scarcity of time

These days everyone knows money is tight. We also know that coming across good creative is rare. But, the scarcest commodity of them all is TIME. It is high in demand and and low in supply. So why isn't it more respected? Here's a classic anecdote. 

We were in the midst of bidding a job. The agency, after getting out of a meeting with an all powerful creative director, had a desperate sense of urgency to speak with us. The direction of the spots had changed. They now wanted to shoot in a different city with a different tone on a quicker schedule. Our director was the favorite so they needed to know if he was okay with these new parameters.

Knowing they were in a TIME crunch, I got in touch with the director that evening. He was in the middle of shoot. I explained the situation. There was were a few questions about the creative portion and other concerns about the schedule but he wanted to remain in the bid pool.

First thing in the morning I spoke with both the producer and the agency EP. I tried to be very clear on the conditions we could accept an award. We must shoot in San Francisco. Our ballparks were around 1.3 million. The earliest we could get on another conference was Monday. And, no treatment until Tuesday. These were all non-negotiable. If the money was too high or they hated San Francisco or they couldn't wait for the treatment, we totally understood. We'd regretfully pass saving everyone the TIME.

Later that day, the producer got back to me. They were fine with all these conditions. They didn't want to lose our director. Confident with the terms, we continued to spend TIME bidding the project. As the spots and focus evolved we took the TIME, as we always do, to revise the bids as the specs continually changed. 

A few days before they were to go to the client for the award, we received a call for another project. It was repeat business and they wanted to single bid our director. The problem was the two projects directly conflicted. We were too far down the road on the first project so we asked if they could wait a day until we confirmed we were the official recommend. They agreed but TIME was of the essence if they needed to find a desirable back up. 

We explained our predicament to the producer on the job that was shooting in SF. We were getting pressure from the repeat job and if God forbid theirs didn't come through, we were left with nothing for that TIME slot. Finally, the word came down two days later. We were not the recommend despite being given every indication we were the front runner. When asked why, the answer we received was that the other bidder was 200k lower and was shooting in NY. 

I don't mind losing jobs. It's part of the game. What I do mind is the lack of respect for our TIME. In this particular case, I find it hard to believe they didn't know for days where the other director was shooting and a ballpark of their budget. I also find it hard to believe they didn't know the money would be a deal breaker with their client. Rather than waste our TIME, it would've been more efficient and respectful to say, you are the creative choice but you can only get the job if you shoot there for this price. This way we could either change our approach or walk away. Or, they could've let me they couldn't comply with the job stipulations I laid out. Instead we are dragged along wasting our TIME, our resources and potentially losing our directors window of availability.

Production companies only make money when they book work. The conference calls, the treatments, the bid package, and the revisions are all done for free. These are part of the rules of engagement. Everyone understands that. But, we are all small businesses with limited resources. Allocating our TIME to a project is a valuable commodity whether it be in man hours or director's avail. 

I know things are always moving very fast on all fronts. Higher ups are making demands. People want what they want. Maybe I'm being naive but all I really want is for an agency to be respectful of our most limited resource. All it takes is a small amount of effort, a little bit of consideration and only a few moments of their TIME.