I'm going to begin this post with a bit of background, so that everyone reading will understand the nature of my response. After posting her question, Valerie sent an email to me, asking if I could further elaborate on our campaign. She is studying at the Savannah College of Art and Design, where she is enrolled in a course called "Case Studies in Advertising".

Valerie is still keeping quiet about which side of the discussion she is on; however, she explained in her email that her class is in the middle of a debate regarding our Creative Within campaign. I've responded to her personally; however, thought it might be useful to post our response here as well for any of you who may be curious as well. :-)

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Hi Valerie,

The campaign did result in more business, but I'm not sure that I can measure exactly how much. I'll elaborate...

Marketing a professional services firm is somewhat different from most products. The purchase is so different for the end client, and the commitment is so much greater, that we generally find the sales-cycle to be quite a long one.

If we ran a car dealership, and advertised new VW Passats at half-price, we could easily measure the amount of immediate interest resulting from that one campaign. For us, it's a little different. If we contact a prospective client today, it may very well be six months before they need creative services. By that time, they would have to wade through their pick of very competent firms and agencies.

As such, a great deal of what we have to do, is remind people that we are here. When it is time for a group to choose a creative company, we need them to remember us. As hard as it often is to accept, this means that being very good or very bad is often much better than being "very mediocre." In our minds it is important to break through all of the noise, and build a dialogue with potential clients.

Therefore, it's sometimes challenging to measure the amount of new business that results from any particular campaign. Here's what I can tell you however:

I have been in a number of meetings with new clients, who noted that they called us as a direct result of the campaign. Some of them felt it represented a more daring nature that they found interesting. They wanted to hire designers who would challenge the norm instead of running with the status quo. (Most of them did note that we had gone a little further than they might have.)

Our site's traffic went through the roof. It did peak and has now reached a bit of a plateau, but many more people visit our site now than prior to the campaign. I also find that more people seem familiar with our firm. I must say that prior to the campaign, I had not heard of students such as you debating our work in a class setting. :-)

A common reaction from those who visited the site was that they were initially shocked, but later were quite pleasantly surprised by the diversity of our work, as they clicked through the portfolio. It seems that our somewhat "naughty" ads managed to capture people's attention; however, the years of sensible and effective work helped illustrate that we were more than a one trick pony.

Many of our existing clients called and felt a greater appreciation for what we do, and seemed to enjoy that we were having a bit of fun. A number of them felt the need to pass the images on to their friends.

On the other hand, I expect that some potential clients were probably turned off by the campaign. I don't know how to measure that loss, but I can say that our sales are up significantly since the effort, so any lost business was likely not as substantial as any gains.

I should note that we seem to now attract more clients who share our values and appreciate our sense of humour. They generally understand that we wouldn't run a campaign like this for them, but enjoy that we are sometimes a little playful. If we lost anyone as a result of the campaign, I suspect that it would have been some of the less-daring groups out there.

A firm like ours has to earn new business. That's necessary for survival. In the meantime however, we do projects like this in large part because it is fun. This campaign was about more than just increasing sales. It was about us putting something out there that cut through some of the garbage that designers and agencies use to sell what they do. Have you looked at the average campaign for a design studio? It feels like we are all so frightened of who we might offend, that we begin to sound like bankers.

This campaign is tempered by a great deal of less irreverent work, which is generally quite strategic in nature. We appreciate how it has broadened our portfolio and created a bit of discussion. We would never do anything derogatory or hurtful. Some may say that the ads were in bad taste, but many would argue that of popular music as well. Remember, many once felt that Elvis' music was obscene. Morality is a strange and elusive construct.

I would invite your classmates to further debate the campaign on the blog if they would like. I think it would be interesting to read some of the differing perspectives. Additionally, please let us know how the debate turns out--we'd be interested to hear.

I'm going to leave you with a Tibor Kalman quote that I lifted from Unbeige, "We live in a society and a culture and an economic model that tries to make everything look right. Look at computers. Why are they all putty-colored or off-fucking-white? You make something off-white or beige because you are afraid to use any other color—because you don't want to offend anybody. But by definition, when you make something no one hates, no one loves it. So I am interested in imperfections, quirkiness, insanity, unpredictability. That's what we really pay attention to anyway."

Best wishes with your studies!

Eric