For many years, I lived in an apartment building in San Francisco. One day I awoke to the sounds of jackhammers and other loud industrial noises outside my window. After my morning rituals were complete, I went to investigate and saw a crowd of DPW (Department of Public Works) employees digging a hole in the street. From the placement of safety cones and caution tape I estimated said hole would be the size of 4 or 5 parking spots, dependent upon whether your viewpoint is derived from SUV or sub-compact logic.
The hole was being dug as part of a project to replace an aging and failing sewer system. After 3 months or so, the hole was covered back up with tar and the street made to look as though nothing had ever happened.
2 weeks later (roughly), I was again jarred awake by the somewhat familiar sound of jack hammering. I immediately thought that someone had screwed up and forgot to put in or take out something, with regards to the earlier sever project. I went outside and saw that cones were similarly set up, but this time, it was a crew from Comcast, our local cable company who was digging a hole of almost the same size in the same exact spot. Putting in new fiber optic cable was the answer I received to my query as to what was going on. 3 weeks later, give or take, this hole was now closed up and a fresh patch of tar laid down. Quiet had once again returned to my humble abode.
But it would seem the relative peace and quiet was to be short lived as once again, a week or so later, the familiar sounds of construction greeted me, this time as I arrived home from doing some errands. It was the phone company, there to lay new cables. And believe it or not, they too were digging up the same hole.
Striking up a conversation with the guy in charge, I asked him why the phone company couldn’t have just asked Comcast to leave the hole open and why Comcast couldn’t have asked DPW to leave the home open. Of course his answer made sense: legal issues, permits and logistics. But I silently thought to myself “Why can’t they figure out a way to just share the hole?”
And it would be strange enough if the story ended here, but it doesn’t, because PG & E actually came out after the phone company left and yes, they dug a hole in pretty much the same spot that the phone company had just covered up.
So what does this have to do with advertising or production or anything else I’m involved with?
Well, a short while ago I received a call. It was a referral from one of my longtime friends/ clients. A pretty good sized company needed to produce some image pieces for their web site. I met with their marketing head and a few other representatives from their company. We sat around for awhile and talked and I went through taking my brief. It was fairly straight forward. Getting somebody to do re-writes and some additional writing, shooting video, arranging for v.o. and editing, etc. And like most companies these days, they seemed concerned about getting a good deal.
And then I started getting to some other questions. I mentioned that I knew the company regularly had a presence at several industry events, symposiums and conventions. I asked if they might need some video produced for those purposes and indicated that if we did this together, it would consolidate some costs. At which point I was informed that they just had some assets produced a month earlier by one of the companies that helps them with their events. Ok, no worries. I then mentioned that I knew they also did television advertising and asked if they had any plans to create any commercials in the near future, since we could combine efforts to bring down the… I was interrupted mid-sentence. Their ad agency had just produced some spots for them about 2 months earlier. Neither had bothered to ask them about their long range plans or evidently even their short range needs. The sad thing is that after speaking to them, had they realized it, all of these things could have been produced at the same time and while I can’t figure out the exact savings, it was at a minimum $50,000. They also would have benefited from having a similar look and feel among their various marketing materials.
I even went so far as to contact both companies to see about the potential of obtaining any b-roll or unused shots they might have to see if this could help bring down the fees. I mentioned to this potential client that the minute I ask for footage both companies would probably be all over her to produce her website videos. Of course I was right and both companies used a similar tactic regarding archive charges and duplication fees if they wanted raw footage, but that they both could give them a great deal on producing this new stuff. One of them admitted to having burned most of the original footage, aside from the selects that were used and a few backup shots.
Once in a while, a good deed goes unpunished and I got the contract. They didn’t question my price and they thanked me for all that I had already done on their behalf. They were very happy with the results and if they get second round funding, I may have myself a few more nice production contracts.
Sometimes it’s not about the dog and pony show, but simply being able to share a hole in the ground.
{ 2 comments… read them below or add one }
This story about your brilliant insight, instead of just thoughtless action, proves why independent consultants thrive.
That’s a great analogy. To many times we’re spending all our effort looking at the very next hurdle, without thinking about how we might leverage this moment for a future moment.