First lesson of big-budget, global client, integrated media campaigns: It be SLOW. I've been assigned to one client who is shooting a China-market TV commercial, and I've been getting ahead of the project by drawing up storyboards and concepts while waiting for approval of the creative brief.
Well, that's taking a lot longer than expected. It hasn't been changing the substance of what we're doing (at least, not yet) but until everybody from New York and Atlanta and London and Shanghai finishes dotting their e's and crossing their lower-case l's, we can't officially start work.
So things have been dwindling a little until finally, last week, I asked for and got permission to throw myself at the mercy of the entire office, doing whatever anybody needed.
So that's helped pick things up, and it's actually a great way to learn a lot - in many cases, I'm actually proofing English-language presentations, which is an easy way to get an overview of a lot of different clients and different aspects of our business.
I also was approached last week by some account people in the interactive division. One of our clients, a large computer component manufacturer, needed a special one-off interactive ad unit (for my coworkers back home, it's basically a 900x550 page-takeover, 8 seconds and 200k.) Back home we call it 'Rich Media;' here they call it 'Crazy Ad,' which I actually like better. I'd like us to use that terminology in the future, FYI.
Anyway, I showed them some ideas today, and they basically said "Great! We're presenting to the client Friday! What approvals do you need and who will be doing the design?"
Uhhhhhh...
So I stalled and went to my director. And guess what? I'm in the middle of a little spat! You see, my boss oversees all traditional media creative, but has to approve online, but the budget is handled by online, although the trafficking and scheduling goes through offline, and -- oh, let's go to the org chart for this one:
As you can clearly see, they did an end-around. Perhaps they did so because my status, which you will note is a little ill-defined. I am something of an ethereal being, more substantive and corporeal than a ghost, but less than, say, the office bird:
Anyway, I'm sure it will all work out. I'll keep you posted!
IN OTHER NEWS:
COLOR-FAST T-SHIRT, INDEED:
Guess which sock got thrown in with my new Chinese t-shirt? Go on, guess!
IT'S A BEAUTIFUL DAY IN THE NEIGHBORHOOD:
Actually had a high, clear blue sky today, the first I've seen in a couple weeks. Here's a picture for proof.
Hope it's as nice wherever you are!
