Just hanging out...waiting for 1pm

It's Friday, and it's also a long weekend! The main agency is closed today, but we at MEDIABRANDS are stuck here until 1pm. Everything has been trafficked. Talent has been reported and paid. My phone hasn't rang all morning. Not even once!

We'll get back into it next week, but for now all I can think about is sitting in the sunshine, and eating something hot off the bbq.
I hope you all enjoy the extended time off with friends and family.
xo

Hard at work int he Traffic Department.

Have a nice weekend!

Running Late?

Most outrageous reasons people give for being late to work

CareerBuilder conducted its annual survey of hiring managers. The results include the top four most common excuses for tardiness:

· Traffic, 31%

· Lack of sleep, 18%

· Bad weather, 11%

· Getting kids to school or daycare, 8%

No surprises there. The fun began when CareerBuilder asked hiring managers to provide the most outrageous excuses given by employees for being late. CareerBuilder shares the ten best answers:

1. Employee’s cat had the hiccups.

2. Employee thought she had won the lottery (she didn’t).

3. Employee got distracted watching the TODAY Show.

4. Employee’s angry roommate cut the cord to his phone charger, so it didn’t charge and his alarm didn’t go off.

5. Employee believed his commute time should count toward his work hours.

6. Employee claimed a fox stole her car keys.

7. Employee’s leg was trapped between the subway car and the platform (turned out to be true).

8. Employee said he wasn’t late because he had no intention of getting to work before 9:00 a.m. (his start time was 8:00 a.m.)

9. Employee was late because of a job interview with another firm.

10. Employee had to take a personal call from the state governor (turned out to be true).

OH NO......

If you’re a traffic coordinator or account executive, it’s your worst nightmare…

Sitting at home, relaxing after a crazy day at the office. Perhaps even enjoying a nice adult beverage. Time to watch some TV!

Click on over to a good “reality” show that makes you happy to eat popcorn instead of bugs, and… wait a minute! What was that?!?! That commercial shouldn’t be airing! That offer ended! The spot’s not in a paid talent cycle! Why does it sounds so awful and the grass is BLUE?? NOOOOOOO!

Ugh. Hopefully the client didn’t see that.

It happens to all of us, because mistakes happen. Sometimes a revision doesn’t get on the air in time, or sometimes there’s a technical problem with the audio or video that needs to be fixed. Sometimes a spot get put on the air and the talent hasn’t been paid yet.

The best thing to do in this situation is to take note of the channel and program you’re watching and the time you saw the suspect commercial.

Then, in the morning, the trouble-shooting begins.

Are the traffic instructions correct, so the right spot was scheduled for broadcast? If not, a revision needs to be sent to all stations on the buy immediately, and some begging may be in order.

If the campaign was trafficked correctly and if the station ran the wrong spot by mistake, or if it was a technical issue with the picture/sound, use the notes from the night before to contact your traffic coordinator, who can call or email the station directly to get the problem fixed.

It’s pretty crucial to  make sure you know the time, program and station you’re watching if you see something on the air that doesn’t look quite right. Without that information, it’s almost impossible to follow up and correct the problem. We do get calls from clients or agency folk, saying “I was watching tv last week and I think I saw/heard the wrong spot running. I can’t remember the program or the night, but I’m pretty sure it was the wrong commercial” and in that scenario it’s difficult for us to help fix the problem.

Most of the time, TV-watching is the fun, relaxing pastime it’s meant to be. On the rare occasions when the wrong commercial airs or the right one looks funny, give your favourite traffic person a call to get the problem solved. (And maybe keep a notepad on the coffee table, just in case.)