Fast, Cheap, Good or Smart? ALL OF THE ABOVE.
When I initially floated the concept of Fast, Cheap, Good or Smart
in an email marketing piece several months ago, I created a much bigger controversy than I intended. It seems that some people still believe that the axiom, “Fast, cheap or good – pick two,” is sacrosanct. They believe that any client who expects to get all four criteria in their campaign should be prepared to get garbage. Not surprisingly the people who were most opposed to my message weren’t business-owners or clients; they were industry people – people we all rely on to create and execute the campaigns. And while I respect the skill of the artist as much as anyone else, in order stay relevant, we all need to make the changes that will make us faster, cheaper, better and smarter.
Before I go down this road, I am going to issue a disclaimer: Since I started this agency almost ten years hence, I have had the privilege and pleasure of working with many, many extraordinarily professional people. A lot of the artists and creatives I’ve worked with on everything from thirty-second commercials to hour-long TV shows, have been incredibly talented and dedicated. We’ve produced some pretty amazing things.
That said, as with any industry in a state of transition and flux, like the advertising and production businesses in Phoenix, we do have a fair amount of what I’d like to call the “unenlightened”. That is; the folks who remember how it was done in the “good ‘ol days” and who are committed to maintaining the status quo. And while I am a big believer in tradition and history – this is not the time for that. Clinging to the past is a great way to make sure you end up part of it – and not part of the future. I understand the quality of real craftsmanship – I also understand the cost. And those big, fat advertising budgets for all but a few extremely large or extraordinarily successful companies? Toast.
So now it’s on us to come up with ways to keep our clients in the ad game and as far as I can tell, we’re all going to have to learn to be faster, cheaper, better and smarter.
Fortunately, there are a million new resources out there that make the creative and production process simpler. I’ll list just a few of those below, which are not only are huge cost and time savers; but allow us to maintain a high-level of production quality.
- Shutterstock – For the price of a decent photographer for a half-day, we get to use, almost 1,000 photos a month from over 14 million that they have in their library; royalty-free. Many of the photos, images and the treatments in the ads and graphics on this site were created with images and effects from Shutterstock.
- Canon – We just purchased our second Canon DSLR camera. It’s a 7d and is capable of taking still photographer and film-quality, hi-def, 1080P video. The camera itself cost less than a decent flat-screen, LED TV. The skill to use it correctly is another thing – but camera is amazing.
- TriCaster/VidBlaster – This is, for all practical purposes, a broadcast production truck shrunk down to the size of small ice chest. Depending on the model, the thing handles up to eight HD cameras at once and with a decent operator and some insightful pre-production, you can create something akin to Monday Night Football using an equipment footprint no larger than your backyard pool.
- WordPress, MailChimp, Google Analytics, YouSendIt – And any number of other apps that offer pre-packaged Internet products that are more robust and dynamic than anything you or your Webmaster could ever develop independently – for pennies on the dollar. We subscribe to them all and as a result we are able to do more with less than ever before.
I feel very comfortable sharing these resources with everyone because in the end, creativity and execution trumps all. And for most of our clients, the reality is that they have better things to do than create and produce campaigns. But the other reality is that they have far less money with which to pay for campaigns, too.
OK, so, what about the creative? That’s where all the money is spent, right?
Nope. The money most of us collect goes to insurance, rent, equipment, salaries, business-services, employee treats, taxes, travel and the ever-popular “incidentals.” Those are the money-suckers. The cost of creativity is more a function of time and experience: the more experience you have the less time you need to spend creating. With the right mix of experience and time-management and if we leverage the resources and control expenses – we can turn out things quickly, inexpensively, intelligently and of high quality.
Or, fast, cheap, good and smart.
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