You Want it When?

There’s an old adage in the ad biz:

RUSH jobs take twice as long, cost double,
are only half as good, and always have to be redone.

Some of that may sound illogical. But go back to Ben Franklin’s observation that “Haste makes waste.” (Then again, ol’ Ben also said that “He who hesitates is lost.” So go figure.)

The point here is that planning is key. That applies to marketing campaigns as much as it does to life in general. Last-minute hurry-ups without appropriate pre-planning and scheduling almost always result in mistakes. Some are minor, sure, but others are not quite so accommodate-able.

Case in point is a poster that was produced for an international shipping enterprise in Southern California.
My team hired a professional photographer who went out and burned rolls of full-color “2-by’s” shots. He did a great job, and we and our client were impressed.

Alas, as we were reviewing the proof sheets of the shooter’s work and, at that time, ahead of schedule, the client told us that we had to select the photo and go to print now…as in “Right now!”

We obliged, and the client chose the photo he wanted. Off the image went to the printer, onto the press the image went, and no one was at the end of the press output to proof the image because there just was no time for such.

The 24” x 36” full-color posters were printed and delivered, and all were happy. Well, that is, until we and the client got a good look at the vastly enlarged image. In the lower left corner of the photo — and something that only time and attention and planning would’ve revealed if we hadn’t been rushed – was some guy urinating on the side of a building.

Now if we’d been able to “study” the 2-by proof sheet and loop it, as the phrase goes, we’d have spotted the pee’er. But we were on RUSH. So it went.

Even worse, the printed posters had been shipped out to key targets, contacts, prospects, and more before we’d noticed the visual “insult.”

There is a lesson here for not just the purchase and use of promotional products, but more directly on same per a program plan that accommodates and accounts for calendaring…and that avoids last-minute risks and the consequent budget and marketing image costs.

That client appreciated the value of promo products, and that poster was one of those products. But their sudden haste certainly made for image waste and budget waste.

So really, when and what do you want?