April 7
Hi Alex,
Got your text. Happy to fill in a few blanks for your award entry. The team is thrilled you’re putting our campaign forward. While I have you, wondering if you have any dates in mind to discuss the brief I sent over. Our big Q3 campaign for the encryption product needs to be ready for mid-July.
Cheers
Terry
April 9
Hey Alex
Here is that entry form with the missing stuff filled in. Sorry it’s a day late; it was a lot more detail than I had anticipated. I hope I got everyone’s blood types right at this end. I know your team is busy with awards entries but hoping you can squeeze in a call to work through the brief.
Regards
Terry
16 April
Hi there,
I’m glad we finally got together yesterday to walk through that info. I am sorry we did not do a better job in the brief of explaining the product. In hindsight, Scott’s confusion between embalming and encryption is an easy mistake to make. Jasmin apologizes if he thought she called him a “pylon”; she assures me she meant to say “towering creative genius”. Hoping he will consider working on the project. Let’s try to keep them apart going forward.
We’re stoked about coming in on the 30th for the concept presentation. Our Group VP is flying in from New York to attend. Please remember to confirm the time and exact location.
Best
Terry
April 26
Hi there, Alex
Still hoping to lock down the time for the big presentation. I know you’re super busy on this and probably haven’t had time to read all my messages. Just wanted to confirm that we have 12 from our end, including the Group VP from New York, the SVP for product marketing and, I’m pleased to report, our President and CEO has shifted some stuff around and is planning to join. I’m sure you can appreciate how busy these folks are and why we need to finalize the time and location. Please advise soonest.
Terry
April 29
Alex
Sorry for all the VMs but please can you tell me what time we are meeting tomorrow?
T
April 30
I know it’s late. Please call me at home. We need to chat.
May 1
Hi Alex,
Thanks for the call. I agree, we seem to have our wires crossed. When you said the creative team was preparing concepts for April 30th, we thought that meant concepts for our campaign.
We were a little surprised that the creative team in our meeting had only read the brief that morning, and was expecting us to present the concepts that underlie email encryption. By the way, who are those people? Where is Scott and the usual team?
Thanks for the nice dinner. It sure took the edge off that unpleasantness at your office. When can we see creative please?
May 4
Alex,
I understand how busy you are these days, what with the deadlines for Cannes approaching and the Ad Club awards in two weeks. I really think that we need your best talent on our campaign. I know the shampoo account is much bigger, and the shoot is in Cancun, but please appreciate that I am accountable for a sh*t load of revenue this year and that campaign is what is going to drive it.
I’m sure Shelly is a fine account director, but given the size of the account, I was hoping for someone with a bit more experience in our space. Hiring a retail worker from Staples is not the same as brining in the big B2B guns. Just saying.
May 15
Alex,
Thank you for the redo on the concepts meeting. Shelly sure was nervous. I hope the hiccups subside soon.
We seem to be struggling to help your team understand what our product actually does. While the creative was lots of fun, and I can see someone put hours into the pitch, it’s important to understand that encrypting an email is not analogous to shredding a paper document. Our product does not cause email messages to self-destruct once read; it makes them impossible to read if they are intercepted by anyone other than the intended recipient.
This needs a new approach. Please let me know what I can do to help you move this forward.
Also, I see out of pocket expenses for last week on our invoice and it looks like your entire team took separate taxis to the meeting. Can you check please and reissue the invoice. Given that we are only a few subway stops apart, I’m not actually sure why there are taxis involved at all.
Terry
May 23
Thanks for your note, Alex. I do understand that creative people need their “think time” and I know the subway can make some people feel grubby, but I’m not able to justify five taxi charges all for the same trip from the same place at the same time. The “nickel and diming” remark was uncalled for.
When are we seeing new creative?
May 28
Hi Alex,
It was great to see the old gang again. My boss is glad your senior creative team is still on our file and we do wish Shelly the best of luck at car detailing school. The concept you presented was pretty good, though we were surprised to see just one idea and even more surprised to see another company’s brand on it. While we recognize that great creative stands on its own, we’d love to see some options and maybe something more specific to our offering.
June 5
How are we doing with some additional creative options to review? I know materials are due in two weeks and we have some approval layers to get through. If you could take the other client’s branding off some of those slides, I’d appreciate it.
Thanks for the invite to the Ad Club awards next week. We’re thrilled to be a finalist in our category. I’ll be there with the other three on our team. It’s going to be a great night.
Terry
June 10
Alex- Please call me. We need to present creative options to senior management this week. WTF?
June 11
I got your text. I totally understand that tickets are scarce and it’s important for your whole team to be at the Ad Club awards dinner. We’re happy to step aside so the tea lady can go. Fingers crossed! Where is the creative please?
June 12
A big round of applause to the team! Congrats on the award for B2B campaign of the year. We’d love to come down and get a team photo with the award. Perhaps we can review creative options then. LMK
June 14
I hear you. The award is for the creative execution and I understand you have a lot to do to get ready for Cannes next week. Perhaps another time for the team photo. I hope you can appreciate our sense of urgency re the creative. Please be advised that I have put a hold on all invoice payments to you until we see some creative options for our campaign. Please ask your media buyers to stop calling me at home to sign the contracts. That is not happening until we see options.
June 18
I think we can agree that meeting did not go as well as any of us might have hoped. The truth is, the concepts you showed us are more or less the same as the original. Proposing Drake as a spokesperson is really not adding any value. I know he will endorse more or less anything but we don’t feel he is a relevant voice for enterprise email encryption software. William Shatner is not in the budget. We’re not loving the marionettes either. Nice try. What is your plan to meet our extended materials deadline?
June 20
Are you fu*king kidding? You are OOO until July 2? In fu*king Cannes? With our fu*king campaign? Also, why did you bill us for your separate taxis to the awards two weeks ago? Not cool.
June 21
My apologies. I must not use email while I am drinking. Congrats on the award. The team here smiled when they heard.
July 2
Given the timelines, we will sign off on the finger puppets as our spokespeople but please remove the image showing our software shredding email. I understand your Creative Director’s brother owns a mixed martial arts club and prefers it when his email software “friggin’ shreds the crap outta secret messages”, but I must put my foot down. Our product encrypts email, it does not destroy it, embalm it or make it ready for the beach. Please take those messages off the digital campaign, and please revise the buy to exclude Yummy Mummy bloggers and people who collect used bayonets.
July 5
Creative looks pretty good. I think your autocorrect may have played a trick: the sentence should read “public network”, not “pubic narwhal”. Please correct on print and LinkedIn.
July 15
I am not sure you are taking this seriously. Pubic Narwhal is not the viral trend we were hoping for with this launch. Engaging the PR team for damage control. Please confirm the creative has now been updated across all channels.
July 16
Absence Alert: Thank you for your message. Please be advised that effective July 15, I am no longer with Encryptosoft Inc.
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