Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

Exposed!: My Torrid Love Affair with a Client 

I fell in love with my client.  Now we’re going to New York City together to see if we’re a winner at the PR Week Awards.  Talk all you want about strategic plans, ROI etc., based on this romance I’ll always believe that chemistry is the rarest and strongest secret to success.  Here’s the whole naked story …
 
This is an open and unabashed love letter.  So if you’re in no mood for mush, move on.  This is a love letter to clients that make the advertising and p.r. world so much fun, particularly one client.
 
Last month, the national PRWeek Awards named the Raleigh Convention Center as a finalist in the business to business category.  Being a good agency guy, I was quickly out telling the world.  As I gabbed, an amused listener quipped, "Billy, you’re in love.

And I realized I have been for some time.  It’s a fantastic feeling, and one I think doesn’t have to come about by accident.  We should recognize chemistry between agencies and clients, and – as in a marriage – keep the sparks flying.  It makes all the difference to the work, to the client and to the people at your agency.
 
Now, let me introduce you to my special someone.  The Raleigh Convention Center is the big bang that’s supposed to transform our city into a bona fide destination. That means creating excitement around a new building, packaging our downtown as a dynamic hub and fighting for traction in a crowded market.  
 
Our team is under a lot of pressure to produce very measurable results.  It’s not like there’s an over-abundance of resources to realize those results  Plus, everyone’s watching.  This city wants – and deserves – success.
 
The saving graces come down to a commitment to nurturing genuine friendships, to pushing each other to be constantly creative and to accepting that none of us are foolproof.
 
The love story started with a fantastic first date.  At our pitch, we realized that everyone in the room sparkled with devotion to our city and a kind of merry ambition.  To describe us as extroverts is like calling the Pope an occasional church-goer.  
 
I’ve come to believe there’s some kind of common denominator at work on every client-agency team.  Whether it’s irrepressible vivacity or intense wonkocity, the chemistry potential is there.  But with plans to write and costs to compute, we often don’t identify and harness it.
 
Here, though, we harnessed.  We channeled our chemistry into small items, like funky holiday cards, and into major events, like the celebration that drew more than 75,000 people to a downtown street opening near the site of our new facility.
 
We channeled our enthusiasm into relationships with local business leaders in a position to help us book meetings.  Now, with the convention center set to open in September, we’re well ahead of our business plan for bookings.  
 
But not all creative endeavors click.  I’ve made mistakes – and being a good agency guy, I’m not going to detail them.  But we’ve never allowed a setback to alter our determination to be different and better.  That’s heaven.  And in this case, much of the credit goes to the client.
 
“Billy, let me remind you that we’re on a journey,” the director of the convention center told me once. “We’re going to pass some barking dogs.  Let’s just keep going.”
 
That supportive attitude translates into all sorts of things that keep the relationship humming.  When I hear that certain catch in the director’s voice and know he’s tense, we take time to talk about my parents (always entertaining) or his golf game (even more entertaining). When we’re all in the middle of a muddle, team members head out for lunch or, better, beers (after hours, people, always after hours).  
 
Because of this atmosphere, we bounce back and rock on.  Best of all, the team vibe welcomes not only new ideas, but new people.  Managers and coordinators change, but the high spirits remain.
 
And so, while it’s great to be nominated for an award, the great lesson of our work with the convention center is that the real reward is in the joy you share with your co-workers and the people who make it all happen – the clients.