Sleepless in September

A month of last-minute nightmares and sweet-dream solutions

It’s 3 a.m. Do you know where your ad slicks are? No matter how well you’ve prepared the campaign, there are always last-minute worries that make the days leading up to the launch a case study in sleep deprivation. Did the film go out in time? Will the street team gain access to the festival? Will the temperamental celebrity show up for the shoot? Did the Wal-Mart P-O-P displays get shipped to Target?

There are thousands of little details that can throw your promotion off track at the last minute. And it’s impossible to identify all of them ahead of time — let alone set back-up plans to keep them from causing any damage. But a little knowledge ahead of time can go a long way when it comes to reacting to last-minute problems.

And nobody knows that better than agency executives, the folks whose job it is to put out these kinds of fires. PROMO’S editors asked four shops — 141 Communicator, Ryan Partnership, Javelin, and Seismicom — to help us devise a month’s worth of potential snafus that can derail even the best-laid marketing plans, and offer quick-thinking solutions that can save the day. Of course, none of the mishaps cited here have ever befallen anyone at those agencies (ahem). They’ve just heard about them happening to other shops.

Here then, are 30 solutions to real-life problems you should keep in the back of your mind — or on your bookshelf — next time the unthinkable happens. Sweet dreams.

And if you still can’t sleep tonight, we suggest a glass of warm milk.

Lactose intolerant? Count Sheep

1. The Nightmare: The server at your online agency crashes, leaving your on-pack promotion without its destination.

   The Solution: Create a temporary landing page with the advertised URL to explain that the site launch is “coming soon.” Encourage visitors to submit e-mail addresses so they can be notified when you go live. (Be sure the request complies with COPPA rules governing solicitations to kids.) If possible, direct them to alternative means of access like toll-free numbers or retail displays.

2. The Nightmare: The tent is up — but the site permits haven’t arrived.

   The Solution: Unless you’re related to the county sheriff (hey, you never know), stalling is the name of the game. Pour on the charm and stay vague on the details while somebody hot-foots it over to town hall. You didn’t hear this from us, but bribes work: A dozen T-shirts for the boys back at the station house or a couple of tickets for tonight’s concert for the zoning officer is often enough to buy the time you need.

3. The Nightmare: Next month’s FSI touts the product’s new packaging. But the plant has run into some technical problems that will delay the redesign for at least 60 days.

   The Solution: Call the printer and stop the presses. Then design a patch for the FSI that will shroud the new package in mystery and add a “Coming Soon” message to the copy.

4. The Nightmare: The director, crew, and high-priced talent have all arrived on the set. The product hasn’t.

   The Solution: If it’s already in market, run down to the local store and buy a box. If not, go ahead with the shoot using anything of comparable size as a stand-in. Digitally correcting the images later will be a lot less expensive than rescheduling.

5. The Nightmare: Wow, that creative looks great. The client thinks so. The account director thinks so. The artist whose work you appropriated without permission thinks so — and so does his lawyer.

   The Solution: Reach a settlement — fast. Better to eat a little crow than have to pull the whole campaign. After a settlement is reached, have a very stern conversation with your art director.

6. The Nightmare: The samples will arrive in town tomorrow — about a half-hour before the in-store program is supposed to begin.

   The Solution: Ask your carrier to re-route the packages directly to the store; they may already be sitting in a distribution center across town. In a worst-case scenario, get the home office or distribution center to ship directly to the store.

7. The Nightmare: Your guerrilla team gets blocked at the front gate and escorted off the grounds.

   The Solution: This is only a nightmare for novice guerrillas, because it happens all the time. Setting up shop in a lot across the street can often keep you close enough to the action to pay out. But your team should always have a list of secondary venue options — and the nimbleness to move elsewhere in a hurry.

8. The Nightmare: Your network partner calls to say she finds the supporting TV spots offensive and refuses to air them.

   The Solution: Set up a meeting to get their objections and find a way to salvage the spot with some fancy editing. Then kick yourself for not running the idea past the network in the first place.

9. The Nightmare: Your out-of-town agency provides black-and-white artwork for a four-color ROP ad in the local newspaper.

   The Solution: Call the paper to wheedle an extension. If you can’t immediately e-mail a four-color replacement, provide counter-to-counter delivery for the next day. Promise yourself this will never happen again, and make your agency swear to it.

10. The Nightmare: Here’s unwanted proof that the idea was sound: The competition launches an embarrassingly similar campaign just before rollout.

    The Solution: How much time and/or money do you have? If you can scrap the campaign, do so. Or, if your budget is bigger than the competition’s, you might be able to drown them out despite the head start. But be aware that strong similarities can sometimes lead to legal issues regarding intellectual property rights.

11. The Nightmare: Your copywriter wanted to be kind. So your game’s “not a winner” message ended with, “But you’re always a winner with us.” Now you’ve got a few hundred consumers with losing gamepieces thinking they’re owed a prize.

    The Solution: Do nothing, no matter how many angry letters you get. Award prizes only to those who truly deserve it, and avoid offering any kind of “make-good” to those who don’t — otherwise, you may be admitting liability.

12. The Nightmare: Access Hollywood catches your celebrity spokesperson drinking the competitor’s product.

    The Solution: Call in the lawyers, because that’s probably a contract violation. While they start writing briefs, enjoy the extra exposure your brand receives. But next time, find a spokesperson who actually uses the product.

13. The Nightmare: Your dream prize pool turns horrific when the luxury car is recalled for safety issues, the vacation resort is decimated by a hurricane, and the TV show providing the walk-on role is cancelled.

    The Solution: First off, let’s be honest: By this point, your campaign has already paid off (or not). Unless the media catches wind, you’ve only disappointed three consumers. Still, you should always have cash or some other alternative prize at your disposal.

14. The Nightmare: The field staff doesn’t show up.

    The Solution: This is always a possibility, especially when it’s February in Buffalo, NY. It’s better to overstaff and send unneeded workers home with a few bucks than to be caught short-handed. Using a reputable staffing agency should solve this problem long-term. But for today, run to the nearest university dorm and knock on doors; $12 an hour should get you van-fulls of willing co-eds.

15. The Nightmare: Your copywriter left the line about “No Multiple Entries” out of the rules; A Mr. Richard Fader of Fort Lee, NJ, now accounts for half of all entries.

    The Solution: Assuming the copywriter did remember to include a “one prize per person” caveat, conduct your drawing in reverse order, with the lower-level prizes awarded first. That way, greedy Mr. Fader likely gets a Frisbee instead of the space shuttle ride.

16. The Nightmare: Your P-O-P standees were stolen from every grocery store on the East Coast.

    The Answer: You call this a problem? Order another round of displays, and bask in the knowledge that your collateral is wallpapering the walls of America’s dorm rooms (and visit eBay to see what it’s being sold for).

17. The Nightmare: The printer just called to say the print run is complete. Your vp just called to point out the typo.

    The Solution: It depends on how embarrassing the gaffe is. Misplaced a comma on page eight of the trade manual? Leave it alone. But misplaced a decimal point in the window cling’s grand-prize offer? Someone will have to eat the reprint costs. Suck it up and make the necessary calls.

18. The Nightmare: Ebert & Roper just gave two “thumbs down” to the can’t-miss blockbuster you’re piggybacking.

    The Solution: If you negotiated pre-release launch approval from the studio, you might score a hit before opening weekend, so don’t panic. Hopefully, you’ve used enough brand equity — and the right concept — to make the promotion interesting in its own right. If not, grit your teeth and don’t read too many reviews.

19. The Nightmare: The best campaign your brand has ever run is about to break when, without warning, corporate announces an umbrella pricing initiative that guts the offer.

    The Solution: Pull back if you’re not already out to the trade. If you can’t, see if a few minor tweaks can get the program in line with the umbrella program. If not, you may just have to bite the bullet.

20. The Nightmare: The new creative director on the account informs you that your old creative director was a tad behind the times: Teens don’t find things “groovy” anymore.

    The Solution: If you didn’t run the copy by anyone in the target audience, then accept some of the blame yourself. If it’s too late to change, don’t worry too much. You’ll still get your message across — just tell people you were shooting for a “retro” flavor.

21. The Nightmare: Your partner goes belly up shortly before the rollout.

    The Solution: Whether it’s an amusement park, a Web site, or a retailer, you’re not necessarily out of luck. Contact the partner’s key competitor, which may be more than happy to swoop down on orphaned customers. The promise of some p.r. showcasing how it saved the day will provide the new partner even more value, and could even bring extra exposure for your campaign.

22. The Nightmare: Your premium giveaway has a potentially harmful defect.

    The Solution: Call the p.r. team. Answer all the phone calls. Immediately announce a simple recall procedure that expresses regrets and concern. Offer a make-good strong enough to spark returns and repair goodwill.

23. The Nightmare: Six weeks out, you decide you really do need that FSI, but the deadline for space reservation has passed.

    The Solution: Ask your account director to see if his agency has any reserved space that might be available. Who knows, maybe one of your fellow brand managers can provide the same. If not, go ROP.

24. The Nightmare: The samples you shipped for next fall’s co-op lunchbox program carry summer expiration dates.

    The Solution: Find another vendor who can use the samples before they expire, and get the co-op supplier to ship them over. Negotiate a later shipment date with the supplier, and produce new samples with appropriate dates. Next time, consider all the ramifications of long lead times.

25. The Nightmare: Unswayed by your promise of account-specific overlays, the retail buyer won’t support the program. He wants a dead net price.

    The Solution: Use your contacts elsewhere at the retailer, even if that means going over the buyer’s head. A call from the marketing or community relations vp, who may better understand the program’s benefits to corporate initiatives, can often get you in. But first, make sure it’s a program that will produce results.

26. The Nightmare: The West Coast office just called frantically to report that sales are dropping off due to a major initiative from the regional competition. Retail partners are no longer interested in that fourth-quarter promotion, but want to know what you can do now.

    The Solution: Find some money for newspaper advertising. Get your brand into the “Best Food Day” section, or near your retailers’ ads on Sunday. If you’re worried about low redemption rates, run three coupons instead of one. You can get significant discounts if you run the ad multiple times.

27. The Nightmare: The fulfillment house botched your order, leaving your retail partner not only with the wrong coupon count but also out-of-date collateral. The promotion launches in a week.

    The Solution: If you don’t want to destroy the relationship with your retail partner — and you know you don’t — then it’s time for a Herculean effort. Forget about the money and incur whatever expense necessary to repack the job. Afterward, find another fulfillment house.

28. The Nightmare: One week before final art is due, your key entertainment partner backs out due to a “change in corporate strategy.” You’ve now got an instant-win promotion without a prize pool.

    The Solution: Get on the phone with any contact you’ve ever made in Hollywood. Explain the urgency of the situation honestly, but be sure to stress the potential benefits. If your networking skills have been any good at all, you should be able to find a last-minute replacement.

29. The Nightmare: The night before the event, an historic hurricane destroys your two-story fabricated house.

    The Solution: Pick up the pieces — literally — and go on with the show. Sift through the rubble to salvage what you can. Tweak the event’s theme to address the damage nature has wrought. Call the local media, which may be interested in a story about your undaunted resolve. Meanwhile, get the damaged elements onto a truck and back to the manufacturer as quickly as possible.

30. The Nightmare: A right-wing religious order finds fornicating couples in your ad’s ice cubes. The media is having a field day with the story.

    The Solution: Use this as an opportunity to connect even better with the target audience. Reply assertively to media inquiries, but be polite about your accusers. Add a forum on your Web site to answer questions and field complaints. If there are fornicating couples in your ice cubes, fire your art director — and book yourself a trip for Cannes next spring.