BigHeads Founder John Palumbo writes to tell of the trials and tribulations he goes through when trying to offer his services to agencies, many of which view anything other than their own idea as competition. We’re just going to let John tell the story in his own words because we get a kick out of how it validates just about every fickle, nervous, running-scared agency mindset we’ve personally witnessed.
“I thought you’d find it interesting to hear how much bullshit we are running into when we speak to agencies about using BigHeads as a product for their clients As you know…we envision BigHeads to be both client- and agency-friendly (in other words…something clients could use and something agencies could use for their clients). Well…the agency approach is somewhat of a joke.”
John continues:
“I can’t even begin to tell you how many big ad agencies, PR firms, etc.
contacted us when we launched (a ton of them heard about us because of you). the most senior folks (CEOs, presidents) would bring us in and would LOVE the approach and the process. simply put…they’d “get it” and want to bring it to their clients. then we’d end up in meetings with folks at the VP level, etc. and the bullshit would begin
Now this probably won’t surprise you…but some of them would tell us that they can’t bring BigHeads to their clients because they felt it would make their own creative process look less effective. We’d try to explain to them that NO client expects an agency to have all the answers/solutions…but they do expect their agency to bring them any and all solutions. We’d further explain that BigHeads is in NO WAY meant to compete with their creative process…it’s simply a DIFFERENT approach. Most just couldn’t get it…and that was that
At one point…we cleared the “creative” hurdle and a someone (from a big big agency, mind you) actually said, “yeah…but we can’t bring a competitor to our clients.” I wasn’t sure if I should laugh…or cry. a competitor? I wanted to say, “this is something that will make you look good and help solidify your relationship…and how the fuck could we ever compete with you? you’re HUGE”
It’s funny…agencies are so scared that they might look bad or lose a buck…they are unwilling to bring their clients things that really can help build a brand (even if they can strategically package it…like they can our product). And they wonder why their clients are saying, “fuck it” and starting to look beyond them.”
