MAINTAINING A GOOD BUZZ | Perich Advertising + Design

MAINTAINING A GOOD BUZZ

By Ernie Perich

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This is a tough business. Especially if you’re an owner. (To my fellow owners out there, God bless you.) There’s so much B.S. to contend with. You’ve got to get a buzz somehow. Here’s how I get mine. I love to present our work. Especially when I feel really good about it. Yesterday, I presented to clients I’ve coveted for nearly ten years. After who knows how many letters and emails, we’ve become their agency. Yesterday was our day of reckoning. The day we had to prove that we really understood their brand as much as we said we did. We talked about our research and strategy for almost two hours. Blah, blah and more blah. Then we took a pee break. Five out of ten clients like the research and strategy, but are just as smitten with the pee break. Because it signals the end of the blah, blah and more blah, and the beginning of the real show.

For two hours, we basically told them what they already knew. Now they were going to see something they’ve never seen before. The people out in the real world don’t see the blah. They see all that blah boiled down to a 3-second message. So I milk the set up. I fondle the boards. I false start. Not once but twice. Just to tease them even more. I provide all the standard disclaimers, about how “we just found these images and if you like the idea we’d shoot something really nice” etc. etc. Then I finally show them a board, read them the headline. Their reaction is immediate. The looks on their faces is what I work for. A 2- or 3-second expression. When they smile, clap, squirm, look at each other and nod their heads…This is a fascinating, mind-bending, emotional, stimulating, fantastic, rewarding business. (I think I’m going to cry right now. I really do.) The looks on their faces gave me a buzz equal to the one I got last night walking down the 9th fairway* after eating four frozen Reese’s, a 280-yard journey from the tee box to my ball.**

* I was playing the 10th hole.

** + or – 80 yards