THE DESIGNER’S HOLY TRIANGLE – FAST, CHEAP, OR GOOD.
If you’ve had any experience in marketing you’ve probably heard this bit of professional wisdom (sometimes called The Designer’s Holy Triangle): Marketing communications can be two of three things: fast, cheap or good – but NEVER all three.
I beg to differ.
I think a creative team that is committed to quality and working for a client brave enough to take a risk, can deliver breakthrough ideas that are affordable within a reasonable deadline. That, in fact, is why clients hire agencies instead of doing the work themselves. We can come up with ideas that wouldn’t occur to them.
Here’s an example.
The mortgage department of a mid-size bank had an opportunity to place a recruitment ad for loan officers on the back page of a real estate trade publication. It was a great placement for the audience and the magazine was offering the space to us for free (due to a last-minute cancellation!). The mortgage department called the bank’s marketing team and asked us to create an ad for this space. The only hitch was there was NO budget for art or/and copy and we had only four hours to write and design the ad before it was due to the magazine that day! I was a consultant in the department at the time and told to come up with an all-type ad. The main message was to be the bank’s mortgage department prided itself on teamwork.
Ads need visuals.
Knowing that a visual is always more appealing than all type, I was determined to get some kind of image in the ad. I also knew that the audience was: (1) from Chicago, (2) primarily male, (3) mostly type-A personalities with a highly competitive bent and (4) generally interested in sports. So I found a quote from ex-Bulls star Michael Jordan on the importance of teamwork that was in the public domain. Then I found a FREE digital stock image of hands dropping a ball into a basket. Finally, I wrote a few short, succinct paragraphs referencing the financial success mortgage brokers routinely enjoyed at the bank due to teamwork.
Good work gets noticed.
The ad was finished, circulated for approval and sent to the publisher within three hours. The next day the head of the mortgage department called us to pass on a compliment. It seems that the magazine editor had told him that the ad was one of the best they had ever published in the magazine and he couldn’t believe how quickly we had put it together.
The point is – good work isn’t totally dependent on dollars.
But, whatever your budget, everything your agency does must still to be true to your brand, directed at the right target market and produced with a level of quality in keeping with a superior company like yours. This is a point of pride with us. But why not see for yourself. Give us a call and let us show you how, with a little imagination, talent and a willingness to do more than is expected, Crux can help you.
PS: Here’s the ad.
By – Wendy Lalli
