[Nick Griffin]

I’m strongly with the consensus opinion on this. Go home with the one who brought you to the dance.

The problem becomes when Client B contacts you directly for their next project. For whom do you have loyalty at that point? Will Client B have already cut loose Agency A? You can work for Client B directly at that point, BUT you run the serious risk of Agency A recognizing your work on air and resenting you even though you did the right thing. Or do you simply tell Client B that since you were introduced to them by Agency A it would be unethical to accept work directly from them.

To reiterate what Steve was saying, how your ethics are viewed in the marketplace is critical and will make a difference in your success for years to come.

[Nick Griffin]

[Bob Zelin] “https://www.eventide.com/AudioDivision/Products/BroadcastProducts/BD600.aspx”

[Trevor Asquerthian] “AirCleaner”

Or the US as a country and a culture could just grow up and realize that an “F bomb” or a “wardrobe malfunction” is a ‘so what’ occurrence. Sh*t happens and anyone who doesn’t realize that they should have more important things to worry about doesn’t have much of a grasp on reality.

Just because the US was originally settled by Puritans doesn’t mean 300 years later we have to think the way they did.

[Nick Griffin]

[Mark Suszko] “I REALLY liked the Oreos silent library fight spot.”

First, let me say YEA, RAVENS!!!!!!! (Three guesses where I live.)

As to the Oreo’s library spot, yes, it was very amusing. I especially liked the cop whispering into the megaphone. Very funny. BUT… it wasn’t until hearing the spot being discussed on TV this morning that I had any idea it was for Oreos. Guess I missed the set-up and it’s a certainty that the pay-off wasn’t strong enough. Funny doesn’t directly translate to good advertising. It has to communicate first and foremost.

I also think many people are missing just how effective the Paul Harvey/Dodge for farmers and Oprah/Jeep for Veterans spots were. These are total affinity pitches and if you’re a farmer, a veteran or identify yourself as a patriot you’re more likely than not to hold those brands in higher regard.

All in all this was not one of the best years for SuperBowl commercials as a whole. Nor one of the worst. But it was a GREAT game… once it was over.

As to the power outage, the big loser was CBS. Their post Superbowl programing was pushed back half an hour meaning they lost viewership and really lost the chance to showcase their “Elementary” show, at least on the East coast.

And on that topic, no, I don’t think it was possible that CBS reps were able to scramble fast enough to sell spots in the outage, even if they had wanted to. What was remarkable was the agency creative(s) who put together and tweeted during the outage an ad for Oreos with the line “You can dunk them in the dark.” THAT’s quick turn-around. Almost as good as Flacco to Anquan Boldin milliseconds before being pushed out of bounds.

[Nick Griffin]

As has been said here many times, pricing is based on a large number of variables, not the least of which is getting the job and then having them want to come back for more.

Not knowing your skill level/experience and equipment it’s very difficult to say whether or not that’s a good price. If all 3 can be shot in the same day, it may be. If it’s 3 separate days, probably not. But that’s just me and I think I’m somewhere around the middle of the range based on the aforesaid skills and equipment.

[Nick Griffin]

We had a start-up approach us with a “deal” wherein if we took them on as a client, AND they were to succeed, then they would pay our regular rates retroactively. My counter offer was in exchange for assuming the risk they would pay expenses in advance and THREE times our normal fees when certain levels of sales were achieved. They balked and I didn’t pursue further discussions.

Sometimes it’s best to know which “deals” to just walk away from.

[Nick Griffin]

[Mark Suszko] “What’s the most bizarre trade for editing services anybody’s ever done?”

Many, many, MANY years ago we had a car dealer as a client and the barter was our services (NOT talent and expenses) in exchange for the use of 3 new cars: A top-end sedan, a mid-range sedan and a low-end station wagon. Guess which one I drove? And it wasn’t just the cars. It included insurance, maintenance, car washes, even gas. The cars were dealership “demos” so we kept getting new ones every 5,000 miles or so. Of course this was a very under-the-table kind of deal, which I was young and dumb enough at the time to not realize was, even way back then, playing with fire.

[Ned Miller] “Careful what you post about barter. The IRS could be lurking…”

And that’s why I’m making it clear this was many, many, many years ago. Jimmy Carter and Ronald Reagan were Presidents. The one and only barter deal that I had as recently as 2002 was declared and the appropriate taxes paid — the way it’s SUPPOSED to be done. The IRS doesn’t screw around and I’ve known people whose lives were made a living hell because they played fast and loose with taxes.

As to legitimate barter deals, ratios given by the weaker of the sides are quite common. In other words they give you $2 or $3 of their goods or services for every $1 of your service — if they want what you’re offering bad enough.

And an interesting side story: the car dealer who first introduced me to his own variety of barter deals started by offering the local radio and TV stations use of his gas pumps in exchange for their airtime so he could advertise his dealerships. I believe the worst of his deals at the time was 3 to 1 in his favor. The best 8 to 1.

In the mid-eighties he realized that he was much better at setting up barter deals with TV and radio stations than he was as a car dealer, so he created a network that provided traffic reports for the stations in exchange for airtime which he then bundled and sold to national advertisers. His network expanded to most major US cities, then got into bartering weather reports and brief newscasts for radio stations. He expanded it into Europe and a few major markets in Asia. When it was sold in the early to mid 2000s his majority interest stake paid something in the range of a half a billion (yes, with a “b”) dollars. Me? I’m still making ads and videos.

[Nick Griffin]

OK, so most of Danielle’s thread below on “AMA vs. Import” was in progress while I was composing my post above. That said, my questions remain the same. Editing AMA-linked files seems to be working just fine for me so what am I missing?

[Nick Griffin]

Aw, C’mon Danielle. Has this client ever heard the phrase “you get what you pay for?”

With so much really inexpensive stock music around, including Stock 20’s recent year end deal where their entire 40+ hour library of buy-out stock music was under $200, just how much less expensive can anyone want?

See also royaltyfreemusiclibrary.com, MyMusicSource.com, Audiosparx.com and Pond5.com for some good, yet relatively inexpensive tracks. But free? Not really. A while back I saw a solicitation for free production music but (I believe) that the fine print was free for any feature film or TV use. I assume this was their strategy for building a client list.

I also CHARGE for the time spent locating appropriate music so then the choice becomes “would you like to spend a few hundred dollars on great stuff that I can pull in a matter of minutes from a Killer Tracks library (my first choice) or would you rather spend that or MORE for my time looking to supposedly save a few bucks?”

[Nick Griffin]

I’m like Bob in the respect that if the extra time is something I decided to do or if it’s due to a crash or other malfunction, it’s not getting billed to the client. If the overage is caused by the client then it’s my job to communicate with them and get them to understand that this is something they have caused. This has to start at the earliest possible moment, perhaps even when the potential for there being an overage is recognized. It’s also be to present this with the phrase, “What do you think we should do about this problem?”

We also used to show the overage and corresponding discount on all invoices. Now we only do so on a case by case basis because of a weird incident a few years ago with one of our long term clients. He saw the overage and corresponding discount and complained about it stating, “Well why couldn’t you have just estimated accurately in the first place?” It took me a few days to get my head around the fact that he just wanted something to whine about and this was the only thing he could find.

[Nick Griffin]

If you’re going to rent your location we’ve found that it makes far more sense to rent a small meeting room at the hotel. Instruct that it have a minimal amount of furniture rather than the typical horseshoe conference table arrangement which you’ll just have to move out of the way. It also seems a lot more “professional” to bring people into a meeting room than up to a hotel room.

The biggest potential downside is what other meetings will be going on in adjacent meeting rooms. If your neighbor is a motivational sales meeting and all you have between them and you is a movable divider, you’re hosed.

Do a site survey before booking and get the lay of the land for what you’ll be dealing with and what you’ll be avoiding. It’s also a good idea on shoot day to have a couple of LARGE mounted posters with “Shhh! Video Taping In Progress” or something similar on them to place outside your meeting room. In addition to the public areas you will also want to put one in the service hallway which connects to your meeting room and where the hotel’s catering staff can make an unacceptable amount of noise.