From an agency perspective on the phone calls ringing on Friday afternoon
I have been working at an advertising agency for almost ten years and overall I love it. However, there is one area that I have not been able to get used to to this day and it makes me break out in a cold sweat. This is the Friday panic.
Agency Friday mornings start just like any other company. We finish and wrap up deadline work, prepare what needs to be sent out on Monday, and check statuses. By around noon or early afternoon, we finish the day's workload and on a quieter weekend, we spend the afternoon coffee break planning a cheerful weekend. Stories and experiences from previous vacations come up. This seemingly carefree idyll is swept away like an avalanche by an innocuous phone ring...
Despite having firmly stepped into the 21st century, the Friday panic still arrives in 2020 via the old, tried-and-true phone. With my experienced colleagues, we buckle up like seasoned ghostbusters, put on nonexistent insulating and protective gear, helmets, to await the inevitable impact.
At this point, the official opening line of the Friday panic comes from the clients in one of the versions below:
- Hi, are you still in? (a cunning move disguised as friendliness. The seasoned ones might lie that they are already fishing in the Danube branch in Ráckeve, but the truth is that you founded the agency because you have an irresistible desire to help others, so you will say: you are in and listening to how you can help)
- We have a little problem (somewhat more honest, but this is also a euphemism, because I would never describe a double train disaster as a little problem.)
- Can you help a little? – the little help for me is lending a paperclip if it’s run out, but it’s not planning all the creatives for the 360-degree campaign starting on Monday over a weekend, instead of the raw materials expected from Poland that have not arrived.
- I was thinking, I’ll ask you for advice! – the tool of the seasoned manipulator, because if you can give advice on the situation at hand, then you are rightly entitled to ask for help in the implementation as well.
The real request, of course, which is never stated, is:
„I've gotten into a crazy big horn storm, I'm completely desperate, I don't know who to turn to, I don't even know what this is all about and where it comes from, what I should do.”
...but I know that if I don't deliver a usable solution within about an hour, my boss will take my head and pin it to the dartboard like Mr. Gatto in the Cat's Play. Please solve it for me!”
The battle-hardened client knows that their agency is the last outpost between the client and the impossible. If we can't do it – in speed, uniqueness, complexity – then no one will. And the litmus test for this is, in most cases, Friday.
The experienced advertiser knows that if any of the above sentences are uttered on Friday afternoon, it's time to say goodbye to the family, saying that I'll be home a little later in the evening. Seasoned advertising spouses no longer ask when, because no one knows that yet. It might be 8 PM, it might be 2 AM, but it can also happen that you're home by 6, but you'll be working all weekend.
I don't want to speak in generalities; the problems below are real cases from real clients that we have successfully solved:
- The key visual expected from Poland at the beginning of the week hasn't arrived, but the campaign is locked in and needs to start, so we need to order an SOS quote.
- Thousands of promotional plush bunnies are stuck in the customs warehouse because the client can only accept invoices with a 30-day payment deadline, but a larger cash amount is needed to release them from the customs warehouse.
- Faulty displays, trays, and wobblers went out to the store; the promotion starts on Monday, so they need to be redecorated on-site over the weekend.
- The event gifts that were ordered a few weeks ago have not arrived, so we need to improvise new ones for Monday, from stock, of course branded.
- We still need an SOS pop-up wall, projector, or balloon wall for the family day. These are exciting tasks because the event is usually on the weekend, so there is neither time nor graphics available until Monday, and production cannot be ordered. Moreover, all phases must be approved by the client. For us, this is another Friday „night adventure,” but not everyone is at a loss; the neighboring pizza/hamburger place can expect a large order and a tip.
At the end of the day, the client is also human.
It would be easy to say that these Friday stresses arise because of the client's foolishness. That they wouldn't occur if they planned properly in advance, left a reasonable deadline, or could let go of unrealistic ideas. But that would be an exaggeration and a half-truth, which has no relation to reality.
We have dealt with foolish and incompetent clients, and even the combination of the two has occurred. Yet, in most cases, it is simply life and the functioning of large organizations that shape it so that the one at the end of the line has to deliver something extreme on Friday.
Throughout life, everyone inevitably finds themselves in some truly impossible situations. Those who work at advertising agencies simply encounter these help-seekers more often.
„There is one thing I really love about the Friday stress: whenever it comes up, I can count on all my colleagues as one person to solve it.”.
Moreover, our subcontractor partners also deliver maximum performance at such times. I have had promotional pens branded in 3 hours instead of 4 days, and when I told the stamp maker to write any price on the invoice he wanted because he saved our event, he put the normal rate on it with a straight face. Of course, I still work with him because these adventures bond the team.
And I say this quietly, but I also love the adrenaline that comes from a well-solved task after a tough challenge. I love the feeling when we look at each other with colleagues a few months later and ask each other, "Do you remember the inflatable giraffe that had to be fixed in 6 hours? And when we worked in the office all week during the day and decorated at TESCO at night? Or when you left for Nuremberg on Thursday morning to bring back the signed contract by Sunday?"
These experiences, adventures, give the spice of life, this is what makes you feel that you are human and you are being tested. This is what prevents you from feeling that you would become weary of the daily grind.
If these adventures excite you too, apply to an advertising agency (pro tip: as an event planner, your daily work consists of such things).
If you are a client and you find yourself in an impossible situation at any time, feel free to call your agency, check your calendar, and if it happens to be Friday, just say that it's Friday panic. Don't worry for a moment, they are already waiting for your call 🙂
