several), I would look for one thing: strategic thinking. It wouldn’t matter how outrageous an agency’s ideas are or how cool their samples look, if they didn’t think strategically, they’d be out.

I love creative advertising ideas, but if they aren’t grounded in strategy, they’re simply entertainment. And entertainment alone is not advertising.

In the end, choosing an ad agency is like falling in love. When you find yourself a little outside your comfort zone but being there feels oddly right, when you feel a little nauseous  but in a good way, when everything comes together, you just know something amazing is about to happen. Go with it.