Is this a sign of the times?
August 8, 2008 at 4:41 pm
As an Economist, I’m not one to be jumping on the Recession Bandwagon, but I couldn’t help wondering today if this tale that follows is a sign of the times, and a worrying indication of things to come…
I’m all about pitching interesting ideas to clients. There’s a dull corporate way of doing things (white background, blue logo, samey navigation style) and then there’s The Other Way.
The Other Way involves coming up with ideas and a strategy that really grabs your audience by the cojones, excites and delights them, and leaves them wanting more. Kind of sexual I know, but sure we all know - sex sells things!
Brightspark has done very well as a business because we’re the ones you bring in when you want to do something to excite and delight. When dull and boring is not good enough. And in recent times, while the good times have been rolling, we’ve all been a little more confident. Decisions have been taken to do things a little more daring at times. And that is to be applauded.
But does the corrolary of that mean that now when the economy is slowing down, all the decision makers go back to the tried and tested, dull and boring? Are there to be no new edgy ideas then? Is it back to the “I better not in case I lose my job over it”?
I hope not.
Because I am not doing samey samey.
I just lost out on a job for something that could have been really cool. The CEO loved the ideas, got excited about them, and the team as a whole contributed to the conversation.
Then today, I got the call. They’re not going with our ideas pitched. Instead they’re going for a corporate brochure site. And they’re using a nice safe company. One of those ones who has done lots of graphic design, whose web design is merely an online representation of what they do for print.
Is it down to price I asked? No. Our pricing is similar. So it’s down to the safe bet in the slowing environment. I’m disappointed about this one. But also worried that this is a sign of things to come.
Comments (one response)
I liken the situation to when I use to row. On the river you’re going head to head with the competition.
Anytime you came to a large bridge it was an “uncertain time” - you were completely in the dark. You couldn’t see the competition, they couldn’t see you.
In this brief uncertain time of the race, you could do one of two things, the first to keep going as you were, playing it safe, or the second, to”burn” - up the rate, put on the pressure and break your “cojones” to come out of the dark ahead of the competition.
In these “uncertain times” the web can deliver so much in terms of costs savings, more internal efficiencies as well as additional opportunities.
In this case, it looks as if it’s opportunity missed. Time to call their competition with a proposal to say these guys are playing it safe, and as a result, it’s all to play for.
Please leave a comment...
All comments are moderated before they are published.