A Great Good Night Email

Most sleep experts tell you to not take your electronic devices to bed with you. Needless to say, most of us in advertising totally ignore this advice. It is not unusual for our account team to receive client messages late in the evening or during the wee hours of the morning. We recognize that it means that our client partners are working hard and feel comfortable enlisting us to help them with whatever is keeping them up late.

A few days ago as I was about to turn off the iPad and pull up the covers, I did a last-minute check of email and found a message that was a delight to receive regardless of the time of day. It was sent from a client after he spent the afternoon and evening at the editing studio with our associate creative director, Ryan Swartz. It follows:

“Want you to know Ryan is always great to work with, and is really killing it on the Puerto Rico work. Some beautiful stuff coming together.”

I immediately sent a thank-you for the well-deserved compliment. Ryan had been working hard on a video, the production of which included him spending a week in Puerto Rico, and had asked the client to participate in the final edit. He recognized that this client would appreciate being part of the process and that it would be beneficial and productive to have him there.

Not all clients want that degree of hands-on involvement in the creative process. What makes for a great client-agency relationship is recognizing how each client prefers to work with you, and being willing to share the creative process with them. In this case, it is clear that Ryan understands how to work together with his client to build not only a great creative product but also a solid relationship. We have the compliment to prove it.