$56 billion reduction in marcom expeditures for 2009... boutiques dropping every day.... studios shutting their doors..... and on and on and on. Chances are if your still around there is hope. In fact, if your still around in this market then you might even start looking up. Here is why!
Both small boutiques agencies and production companies traditionally run thin. What I mean is ...CREATIVES AREN'T ALWAYS WONDERBAR AT THE BUSINESS SIDE OF THE BUSINESS! Sooooo....If your still around ..... start looking up.
The bottom line is that business', at least in the sense that we now know them, still need to inform their customers of the products and services they offer. And that means they HAVE to SPEND SOME $. Why you ask? Because, its not a save and survive proposition! It's a communicate or die
situation.
The bottom line: in this vicious market, communication is vital...is required.. is
do or die equation.
People! This is not to say that the size of the waist is not shrinking as the belts get new holes drilled. To the contrary. Here in lay the opportunity.
Stay lean and mean. A Value proposition is the saving grace in this environment. In the past boutiques and production companies have always offered high end services/benefits as a way of gratifying those that have their hands in the kitty and decide to tip the jar in your direction.
Now.... a marcom manager or a marketing VP is going to be more apt to buy your services if your lean. Instead of offering quiche and caviar as a 10 am snack one of the purse string pullers might be more pleased to see their traditional dollar go a non-traditional route.....Egoless.
At CRM Studios were I work in Dallas. That has always been our methodology and we are starting to see it pay off. We still do the stardard musts.... on budget, on time, and impressive. But we take it one step further. We deliver on ANY BUDGET. We check our EGO's at the door.
Can we boast multi-million dollar budget capability? Yes! Can we boast about huge clients? Yes! Do we? ....Only in the sense that we can provide that same know how on a mac and cheese budget. Humbly.
From this prospective we realize that a lot of the communications budgets are going to go inside the corporation instead of outside. These entities are going to start spending marketing money on making their (remaining) sales staff better at what they do. That means the small boutiques and the production companies are gonna have be able to stomach the oh soooo non-sexy simple stuff. But here's the deal. There is a ton of it.
And the philosophy pays off in the end, when you've made a client feel and KNOW they are getting the absolute "biggest bang for their buck".
Now, that cliche has been over used in the past and has almost become meaningless. It can't simply be a mantra that you chant in hopes that the business god's will deliver unto you untold wealth and happiness. It's meaning simply has to be understood in a different way.
Before, "Bang for the Buck" meant high client coddling. Expensive dinners, unbelievable hotels, limos, spending days on a very COOL effect that everyone knew was going to end up on the floor anyway, it meant the whole nine, all the way, no holds barred. That was "Bang for the Buck". What does it mean now? How do you deliver it?
Value can't be something you talk about and then leave on the table with the signed contract. Value means communication. Value means listening to your client and over delivering on expectation. Value means putting the money into the project, not into the bottle of port. In the end value is putting bang into any budget, it means focusing on the goal not the flash. Stop talking a big game and start delivering on the project.
When a client comes to you with a $40k project instead of a $400k project. What's your reaction? Disappointment? Relief? .....They are both wrong. The idea is business as usual. No sexy... just adept, creative execution, on any budget. And when you've done that.... who will reap the benefits of the newly funded bank accounts when that money starts to flow again? And flow again it will. As sure as the summers sun money will become abundant again. The question is who will be the milk? "GOT VALUE?"
As the companies go more ROI insane, get paralyzation by analyzation, and get more web 2.0 savvy, we few surviving small guys just might have a boot up on the guys that have been beating their chests for the last 8 years. Massive overhead is a bitch!
The time is right... some of us are lean and mean and the bullies aren't thinking the mud puddles look so fun anymore. Not when they feel more likely to be the ones that end up with mud on their face!
Stay lean and mean.
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