It’s
almost one week since we checked into Q4 2015.
The magical corporate budget season.
You survived on lean budgets all through here cometh a budget coupled
with a brand manager who is now ready for business.
Remember
that great PowerPoint presentation that was stopped midway for the client to go
and confirm if ‘her’ banners had been delivered? That day should be vivid,
considering that the whole agency had to keep off the printer as you went to press
printing bound copies for the brand manager, the Marketing Director and the
Managing Director respectively. Am sure you still emailed it to them after the
presentation.
Well,
that presentation is now a gem, not because you are an award winning practitioner
but because the numbers are looking bad, really bad. The last three quarters
are way below the Q1 targets. The PR agency has to do ‘something’ to support
the brand.
It’s
running really fast, we missed the elephant target, still couldn’t reach the antelope
target that PR budget reflected and now even the squirrel looks like a pipe
dream. The number four player in the sector is quickly catching up with our
brand. We have lost significant market share, dealers have swapped our branding
with the competitors.
Anyway,
back to the business that I am passionate about. “We have budget can you guys
come up with some kick-ass idea that will help us to drive sales” roars the
brand Manager. “Remember we will gauge your performance on this, we pay you
guys so much retainer “She further roars to remind you that you are seated next
to the user department boss.
The
meetings ends prematurely as you all head back to the agency to prepare a week
by week plan on how PR will support the brand and push the overall sales. Thanks
to the great minds in agencies, the geniuses, the untrained magicians, the ever
ready energy bunnies-a great plan will be developed.
An
inter-agency meeting will be held, rival agencies - PR, Advertising,
Experiential and Digital will finally sit together and deliver a pre-Christmas
campaign. The campaign will be aimed at driving sales in our key areas; the
media buying team will redo the media plan and squeeze all the possible
discounts from the media houses. The digital team will go for the low hanging
fruits which have been hanging since January, unless they are coconuts, those
fruits must be dry by now. The PR gurus
(are well really gurus) will leverage advertising to get strategic interview in
key outlets to support the sales drive.
