Illinois Bureau of Tourism

And sadly, you never get to deliver what you want to deliver because you go into knowing that there's no time and nobody really cares about the outcome. [3513],[3514]
Okay, let me think. Because we've worked on a number of projects like this, that have been ... Because see, I could put this in both categories. As far as not going so well, I mean there have been a number of occasions where we're given the ... well, not the smallest of tasks, but a task that it would seem that you would not need a full creative team to work on. And then you have to deliver in a very short amount of time. And sadly, you never get to deliver what you want to deliver because you go into knowing that there's no time and nobody really cares about the outcome. [3476],[3478],[3477]
So I can't put my finger on a specific project, there have just been a number of tiny disappointments along the way that were ... That was the common theme, which was, "We don't have much time for this. We just need to get it out by Friday. Here's what we want, just give us your ideas." And they kind of buy your first idea and just walk away with it. And you know it's not your best work. So that's I think ... Like I said, I can't put my finger on a single project. [3480],[3482],[3481],[3479]
We don't have much time for this. We just need to get it out by Friday. Here's what we want, just give us your ideas." And they kind of buy your first idea and just walk away with it. And you know it's not your best work. So that's I think ... Like I said, I can't put my finger on a single project. [3515],[3516]
"We don't ... that should go to the web development people." "No, no, no, but we need you guys to go find a picture." We find a picture. "We hate that picture." "Okay, I'm sorry that you hate it. This is what we've got." "Well, we need another picture." "Well, we need a budget to shoot it." "No, you can't have that, just find something else." And so you end op finding a piece of stock that everybody sort of sighs over and says, "All right, fine." And it goes up on the website. And no one's really ever happy with it. So we can use that. We can use image finding for Illinois Tourism. For their three-day getaway site, if you need a specific ... See, this is really uncomfortable because it's like, "I don't want to talk about these things." [3517]
I'm trying to remember. I honestly ... I've worked here for eight years, and I've probably worked on 15 or 20 different clients. And it's not like ... Like on the television side, they'll have a lot of time to work on stuff. But for instance, we work on the Illinois Bureau of Tourism. In that brand, I'll have maybe 15 different projects going on. Of those 15 projects, five of them are probably important, and ten of them are, "The client needs to see this kind of maintenance." It's like, "We don't ... that should go to the web development people." "No, no, no, but we need you guys to go find a picture." We find a picture. "We hate that picture." "Okay, I'm sorry that you hate it. This is what we've got." "Well, we need another picture." "Well, we need a budget to shoot it." "No, you can't have that, just find something else." And so you end op finding a piece of stock that everybody sort of sighs over and says, "All right, fine." And it goes up on the website. And no one's really ever happy with it. So we can use that. We can use image finding for Illinois Tourism. For their three-day getaway site, if you need a specific ... See, this is really uncomfortable because it's like, "I don't want to talk about these things." [3483],[3484],[3485],[3486]
Because it's like, you don't really want to talk about those things. My failures. [3518]
Not a lot to do here. So literally from year to year, the same things come up. But we have to develop 20 new ones every time, every quarter. And we have no budget to shoot photos, and we have to develop these itineraries with photography that matches them. So every season we're forced to ... [3487]
No, well, that they never give it to the new guy. Get [inaudible 00:30:40] new guys. [3488]
It's the State of Illinois Tourism, so it's ... a millions of dollar client. A lot of, "Here, take 50 bucks and go buy me an ice cream cone." [3489]
Three. It's actually, it's a team of three, so we can usually get two of them. But there's really one major player. As long as we can get the other two to just talk to her, we can get things passed. They're an easy client to satisfy. [3520],[3519],[3490],[3491]
Good, I think. Probably medium. I think they allow us to push the boundaries. We've worked really hard as an agency before the digital team. The agency has established a brand for them, so we tend to push them more towards their own brand, I think. Sometimes they're ready to do one-offs and they need direction. Hell, they'll do anything to increase tourism. So it's like well, in that sense I think they're great risk takers but sometimes it's not always in the right direction, so ... but I think their risk tolerance is pretty good. [3492],[3493]
It can. It absolutely can. And that's based on the whimsy if one of the client's, one of the three decision makers' has a tendency to shift that brief often. [3494]
It's not so much that the brief changes, it's just that whatever was briefed ... It's not that the brief changes, it's that they make requests that aren't driven by the brief and no one fights them on it. [3521],[3495]
Time's always tight, budget's always tight. [3498],[3496],[3497]
Oh, I thought you said usually, sorry. Yeah, I think it is, and it's because the way they perceive digital. For instance, photo budgets for the regular photo shoots. If they were to produce one print ad might be in the hundred thousand dollar range, we may be given five thousand for the entire season. So yeah, I think it's unusually small. [3499]
Again, we have to go ... I think this one of those things that you have to find new ways to frame what's already there. So often the source of inspiration is just going to a travel writer that we use, getting her ideas, and then all of us get together and try to spin a new direction for it. So ... [3522],[3500]
No, we hand them the getaways, and then they whittle them away. I mean literally, that's what we do. [3501]
Excellent. Excellent. It's the best client we've worked with. I don't think we could survive a project like this if we didn't have a really great relationship with them. [3502]
That even though they don't always buy what we sell them, and that they will fight for things, we are friends at the end of the day. There's never a challenge so strong that we would jeopardize our business with them. And I think the business relationship's good and I think the respect is good enough that they ... even though we have an extremely opinionated decision maker, she will occasionally buckle and let us have our way because we do the same. I mean, it's very give and take relationship. There are times that we go, "You know, it's not worth fighting. Yeah, she can have that image. Fine. We don't feel like it solves that problem, but fine, she can have it." There are other times when I have to call her and say, "Hey, you know there's, here's my problem with what you're asking." And once you explain yourself, she'll go, " Oh. Oh, okay. Fine." So it's a lot ... they are willing to listen. They're very opinionated, but they're willing to listen. And I think that's unique among lots of clients, unfortunately. [3523],[3506],[3524],[3505],[3503],[3504],[3525]
There's a form, and it's templated and we do sort of the same things over and over again, and it's easy. Not that it's hard, but I think it ... creatively it's unrewarding because we never have a chance to push beyond the boundary of what that defined line is. [3526],[3527],[3528],[3529]
Well, the negative is is that never get a chance to do it the right way. It's literally shoved into a template. I mean, if you want the negatives of this is that ... and it's ironic, it's really interesting. And I'm just seeing this now. One of our worst relationships produced one of our best products, in my mind, and one of our better relationships produces sort of a milk toast, it never really works product to me, because we tend to do it over and over again. I think the repetition of this product and the time frame never allow us to push the boundaries of what this should be, all right? There's a form, and it's templated and we do sort of the same things over and over again, and it's easy. Not that it's hard, but I think it ... creatively it's unrewarding because we never have a chance to push beyond the boundary of what that defined line is. [3507],[3508]
At the third month point, really at the first month of those three months, whenever we write off on it and go, "We're done." And we're working on other projects. And in the past, that process didn't occur until much later, until you're really close to when you had to deliver again and then suddenly you're doing the exact same thing you just fought three months ago. [3509]
At the third month point, really at the first month of those three months, whenever we write off on it and go, "We're done." And we're working on other projects. And in the past, that process didn't occur until much later, until you're really close to when you had to deliver again and then suddenly you're doing the exact same thing you just fought three months ago. [3510]
First of all, you change the way it looks on the page. If you look at them, you'll see that they are extremely dry, extremely long, they're informative but there needs to be abetter way to engage that information. There's a lot of information, but I think the interaction with that information is extremely passive and we need to activate that. It needs to be ... people need to be excited about going there, and go, "Ooh, ooh, look at this. We need to ... Oh, look what we can do. Oh, I can ..." They need to be more engaged with the content. The content's there, it's great. Tons of content, zero engagement levels. Nothing for it, so that's bad. That's bad in my mind. [3530],[3531],[3511],[3532],[3512]
Reference Tags
[3513] Pessimism bias,[3514] Planning fallacy,[3476] Lack of resources,[3478] Planning fallacy,[3477] Unbalanced workload pressure,[3480] Planning fallacy,[3482] Unbalanced workload pressure,[3481] Vague goals,[3479] Yielding conflict about ideas,[3515] Lack of real innovation mandate,[3516] Planning fallacy,[3517] Alignment,[3483] Dismissive,[3484] Insufficient Feedback,[3485] Lack of challenging work,[3486] Yielding conflict about ideas,[3518] Perfectionism,[3487] Lack of resources,[3488] Inexperience,[3489] Lack of resources,[3520] Believes one has a hopeful path,[3519] Optimism,[3490] Trust,[3491] Yielding conflict about ideas,[3492] Risk compensation,[3493] Trust,[3494] Scope creep,[3521] Authority bias,[3495] Scope creep,[3498] Lack of resources,[3496] Planning fallacy,[3497] Unbalanced workload pressure,[3499] Lack of resources,[3522] Finding Existing Ideas,[3500] Win-win conflict about ideas,[3501] Lack of challenging work,[3502] Trust,[3523] Collaborative-Creative Disposition,[3506] Communicating ideas across domains,[3524] Quick resolution of relationship conflict,[3505] Quick resolution of relationship conflict,[3503] Trust,[3504] Win-win conflict about ideas,[3525] Win-win conflict about relationships,[3526] Finding Existing Ideas,[3527] Lack of challenging work,[3528] Lack of resources,[3529] Negativity bias,[3507] Lack of challenging work,[3508] Reactance,[3509] Finding Existing Ideas,[3510] Lack of challenging work,[3530] Alignment,[3531] Communication issues,[3511] Finding Existing Ideas,[3532] Insufficient Feedback,[3512] Lack of challenging work