AGENCY PERKS-SUMMER HOURS & EXTRA-LONG HOLIDAY WEEKENDS

A couple of the great things about working in advertising are the Summer Hours or Long Weekend policies.

For some agencies, Summer Hours mean that from mid-June until mid-September the office opens ½ hour early Monday to Thursday, but on Fridays the office closes at 1pm. It’s worth starting your day at 8:30 when you can look forward to sunny Friday afternoons out of the office.

 Other agencies choose to add an extra day to every long weekend, year-round, instead. For instance, if Friday is the statutory holiday, then the office is also closed on the following Monday.  If the holiday falls on Monday, the office is closed as of 5pm on the Thursday leading up to the long weekend. Yippee to that idea!

Our organization is a bit more complicated. Our traffic department services more than one agency, and the agencies we work with do not all follow the same schedule.  Some of our agencies have the 1pm Summer Hour closing, and some have the extended long weekend.

It’s a conundrum for us. We can’t be closed when our agency partners are working.  So we can’t leave early on Fridays when our agency partners are in for the full day and we can’t takan extra long-weekend day if the agency we work with is open for business.

It would be nice if our agencies could pick one or the other (1pm Fridays or extended long weekends) and all be on the same page. However, such is life and we have to roll with the punches. We just quietly work amongst ourselves to cover each other’s desks and take a few hours out of the office whenever our workload permits.

We certainly can’t complain too much, since most people with grownup jobs work 9-5 workdays all year long. Plus, when the sun is shining, we have a beautiful lakefront boardwalk nearby where we can spend the occasional lunch hour. Bring on the summer weather!

13 SIMPLE STEPS TO GET YOU THROUGH A ROUGH DAY

Here's a cute one that I got from BUZZFEED.COM.

STEP 1- Print this picture and hang it over your desk:

STEP 2- Be uplifted by this inspiring Corgi Cross Stitch:

STEP 3- Feel Pretty:

STEP 4-Imagine that you are this penguine:

STEP 5- Feel empowered:

STEP 6- Remember that these dogs are on your side:

STEP 7- And this dog with a goat will fight for you as well:

STEP 8- Be happy you aren't one of these people:

STEP 9- Be happy that these aren't your taco shells:

STEP 10- Hey Johnny Depp had to iron his grilled cheese sandwiches too!

STEP 11- Allow yourself to enjoy these pictures of dogs:

STEP 12- Look at this cat riding a rooster

STEP 13- Look at this cute hedgehog wearing a tiny hat:

There....don't you feel better now?

HAVE A HAPPY EASTER LONG WEEKEND! 

COMPETITIVE ADVERTISING IN CANADA

Sometimes a client will get some research results that are just too good not to share, especially if those results show that consumers prefer the client’s product over a major competitor’s. When this happens, naturally the results should be publicized, but before anyone starts producing spots that trumpet the client’s victory to the world, there are a few things to keep in mind.

Comparative and competitive advertising in Canada has to meet stricter standards than those enjoyed by our colleagues south of the border. Unsurprisingly, Canadian advertisers are required to be a little more…polite.

We cannot interpret research results in a way that disparages the competitor, no matter how tempting it is to work a little jab into a creative concept.

For instance, we can’t say “Our widgets are better than Company X’s widgets” even if we have research that concludes our widgets are more durable, tastier, bigger and better value than Company X’s widgets. Instead we can only report the facts, back them with client attestation letters, and wait to see how Company X responds.

So our advertising will say “Our widgets are preferred over Company X widgets 9 times out of 10 by Canadian widget consumers”, with a legal super to indicate the source of this information. Company X can then respond by complaining to Advertising Standards Canada (ASC), Telecaster (TVB) and/or CBC Advertising Standards at which point we’d have to be able to prove that our claim was truthful and accurate.

A spot that implies that the competitor’s widgets are unsafe or inferior will never see the flickering light of a TV screen.  Subtle details can make the difference… adjectives need to be used with care, actors cannot sneer at a competitor’s merchandise, and that merchandise can’t have packaging that resembles the competitor’s trademarked packaging.

If you come across a creative concept that takes a nice jab at the competition, please make sure you share it with your traffic coordinator before your client falls in love with it. Often scripts and storyboards can be tweaked in the pre-production stage to make sure that no rules are broken, but it’s much harder to fix issues in spots that have been produced. Check early, check often!

SUPERLATIVE CLAIMS IN ADVERTISING

Here’s a situation we dealt with recently while reviewing a new TV script:

In the script, the voiceover referred to our widget as a “product produced from the finest materials”.

We have to be very careful when using adjectives like “finest”, “best”, “warmest”, “most” etc. 

Superlatives indicate a claim of superiority over all other comparable products and that’s something that the regulatory boards cannot accept without a client attestation letter.  This is a document provided by the client, on company letterhead with a signature, stating that they can attest to all of the claims made in the advertisement.

Although this letter can be general in nature, meaning the actual proof of superiority does not have to be provided, the advertiser must be willing and able to provide the details if/when the claims are challenged by a competitor or consumer.

If our advertiser cannot provide substantiation to back up the claim, the script must be reworked and the wording changed to a broader claim, such as “produced from their finest materials” or “some of the finest materials”.

Although we have to be cautious with the use of superlatives, this one sounds pretty good, don't you think?

IT'S A SHORT WEEK!

Easter is right around the corner!  Our offices are closed this Friday, and part of our agency is also closed on Monday.
In addition, this means our broadcasters are working on advanced log closings.
Just as we mentioned in our Feb. 13 blog posting, we need to get material and instructions to our station friends a day early, in order to give them the necessary time to schedule our commercials with the best placement possible.

Short weeks are very busy and stressful, as we try to fit 5 days of work into 4 days, and deal with all the associated deadlines, but a day off to spend with family and friends makes it all worth it!

IT'S FRIDAY!

We've almost made it to the end of another work week. Time to wrap things up. Traffic those final radio campaigns for next week. Make sure there are no creative revisions pending. Have all residual cycle payments been processed? Any estimates still need signing? Timesheets all up to date?
Hurray!

Okay then, take a deep breath. Soon it will be time to start thinking about next week....

LATE FEES

Late fees are costs incurred as penalities for not getting talent payments to our radio & TV performers in a timely manner. 

Each union we deal with has its own set of rules pertaining to payment deadlines.

For ACTRA (English radio/TV talent)

Payment must be received no later than 21 calendar days (weekends included) from the last work day on the session contract.
Payment for residual cycles must be received no later than 28 calendar days from the 1^st day of the broadcast cycle.

For UDA (French radio/TV talent)

All payments must be received no later than 20 business days (weekends not included) from the last work day of the session or 1^st day of the broadcast cycle.

For AFofM (musicians for radio and/or TV)

We have 15 business days to make payment for sessions and 20 business days for residuals.

For SAG (U.S. radio/TV talent)

12 business days for session payments, 15 business days for online and radio/TV residuals, and holding fees must be in the hands of the performers on the day they become due.

As mentioned in yesterday’s post, we can’t pay the talent in a spot until we have the Completion Report from the producer.

We also need the completed session contracts and music contracts before payments can be made.  When commercials are being shot in far-away places, in other countries or even just out of town locations, there is often a delay in receiving contracts.
If post-production is complicated and involves many edits, it can take time for the producer to recap all of the information in the completion report especially since the producer may be working on multiple projects simultaneously.  Regardless, the clock starts ticking as soon as the performers sign out on the day of their performance.

Paying late fees is never a good thing. Most often they become a “write-off” expense since it’s pretty difficult to justify billing a client for costs that have been incurred because we missed the submission deadlines.