Three Mistakes We Made

Of course, we don’t always shout about those failures. Every B2B case study showcases brands in the best light, regaling audiences with tales of their glory.

But why not share those mistakes?

We believe that honesty, transparency and authenticity are the pillars of strong customer relationships. So telling the whole story might not be the worst idea.

Here are three mistakes we made and what we learned from them.

1. Understand the law of the land

In the lead up to the 2008 World Cup in Africa, our client said:

“We’ve got Anton Ferdinand and Tinchy Stryder as assets, find a way to use them”.

We scratched our heads. The pairing was an odd one. Tinchy wasn’t particular big (pardon the pun), and the first thing anyone thought about when it came to Anton Ferdinand was that he wasn’t Rio Ferdinand.

We pushed back. A bit. The client insisted. We created a campaign based around them. The idea was that football-loving teens competed to win the chance to go to the World Cup with Anton and Tinchy.

The entry mechanism was for people to answer the question:

“I deserve to go to the World Cup with Anton and Tinchy because…”

They could answer it in any way they wanted – verbally, lyrically, through action, through film. Whatever they wanted. However, we hadn’t considered that the age group we were targeting didn’t want to make fools of themselves on social media. It’s where they live.

So it really didn’t go very well.

Almost nobody engaged with it, we got almost zero usable content out of it.

What did we learn? We needed to understand social better.

2. Understand the real value

We were asked to write a case study for a really nice client. I did it, but it wasn’t easy, as the subject matter was quite technical and we weren’t experts in the field, it took time for myself and another writer to get it written.

I billed for all the time used. So the bill was huge as the client was effectively paying for us to learn their business. And paying for both my time and the other writer.

We didn’t hear from them again.

Later, working on another project for a startup funded by Bosch, I heard someone quoting founder Robert Bosch’s wise words: “I’d rather lose money than trust.”

It’s now taped to my wall.

Because you can always make more money.

3. Value your values

I saw John Hegarty speak once. Someone asked him: “Are there any clients you wouldn’t work for?” He said he wouldn’t work for any product he wouldn’t want his kids to partake of. I agreed with that. Then, years later, I totally ignored it.

I did six months for a product I loathed and didn’t want my kids anywhere near. The client themselves (most of them) were not that nice. The culture was horrific. The deadlines, the lack of courtesy, the insane pace of the work, the thanklessness of the task, the way my wonderful team was treated. Horrible, all of it.

You’re wondering why I did it, right? Sure, you guessed it. They paid me frightfully well. There were a couple of other reasons too. There were perceived health benefits to the product. Those proved to be illusory. I was working with a Spanish team and so improving my language. I should say, everyone on the agency side was great. Wonderful and wonderfully talented people.

I lined up another project quickly and left.

What did I learn from all of this?

That actually, some things really are worth more than large amounts of money. I will absolutely prefer to earn less money, than work with people I don’t click with for a product I don’t believe in, in a manner I disapprove of.

Work is important, sure.

Getting paid well is important too. It’s nice to be well paid. But your satisfaction with what you do is worth so, so much more.

And I’ll do my best never to forget that again.