Definition: a condition suffered with persistent regularity by comms agencies in general and planners in particular. Or, to put it another way, it's that old chestnut of giving stuff away for free (should we or shouldn't we?).
Take a meeting from yesterday. I had, if I say so myself, a pretty good idea for a new distribution innovation; it would be unique in this particular market, highly relevant to the audience, and the client was in a position to exploit the opportunity in a way none of their competitors could. And, like good agency people the world over, premature ideation struck: in a fit of enthusiasm, I shared the idea. The client was interested, and said they would think on.
So, regardless of whether it ever sees the light of day, my point is this: how would I have behaved if working for, say, a management consultancy? Because the other important thing to mention is that this client wasn't one we're working with currently. We hope to do so in future, but no contracts have been signed and no money has changed hands.
I can't say for certain, but my guess is that the Management boys and girls would have behaved very differently. They may well have charged for the meeting. And I'm sure they would have stayed pretty much silent on the ideas front. They would probably have then gone away for 6 weeks, before returning with a 200 slide presentation, concluding with the same distribution idea. Oh, and an invoice for £60k. And without necessarily saying HOW to actually do the idea (we did that as well!).
OK, so that's probably being a bit unfair on consultancies. But the fact remains that agencies don't do anything like this; we blurt ideas out left, right and centre, giving it all away for free. Is this good or bad; is it part of the service, and what makes us fun and exciting to work with (not something you could probably accuse Mckinsey of), or huge great big missed opportunity? And the answer is...?
