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Making a video is kind of like making a pizza…
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I use the house and car analogies interchangeably with my clients or potential clients. But lately, I’ve been pushing hard for them to go thru the Creative Treatment process, and I like the analogy I came up with when they offer some resistance to putting in the homework of writing out the Treatment or even a specification memo.
The analogy I came up with was:
“You go to Denny’s and sit down, the waitress (us) comes to you and you simply say: I’d like eggs, please”. Nothing more. So, after she brings you scrambled, and you send them back, over-easy, over-hard, and you send them back, Denver Omelet, and you send it back, French Toast, and you send them back, Huevos Rancheros, and you send it back, you’ve spent all this time and wasted all this effort and material, when you could have just said at the beginning:
Three-hard-boiled eggs and some toast, please.
That’s that the Creative Treatment is about, it is about defining your needs as accurately as possible, from the beginning, so there’s less guesswork involved, and everybody is on the same page”.
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“Actually, making a video is not like anything else…it is making a video, which is why you have come to us. We know how to make videos. Let us walk you through the process, answer your questions define the deliverables and do a great job for you.”
That’s what I say anyway.
Although I do have a craving for an omelet pizza, which I will eat in my car while building a house.
Mike Cohen
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unfortunately these days its “we only have Ford money but it needs to look like a Lamborghini and if you can’t do it for the money we will find someone else who will”. I like the house building analogy.
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Some clients aren’t ever going to WANT to understand.
I once had a grinder who was upset that the final product wasn’t close to what he wanted, despite it being exactly what the script that he signed off on called for. He wasn’t about to spend another dime paying for a reshoot, new VO, more editing, etc. I used the house analogy, explaining how a contractor could go back to your newly built house, tear out a few walls and expand your living room by a couple hundred square feet, but that’s gonna cost money, and man, that’s an expensive way to build the house that you want.
His response was silence and an angry stare followed by, “That’s a terrible analogy. Making commercials is nothing like that.”
Mark Grossardt
Video Editor
Clark Creative Group -
[Mark Grossardt] “Some clients aren’t ever going to WANT to understand.”
You’re exactly right, which is why I’m grateful that one of the business owners I worked for early in my career taught me that it’s sometimes ok to fire a client … when they’ll clearly cost more than they’ll ever be worth, there’s nothing wrong with kindly walking them across the street to one of your competitors and wishing them luck.
By the way, Steve Kownacki and Mark Suszko, those are great additions to the traditional analogies so thanks much for sharing your thoughts … although I must admit I’m a little skeptical about comparing myself to a Denny’s waitress … especially considering the buyer’s remorse people often experience the morning after eating at Denny’s. ;~)
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